Dubious land deals: MIDC to scrutinise titles of land

Rattled by two instances of alleged dubious land deals in Pune district, the state-run Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation has decided to scrutinise revenue-related records of nearly 10,000 hectares of land under its possession.
The move comes in the wake of the purchase of a 3-acre MIDC land by former Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse in name of his kin allegedly at a throwaway price at Bhosri, and the "fraudulent" purchase of 7.64-hectare land near Ranjangaon by four persons, including son of a senior IPS officer.
Khadse had to resign in the wake of the controversy.
"We have approximately 10,000 hectares land spread across Chakan, Ranjangaon, Talegaon, Bhosari, Pimpri Chinchwad, Baramati and Talegaon MIDC areas, and to prevent further misuse, we have instructed our surveyors to carry out the scrutiny of the 7/12 extracts of the land, which is in MIDC's possession," MIDC Regional Manager (Pune), Ajit Deshmukh said here today.

A 7/12 extract is a crucial revenue document denoting ownership of land.
He said the surveyors have been instructed to check each 7/12 extract and make sure that MIDC's name is mentioned in the occupant's column in that document.

Meanwhile, referring to recent controversy surrounding purchase of land located at Karegaon in Ranjangaon MIDC area, a senior MIDC official said the entire land had been acquired by the corporation in 1993.
"However, in the particular piece of land case, MIDC's name as owner in the 'other column' on the 7/12 extract could not be updated by Revenue Department. People take advantage of such anomaly and go for purchase of land, which are actually owned and acquired by MIDC," he stated.

He was referring to allegedly "fraudulent" purchase of the land by Bhujangrao Ogle, Rohit Kamalakar, Rangnath Walke and Prashant Ogle last year.
"I have given instructions to all our surveyors to check
the revenue records such as 7/12 extracts of entire land in possession of MIDC. If we find that MIDC's name is not mentioned in the occupant's column, we will ask Revenue Department to update such 7/12 extracts, and will alter the records accordingly," Deshmukh said.
He hoped that through this exercise the corporation will come to know about the exact number of 7/12 extracts which need to be updated or rectified.

Deshmukh said they have sent a proposal to government recommending action against MIDC Area Manager S S Kulkarni who had sent a letter to Ogale, one of the buyers of Ranjangaon land in 2015, stating that the said land was not in possession of MIDC.
Deshmukh said Kulkarni was not a competent authority to issue such document.
This letter of Kulkarni, which stated that there was no need for NOC, has been cited by buyers to claim that the deal was legitimate.
Ogale and other purchasers had executed the sale deed of the land on the basis of Kulkarni's letter.

In a counter-complaint by the four buyers, the Pune district police yesterday registered a case against officials of the Revenue Department and the MIDC for "fabricating" the land records and changing the land title in the corporation's name.