Mumbai: Controversial minister Sanjay Shirsat from the Shiv Sena has once again found himself at the centre of a controversy in Maharashtra, this time battling allegations of a land ‘scam’.
Rohit Pawar of Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) has accused him of bypassing the rules and handing about 15 acre of land of the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) to the heirs of a Bivalkar family, who have been holding this land parcel for over two centuries.
The plot in Navi Mumbai is currently valued at Rs 5,000 crore and it was reserved for housing for the poor but Shirsat allegedly gave away this land parcel to the Bivalkar family, according to the NCP (SP) MLA.
The land parcel is under litigation for years, as the Bombay High Court in 2014 had accepted the ownership of Bivalkar family and directed the CIDCO to furnish the compensation, only to have the decision stayed in the Supreme Court.
The Maharashtra government-owned CIDCO is known as a premier town planning and development agency. Shirsat became the CIDCO chairman in 2024.
Originally from Ratnagiri and now settled in Pune, the Bivalkar family is said to have been given around 4,000 acres of land in Kolaba (now Raigad) by Raghuji Angre, who controlled the erstwhile state of Kolaba, in 1816 in lieu of its services.
The family, according to Pawar, received the land parcel for helping the British against the Maratha empire.
“The family tried to get the land allotted to them but despite repeated attempts, the family’s claims were rejected. Yet, Shirsat Saheb, ignoring all norms, handed over 15 acres back to them,” Pawar told the media.
“The rightful share of the poor has been gifted to the heirs of those who once sided with colonial powers. We demand that this land, which is illegally being given to the family, should be taken back by the government and also request the government to take the resignation of Shirsat.”
Last month, the social justice minister was earlier in the news after a widely-shared video showed him purportedly sitting on a bed and smoking while a bag full of currency lies near him.
ThePrint reached Shirsat for comment via phone calls. This report will be updated if and when a response is received. CIDCO PRO Priya Ratambe refused to comment on the allegations brought against CIDCO and the minister.
Also Read: Malegaon ruling, ‘Sanatani terror’—Mahayuti, MVA draw battlelines in Maharashtra
The legal quagmire
Yashwant Bivalkar, who dragged the CIDCO to the court over compensation for a 157-acre parcel, had petitioned that his great-great-grandfather was a minister in Angre’s state, which came to prominence when its then ruler Kanhoji Angre led the Maratha navy against the Europeans in the 1700s.
Kolaba was annexed by the British in 1840, but the land stayed with the Bivalkars even post-Independence. In fact, it held the properties even after the Bombay Personal Inam Abolition Act was enacted 1 August 1953.
Later, according to an agreement dated 21 January 1959, and gazette on 21 October 1959, between the Colaba collector and the Bivalkars under the Indian Forest Act, the management of ‘private forest lands’ was handed over to the forest department, as ‘reserved forest’, on certain terms and conditions.
The ownership was never divested even then. In 1960, the Bivalkars saved their property by bringing their property under the ambit of the Bombay Court of Wards Act.
On 3 February 1970, a notification was brought out under the Land Acquisition Act, announcing that land is likely to be needed for the planned development and utilisation of the land in the trans harbour, Panvel and trans Thane Creek area for industrial, commercial and residential purposes.
Three years on, the Maharashtra government directed that the land cease to be ‘protected forest’ from the date of the notification, facilitating its transfer to the CIDCO for the planned development of the area. For this purpose, about 150 acres of land was to be used.
In 1985, the Bivalkars contended that they should get compensation under the Land Acquisition Act and not the Forest Act. Four years later, their ownership was upheld, but compensation was granted under the Forest Act for 157 acre of land. Yashwant’s mother Indirabai Bivalkar challenged the order in the Bombay High Court seeking compensation under the Land Acquisition Act.
Since then the land is entangled in legal matters. According to the HC, the Bivalkar family’s ownership was not questioned till 2010. On 17 September 2010, the CIDCO filed a petition to hold and declare that Bivalkars are not the owners and that the property was finally vested with the government and transferred to the CIDCO.
In turn, the HC acknowledged the government’s standing that the Bivalkars were the land owners and their proprietary rights till the year 2014. It also ordered the CIDCO to pay compensation but also did not stop the land from being used for Navi Mumbai International Airport, as required by CIDCO, the nodal agency of implementing the airport project.
The CIDCO challenged the order in the Supreme Court in 2015, and the apex court has given a stay on the HC order.
What oppn MLA says
According to Rohit Pawar, since 1990, the Bivalkars have approached CIDCO multiple times to get the allotment of land under the 12.5 percent scheme brought in by then CM Sharad Pawar and local leader late D.B.Patil for development of land for the sons of soil.
Under this scheme implemented in 1994, the CIDCO allocates 12.5 percent of developed land to project affected persons (PAPs) in lieu of their acquired land.
But, the CIDCO is said to have rejected their applications on the grounds that they are not the cultivators of the land. The latest request was made in 2023, which was again rejected citing that the issue is subjudice, according to a copy of the letter from CIDCO seen by ThePrint.
But in 2024, through the urban development department, the CIDCO was asked to give away plots to the family, Pawar alleged.
When Shirsat became the CIDCO chairman in September 2024, he allotted the land measuring about 15 acre worth Rs 5,000 crore to the family just about a month before the Model Code of Conduct kicked in, he further alleged.
This land is for the poor people and on that land, about 8,000-10,000 houses could have been built for the locals, he said, while announcing a protest at the CIDCO office in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday.
(Edited by Tony Rai)