Create quarantine facilities at Adarsh Society: Activist

An activist on Saturday urged the Maharashtra government to take temporary custody of the scam- hit Adarsh Housing Society in south Mumbai to create quarantine facilities and isolation wards for treatment of coronavirus patients.

Talking to PTI, the Solapur-based activist, Dadarao Rote, said he will soon write to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in this regard.

"The 31-storey building is vacant at present due to the court orders," he said, adding that the premises can be used to house thousands of patients.

"This will help in better management of patients as they will be at one place," he said.

The plush building at Colaba got embroiled in a controversy in 2011 with the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) ordering for its demolition for violating environmental norms and the Union Ministry of Defence claiming ownership of the land, where it stands.

The appeals filed by the society against the April 2016 order of demolition passed by the Bombay High Court are pending in the Supreme Court.

The society later also filed a representation before the MOEF seeking to regularise the building. The request is pending.

The Army had in 2018 acted upon the orders of the SC and took possession of the building. The premises is, however, vacant.

Congress leader and state minister Ashok Chavan, had served as the chief minister between December 2008 and November 2010, before he was asked to step down on charges of corruption in the Adarsh scam.