Hema denies land-grab allegations

Denying allegations of land grabbing, actress politician Hema Malini on Monday said she worked hard for two decades to secure allotment of the land for her dance school.

“I am not grabbing some land,” Hema Malini, breaking her silence on the issue, told the media.  “I have struggled for 20 years (to get this land). It is my right to have this land. I do not know how much I have to pay for this. I will pay according to the law,” the BJP MP said.

On December 29, Maharashtra revenue minister Eknath Khadse allotted a 2,000 sq mts land at Ambili near Versova in the Andheri western suburbs to Natyavihar Kala Kendra Charity Trust founded by Hema Malini to open a dance academy. Besides, she had to develop a garden in the 27,000 SQ mts of land and hand it over to BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation.

It exploded into a huge political issue after RTI activist Anil Galgali claimed that the land has been given to her for a throw-away price of Rs 70,000.  Clarifying that she is yet to take possession of the land and had to run from pillar to post to get it, Malini said: “There is nothing political in this. I am an artist (needing land for a dance academy).”

“It is not that I have got the land just like that...easily...it has been a struggle of 20 years. I have not grabbed the land as it’s been said...The government has given it to me...not that I have gone and grabbed it,” she said.