Mumbai: How did Aaditya hand over mangrove land for a temple, asks activists

Was former state environment minister Aaditya Thackeray aware that he was handing over ecosensitive mangrove land in Ulwe to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams TTD for the construction of a replica of Lord Venkateswara templerdquo asked green activists It was their complaint about the alleged violation of Coastal Regulation Zone CRZ norms that forced Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis to cancel the bhoomi puja at the proposed site at the last momentTTD has now sent applications to the authorities concerned to get the necessary permissions to construct a temple on the 10acre land in Gavhan village in UlweThe abrupt cancellation of the event came just a day after a Mumbaibased public relations firm issued a media invite on behalf of a textile industrialist for the bhoomi puja scheduled on August 21 which was supposed to see the presence of CM Shinde Deputy CM Fadnavis apart from TTD Chairman V Y Subba Reddy and TTD Executive Officer A V Dharma ReddyNandkumar Pawar head of Coastal Projects of NGO Sagar ShaktiInterestingly even TTD officials in Andhra Pradesh were initially clueless about the cancellation When asked about it one official had said ldquoWe have no clue We just learnt about the cancellation of the eventrdquoAlso Read Mumbai Aaditya Thackeray figures on the list of defaulters at MCAKandivli club officebearers write to CEO to cancel membershipThe officer added ldquoMany devotees from Maharashtra visit Tirumala Tirupati regularly In April this year then minister Aaditya Thackeray had visited Tirupati along with Milind Narvekar who is also a member of TTD Board Soon after the visit Thackeray had informed us that the Maharashtra government decided to allot 10 acres of land in Ulwe for temple constructionrdquoAttempts to contact Narvekar and Thackeray did not yield any resultThe whistleblowerAmid this green activists were opposing the move to construct a temple there Environmentalist Nandkumar Pawar head of Coastal Projects of NGO Sagar Shakti who brought the issue to the fore said ldquoThe systematic destruction of mangroves on the proposed temple site has been happening since the construction work of MTHL started four years ago The entire proposed land of 10 acres is now secured with barbed wiresrdquoldquoThe local fishing community worried about their livelihood and the fate of the site after the MTHL work gets done got in touch with me and that is when they learnt about the proposed temple thererdquo said Pawar adding ldquoThe former environment minister was talking about saving Aarey from the Metro car shed but did exactly the opposite hererdquoHow they stopped itPawar said ldquoThree days before the bhoomi puja I made a written complaint before the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change as well as Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority MCZMA objecting to the proposed temple in violation of CRZ rules And as CM Shinde and Deputy CM Fadnavis had on July 26 on the occasion of International Day for Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem had said mangroves are coastal soldiers and that they would protect the same from human exploitation they had to cancel the event to maintain the image of the governmentrdquoNatConnect Foundation Director B N Kumar who extended support to Pawar said ldquoWe are happy that the CM cancelled the bhoomi puja following our concerns Now that the TTD has applied for CRZ clearance green groups and the fishing community have called for a joint site inspection before the MCZMA decides on giving the project its nodrdquoHe added ldquoEnvironmental lovers are wondering as to how Aaditya Thackeray handed over the mangrove land to TTD We will continue our protest till justice is done to naturerdquoOther sideMallikarjuna special officer of TTD Estate Wing said ldquoWe TTD have applied to various competent authorities seeking permission to start the construction work of the templerdquoHe added ldquoThe land registration was done on August 17 The MTHL casting work is still underway and we are hopeful that the same will get completed in a month or two Once we obtain the permissions we will begin the construction workrdquoKailash Shinde joint managing director3 CIDCO said ldquoCIDCO has no role to play in the permissions other than allotting the landrdquo When asked if the said land falls under CRZ norms he said ldquoThe land allotted to TTD was under CRZII where construction work may happen with required permission from the authorities concernedrdquoPawar however claimed that the mangroves belt by default fall under CRZI He said ldquoCIDCO has always been in denial of CRZ violations across Navi Mumbai and Panvel We have evidence to prove them wrongrdquo21Day in August when the bhoomi puja was scheduled