Three years after President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the spacious New Maharashtra Sadan, the state guest house has come under spotlight after the Enforcement Directorate arrested Chhagan Bhujbal, the state’s former deputy chief minister, in Mumbai on Monday for alleged money laundering in a case related to the Sadan.
While work on building a sprawling new state guest house had begun in 2003-04 when Vijaysingh Mohite-Patil was the minister for public works department it was Bhujbal who oversaw awarding of contracts and the project’s completion as the PWD minister between 2004 and 2014. But before it was decided to build a new state guest house, the state government had to fight a two decade-long battle to gain possession of the land known as the ‘Sirmur plot’. The ownership of the plot has changed hands more than twice and in fact, the state government officially obtained possession of the plot only in May 1999.
The existing plot, spreads across 6.18 acres, is called ‘Sirmur plot’ as it was originally allotted to the Maharaja of Sirmur by the British government in 1930. In 1932, the Gaekwads of Baroda, who were themselves building Baroda House at the time, bought the Sirmur plot. The Gaekwads though did not expand Baroda House into the adjacent plot. While it was vacant, the plot saw the British take it over temporarily to build military barracks during the second world war. Later, post-independence, the plot also served as a camp for refugees of the partition.
It was in the 1950’s that the Sirmur plot saw its first permanent construction of any kind. “A working women’s hostel was constructed on the plot, accommodating nearly 150 people,” said RA Gupta, resident engineer-in-charge, public works department, Maharashtra Sadan. A decade later, Bombay State was re-organised on linguistic lines under the States
Re-Organisation Act, giving birth to two new states of Maharashtra and Gujarat and as per the Bombay Re-Organisation Act, 1960, the Sirmur plot’s ownership was with Maharashtra.
According to the 1960 Act, all properties outside either state vested with Maharashtra.
But things took an interesting turn in 1960’s. “The Gujarat government filed a civil suit to gain possession of the land. But, as luck would have it, the tenant living on an encroached land on the plot submitted to the court back then that Maharashtra its its rightful owner,” Gupta added. Despite these submissions, the Maharashtra government was not aware that they owned Sirmur plot till 1978.
“It was the resident commissioner of Gujarat state government in Delhi who informed Maharashtra that the land belonged to them. It was only in 1978 that the state began pursuing the matter with the Centre,” said a former Maharashtra PWD official on the condition of anonymity.
According to the former official, the dispute for the plot dragged on for decades from 1980’s to 1990’s. “A prime piece of plot in Delhi is not something that the Centre wanted to give up so easily. We had to fight hard with the urban development and housing ministry for nearly two decades,” said the former PWD official on condition of anonymity.
The Maharashtra state government eventually gained possession of the plot in May 1999 when the Shiv-Sena - Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government was in power. “Nitin Gadkari was the PWD minister then. He pushed hard to obtain possession of the plot. He told the Centre that the state was willing to take possession on an as is where is basis,” the former official added. By 2003, the state government vacated the women’s hostel,” the official added.
The Maharashtra government awarded the project to M/s KS Chamankar Enterprises, Mumbai, in November 2006, a firm that is also at the centre of the money laundering scam. The project was completed only in 2013, five years behind schedule.
