Hearing on PIL seeking probe into land allotment deferred

The Bombay High Court today deferred till January 3 hearing on a PIL seeking a CID probe into alleged fraudulent allotment of six plots of land, reserved for police personnel, to legislators and bureaucrats.
The petitioner, Ketan Tirodkar, submitted a Government Resolution of November 17, 2009, in which the state had increased floor space index (FSI) to ensure that enough houses were available for housing police personnel.
The GR said only 45 per cent staff had residential accommodation, while the rest were staying on rental basis at far away places or in the slums.
It said that the morale and efficiency of policemen was adversely affected and hence the government had decided to increase FSI so that some houses could be allotted to them.

The GR also said that 43,242 policemen were posted in Mumbai and 1,40,437 were working in Maharashtra. However, all of them were not given official accommodation.
The PIL relies on a reply by state Home Department to a query under Right to Information.

In 1988, the government acquired six plots in Worli Sagar Society here for providing houses to MLAs and bureaucrats, in lieu of another piece of land in suburban Andheri for police housing.
The Worli Sagar land was originally meant for police personnel. The petitioner said that the land in Andheri was never handed over.
Tirodkar prayed that the Director General of Police (Housing) be directed to evacuate the buildings standing on plots in Worli Sagar Society, and allot the tenements to lower-rank policemen on the basis of seniority.

Constables work under difficult conditions, such as low salaries, long duty-hours, poor housing facilities, etc, and therefore they should be given priority in such benefits, the PIL says.