After controversy, Shukla not to take land allotted in Mumbai

 Union Minister Rajiv Shukla has decided not to take land allotted to him at Juhu in Mumbai in the wake of a controversy surrounding the allotment.

Shukla, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, said today he has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on December 4 that the land alloted to a society co-founded by him be taken back as no activity could be started because of encroachment.

"Actually, the land which was alloted, was fully encroached by slums and despite all efforts over the last five years, it has still got several slum clusters. So the society is not able to take actual possession of the land to start any activity or construction," he said.

He claimed that no irregularity has been committed as hundreds of educational societies have been allocated land under the same provision.

"There is no question of any commercial value as the whole idea was to build a primary school there," Shukla told PTI.

BJP leader Kirit Somaiya had alleged in Mumbai yesterday that the Maharashtra government had allotted two plots to Shukla's educational society for a pittance.

He also alleged that according to officials from the state revenue department the file which had the information on the land allottment to Shukla was untraceable.

Somaiya had said the BAG films education society got registered in October 2006. "In July 2007, then Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, as a "special case", directed to allot the land to Shukla's company," he said.