President Pratibha Patil’s daughter’s trust gets Rs19 crore land for pittance

The allocation of attractive plots of land by the Maharashtra government to educational trusts headed by president Pratibha Patil’s daughter Jyoti Rathore and Maharashtra rural development
minister Jayant Patil has brought an otherwise obscure village in Pune district into sharp focus.

The two plots with high commercial potential have been allotted in Jambhe in the Mulshi taluka. They are located within five km of the Mumbai-Pune expressway and the IT park at Hinjewadi, and within 10km of the prominent industrial townships of Pimpri and Chinchwad.

According to some villagers, including a former gram panchayat member, land prices in the village have shot up to Rs1 crore per acre due to real estate development in the vicinity and proximity to the expressway and IT park.

Rathore’s Maharashtra Mahila Udyam Trust has been allotted a 7.93-hectare plot for Rs6.72 lakh, which includes annual rent of Re1 for 30 years for the playground. The plan includes 27,300 sq metre of land for a residential school, 20,000 sq metre for a college and 32,000 sq metre for a playground.   

Rathore told DNA that the trust paid the money as per government procedure and ready-reckoner norms, and did not get the land at a “throwaway price”.

Requesting anonymity, a senior official at the Pune district collectorate told DNA on Wednesday that there was no irregularity in sanctioning the land and that government resolutions for educational purposes have been followed.

Some villagers raised doubts on whether land from the village “gairan” (grazing grounds) had been allotted to the trusts. The district authorities had no information on this and said it would be available with the gram panchayat. The sarpanch, Savita Vijay Gaikwad, and former sarpanch Vikas Gaikwad declined to comment on the matter.

Rathore said the trust has been working for more than two decades and had applied for the land in 2006. About the grazing land issue, she said: “This is not the first time that gairan land (land reserved for cattle grazing in the village) has been allotted for educational purpose.”

She said the trust had applied for land at two or three places, and the final choice was made by the Maharashtra government. “We have no choice but to accept the land allotted by the government.”
She said the panchayat has passed a resolution approving the choice of land and has also issued a no-objection certificate.

A villager, Gokul Kanpile, said that though the trust has benefitted from the “big deal”, it has not announced any plans for the welfare of the village.