Residents of Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, seek Union Minister Piyush Goyal’s intervention for land conveyance rights | Representational Image
Mumbai: The protracted struggle of cooperative housing societies of the upmarket Hiranandani Gardens complex in Powai for deemed conveyance of the land in their name was recently taken up by the residents led by Ratan Sharda with Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who is also an MP from Mumbai.
A delegation of representatives of the cooperative housing societies concerned called on Goyal and gave a detailed briefing about their struggle to get conveyance from Hiranandani, MMRDA and the state government.
Sharda alleged that “These three entities have been passing the buck under a poorly drafted tripartite agreement that seems to have served only vested interests and not the citizens for whom the Powai Area Development Scheme (PADS) was envisaged in 1977 and executed in 1986 with a lease of 80 years, with a deadline of 10 years for completion of the infrastructure in Powai. Of these 80 years, 38 years have already passed, but the builder claims that the project is not complete, and conveyance cannot therefore be granted, as per the terms of the tripartite agreement signed by the state government, MMRDA and the original land owners,” Sharda said. When contacted, the spokesperson for Hiranandani declined to comment “since the matter is sub judice.”
Sharda said while Hiranandani, has completed numerous other large scale projects in record time in various parts of the country, certain projects in PADS are still to be completed. He noted that the builder and his sub-lessees have received permission to redevelop buildings which are in good condition. Many builders do not give conveyance since they stand to benefit from floor space indexes that may accrue to them in future.
The residents of the Hiranandani Gardens have urged Goyal that since the PADS scheme has not delivered as per the tripartite agreement even after 38 years out of 80 years of lease, the state government and MMRDA should scrap it and get the land back from the builder so that ordinary citizens can be given the right over the lands which belongs to them as per the provisions of Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act.
Goyal has assured the residents that he will thoroughly examine the facts and take an appropriate decision.
