Lavasa: Out of private hands, into govt’s lap

In what is being seen as jolt to Sharad Pawar’s brainchild Lavasa, the Urban Development (UD) department of the Devendra Fadnavis-led state government has taken away all future approvals pertaining to the hill town from the Special Planning Authority (SPA) and handed it over to the Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Corporation (PMRDA).

In the evening, NCP chief Sharad Pawar met Fadnavis at Sahyadri, the state guest house. Though details of the meetings were kept under wraps, the discussions have significance in the light of the Lavasa development.

Political observers feel that Chief Minister Fadnavis will now try to expose the irregularities in Lavasa thereby putting Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule in an embarrassing position. Of late, Sule has been critical of the functioning of the BJP-led government.

Lavasa Corporation Limited is a real estate development arm of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) owned by Ajit Gulabchand. It received special status in 2008 and the township near Pune has been built on the mountains of Sahyadris.

On Tuesday, Chief minister Fadnavis said, “Now, Lavasa will have to approach PMRDA to get all permissions, including new constructions, use of water from dam which is the property of the water resources department and collection of taxes from property owner in Lavasa.

“As of today, only two villages have been developed by Lavasa and another 18 villages are yet to be developed,” said an official of the UD department. Madhav Bhandari, spokesperson of the BJP, said, “Lavasa has violated many rules pertaining to environment, revenue sharing and forest department norms. All this will now stop.”

Bhandari alleged largescale corruption while building the township. Bhandari and Vishwambhar Choudhari, a social activist, have filed Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against Lavasa in the Bombay High Court. “We have been demanding that the government should step in since 2011. Lavasa is the first and only private company in India to be given the special status of a planning authority. It was a like a state within a state. Till date they had the power to pass their own plans and they have already broken many environmental laws,” Choudhari said, adding, “Three committees had asked the state government to scrap the special status. What’s more, the Naresh Dayal Committee has said that Lavasa has been causing damage to the environment. CAG and Public Account Committee of Maharashtra also wanted the special status to go.”