Salt pan land case stuck in SC

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has thrown open for development the salt pan lands in the city. However, since the Apex Court’s verdict on development of salt pan land is still awaited in a case, no construction activity can be undertaken on these tracts.

Most developers have welcomed the unlocking of these lands. They feel it will facilitate affordable housing in a land starved city. But detractors feel the government is pushing for development in these tracts only because salt pan land owners have joined hands with a few builders. Activist Stalin Dayanand from NGO Vanashaktihas slammed the government for including salt pans in the development plan and dubbed the move as ‘disastrous.’ “No democratic government goes ahead with such plans when a matter is sub judice. In the name of affordable housing, salt pans will benefit builders and not the common man,” Dayanand told the Free Press Journal. Since the decision to allow construction on salt pan lands is pending in the SC, in the interim, the central

government had modified the rules and termed these lands as ‘wetlands.’ A part of the salt pan land has been already encroached upon by slums. Overall, the No Development Zone is 16,700 hectares of which 12,000 has been classified as Natural Area (NA), which includes parts of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, mangroves, salt pans and parts of Film City and Aarey milk colony, along with a few regions under CRZ.