Thane: The Bombay High Court has decided to form a committee under the chairmanship of a retired District Judge to investigate the authenticity of the "Zopu Yojana," which was implemented using funds from the Centre and State Government within the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) jurisdiction.
The court has lifted the stay on the previous order to provide houses to the project-affected individuals, enabling KDMC to proceed with providing houses to the affected people.
Zopu Yojana
The court has also maintained the stay on the allocation of houses in the "Zopu Yojana" to 90 ineligible beneficiaries from the Patharli area in Dombivli, following the government's order. This decision has thwarted the attempt of Rajesh More, the Shiv-Sena city chief, to provide houses under "Zopu Yojana" to ineligible beneficiaries in the Duttnagar area.
Last year, Architect Sandeep Patil filed a public interest litigation in the High Court to prevent 90 ineligible beneficiaries from the Dattanagar area from receiving houses under the Zopu Yojana. In response to this petition, the court put a halt to KDMC's proposed summary list of beneficiaries for the allocation of houses under the Zopu Yojana, thereby stalling the civic body's plan to distribute houses to over 450 beneficiaries.
The High Court heard the case on Tuesday, taking into account both Sunil Dupte's earlier petition and Sandeep Patil's petition. KDMC had previously stated through an affidavit that 32 houses under the Zopu scheme had been encroached upon. The KDMC's advocate, Adv. A. S. Rao, clarified that such encroachments no longer exist. In light of these circumstances, the court decided to establish a committee to examine the current situation of the "Zopu Yojana." The committee will question how the administration could decide to provide houses to ineligible citizens using government-funded properties. The committee's responsibilities include assessing the beneficiaries of the project, available houses, and the presence of encroachments in the houses. It will then compile a report based on the current condition of the houses.
Committee to be chaired by a retired District Judge
The committee will be chaired by a retired District Judge and will include a representative from the Urban Development Department Secretary, a Sub-divisional level Revenue Officer, an Additional Commissioner, and an expert in the field. This committee will study the current status of the "Zopu Yojana" and submit a report to the court within 10 weeks. Senior lawyer Adv. Uday Varunjikar and Adv. Dadichi Mhaispurkar represented the complainant, while Adv. A. S. Rao presented the KDMC's side in the case.
Fifteen years ago, the "Zopu Yojana" was introduced in the KDMC area with the goal of creating slum-free cities. A budget of 650 crores was allocated to KDMC for this project. However, numerous irregularities occurred during the project's construction, including issues with tender allocation. The initial plan of constructing 12,500 houses was reduced to 7,500, and eventually to 4,500. The mismanagement of the project was attributed to the faulty planning by retired sub-engineer Sunil Joshi. Approximately 300 crores were expended on the project, with 110 crores coming from municipal funds. A case related to the "Zopu Yojana" scam has been registered at the Bazar Peth police station in Kalyan.
