War between Maharashtra government and Centre intensifies

In what could escalate the tensions between the BJP-led NDA government and the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, the Centre has put a spanner in the shifting of the Mumbai Metro car shed from Aarey forest of Kanjurmarg.

The Centre’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has written to Maharashtra’s chief secretary Sanjay Kumar asking the MVA government not to work at the Kanjurmarg site as it is against the interest of the Government of India.

Last month, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had scrapped the Mumbai Metro car shed Line 3 at the Aarey Milk Colony and shifted it to Kanjurmarg.

Both the Centre and Maharashtra government are claiming ownership of the piece of 102-acre land in Kanjurmarg.

DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra in the letter stated that the decision of the Collector of Mumbai Suburban district and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority has caused loss to the Centre.

“I would request you to take necessary steps and to direct the collector to withdraw the orders passed in this regard in order to protect the interests of the Government of India,” he has stated.

The Salt Commissioner, that reports to the DPIIT, is claiming the ownership of the land. However, the Maharashtra government has been claiming that the land is free of any dispute.

With this development, the tussle between the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government and the Centre has escalated to a new level.

“The land does not belong to the Government of India, it belongs to the Maharashtra Government,” said state’s Environment, Tourism and Protocol Minister Aaditya Thackeray.

Senior Shiv Sena leader and Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar stated that it’s a conspiracy against the MVA government. “An affidavit was filed in Bombay High Court during the tenure of the previous BJP-led government saying that the Kanjurmarg land belongs to the State Government,” she said.

NCP chief spokesperson and Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik said that way back in 2002 the Centre had transferred large tracts of salt-pan lands to the State government.

“First the BJP said it belonged to private owners, now they say it belongs to the Central government. The BJP is only creating hurdles in the execution of the Mumbai Metro car shed… It’s the BJP’s conspiracy to stop the Metro project,” Malik said.

State Congress spokesperson and general secretary Sachin Sawant said that it is nothing but the Centre is creating hurdles for the project.

The BJP had targeted the MVA government on the issue. “The MVA government first put development projects in a limbo, then stop them and later misguide people…The government is telling lies,” BJP leader Kirit Somaiya claimed.