Maharashtra wants salt pan land for rehabilitation

The Maharashtra government delegation led by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh made a presentation to the empowered group of ministers led by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to allot the 2,177 hectares of the salt pan land owned by the Centre for rehabilitating project-affected persons by various infrastructure projects.

Though no decision was taken by the EGOM as it was the first meeting of the EGOM, environmental groups and those in possession of the land have raised their ante against such a plan.

Despite the commerce and industry ministry that owns the land accepting the Maharashtra government's demand in principal, this transfer could not take place for various legal and environmental issues are involved.

Hence, the EGOM was appointed by the Prime Minister under the chairmanship of Pawar which includes commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy and Union Law and Judiciary Minister H R Bhardwaj.

The state government claims, though land is owned by the Centre, it was leased out to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in late 19th and early 20th century by Centre.

The BMC subsequently sub-leased the land to various persons on 99 years lease for preparing salt. Though in most of the cases lease is over, leases have not given up their possession.

There is dispute between BMC and, commerce and industry ministry, who should file suits against these leases in the court of law.

However, people like K D Doongiriwala whose family still is in the business of manufacturing salt and owns salt-pan land at Bhyander claim that most of the land is private land and not government land as claimed by the state.

The owners of land were using land in and around Mumbai for making salt even during the reigns of Portuguese and Maratha over this region. They have documents to support their claim.

Doongiriwala even draws attention to the Bombay High Court judgment of 1983 in which commerce ministry's notices to the owners of the salt pan land to renew their lease for 20 years were struck down by the high court in mid-eighties.

The environmentalists claim that a major chunk of the land is covered by Coastal Regulatory Zone Act and they can't be used for development.

They claim, salt-pan land are part of the fragile ecosystem which supports thousands of species of animals, birds and fish.

They also claim that the saltpan land with thick mangrove bushes are Mumbai's last defence against flooding, if any development takes place on these lands, one won't require even 24/7 like downpour for a deluge in Mumbai, even an average Mumbai rain is good enough to cause chaos.

The EGOM is expected to tackle such complex legal and environmental issues and provide land for PAPs, so that Mumbai's infrastructure projects could take-off.