Mumbai: Whilst unearthing the reasons why the seven-corridor plan for the suburban railway never took off, a Mumbai-based Right To Information (RTI) activist says he has stumbled upon documents that show the controversial Associated Journals Ltd company owns a prime plot in suburban Bandra. The land was allotted to it in 1983 by the government of Maharashtra to build a press building and Nehru memorial library.

With no construction taking place on the plot of land, an area of 3479.25 sq m, for the last 29 years, Anil Galgali, an RTI activist, has written to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan demanding that the government take back the land as per the rules. If a lease owner does not develop the allotted plot within two years, the government has the right to take back the plot, he says. But he wonders whether Maharashtra’s Congress chief minister will take on the party leadership by taking back the land.

The issue assumes significance since last week Subramaniam Swamy, Janata Party chief, had targeted Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul by alleging that Sonia and Rahul had floated a Section 25 company called Young Indian — each holding 38 per cent of the shares — which acquired Associated Journals, founded by Jawaharlal Nehru that published the National Herald and Qaumi Awaz. Swamy also alleged that the deal was to grab prized property like Herald House in Delhi and other properties of the Associated Journals in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

And in Mumbai, since the Associated Journals did not construct a press building nor a library but only sought extensions of the plot located near the Western Express Highway, a stone’s throw from Bandra station, it is appropriate that “the lease is cancelled and the plot taken back to construct a hostel for Scheduled Caste students for which purpose the land was originally reserved in 1964”.

Speaking to Gulf News, Galgali said he has been trying for the last three years to find out why an extensive suburban rail network of seven corridors planned 40 years ago to handle Mumbai’s mass transport needs and to connect west and east never took off. In the process, “I came across documents of Sai Prasad Society Housing Society, on one section of this land and which now has a multi-storeyed building with high-profile owners.”

A portion of this land was parcelled off to the housing society floated by Congressman Rajiv Chavan in which former Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh is a member as well as Indian Administrative Service officers Jairaj Phatak, Swadhin Kshatriya, J.H.K. Jawale, Kishore Gajbiye and Joint Commissioner of Police Himanshu Roy. “Some of these bureaucrats already own other properties in the city and some of them are under the scanner in the Adarsh housing society scam.”

In July 2000, Associated Journals had written to the Collector of Mumbai Suburban District, Bandra (East) suggesting that the “boundaries of our plot should be realigned without disturbing the sanctioned area of 3479.26 sq m to serve our purpose”.

Later, the Collector’s office reported that the lease company had in fact violated the land rule and should pay Rs37.7 million to the government in unpaid lease rent. The 30-year lease expires next year.