Rane defends decision on Mukund Iron

Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane today defended his decision of not charging a premium from Mukund Iron's while allowing the company to change the land use from industrial to commercial and residential.

Last week, leader of the opposition Ramdas Kadam had alleged in the State assembly that by not charging a premium, Rane has caused a loss of Rs 111 crore to state exchequer.

Rane said, "The 1.20 lakh square metre land at Kurla was originally owned by a company called Jeevan Limited which had taken it on lease from then the Bombay Presidency government, subsequently lease was transferred to Mukund Iron in 1950.

The section which stipulates that a premium should be charged from the lessee of the government land if he wishes to change the purpose it was leased or transfers the lease in another person's name, was introduced in the Bombay Land Revenue Code in 1957. Since this land's lease was transferred to Mukund Iron before the section was introduced in the act, it can't be made retrospectively applicable to Mukund Ironland permission", said Rane.

Both Mumbai suburban district collector and division commissioner of Kokan did not make any notings on the file that premium should be charged from Mukund Iron.

And even the advocate general of the state said that in this case the government couldn't charge a premium from Mukund Iron. Only after taking into consideration the opinions of senior government officials and the advocate general, permission was given to Mukund Iron to change the usage of the land, Rane clarified.

"In fact I put the stay on Mumbai suburban collector agreement with Mukund Iron as this agreement included some conditions which violated some of the conditions I had laid down while giving permission to Mukund Iron," Rane added.

Rane didn't forgot to remind the Sena leaders same principal was applied in the case of Premier Automobile Limited Land (PAL) which is now being developed by the Sena leader Manohar Joshi's son Unmesh Joshi.

Rane also chose this occasion to make several allegations of corruption against Sena Leadership. This was strongly objected by the Sena leaders.

After which state assembly speaker Babasheb Kupekar assured them to go through the minister's remark and expunge them if he found them not related to the issue.