THANE: The very existence of a Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) run school on a private plot of land at Kopri seems out of the shadow of threat. The owner of the land has agreed to settle for the cost of the land to allow the civic school building to remain in existence. The corporation has also come under pressure from the members to give the entire demanded amount to the land owner to save the school building from getting demolished.
The story is of the municipal school at Kopri. The building housing Marathi medium school came into existence several decades ago in the days when the erstwhile Thane Municipal Council was running the civic affairs of the city. The council reportedly constructed the ground-plus-one storey building on a plot of around one acre of land belonging to one Namdev Patil.
Interestingly, Patil was the then member of the council. He also got elected to the TMC as corporator on a Congress ticket after the TMC came into existence in October 1982. The senior Congress member protested against the encroachment on his plot of land but did not demand its demolition. Instead he sought the council to pay him the cost of the land.
The council did not heed the offer. The TMC inherited the school from the council in 1982 and Patil put up the same demand before it as well. Like the council the corporation also declined to pay the cost of the land to the land owner. Still the land owner tried all possible means to get the TMC to consider his legal demands but to no avail.
Finally Namdev Patil moved the Mumbai High Court with a writ petition against the TMC. The court took its own time to decide on the matter. The court recently passed a judgment directing the TMC to raze down its school building and give possession of the land back to the petitioner. Patil however still continued to keep up to his earlier offer.
The land owner sought the TMC to pay him Rs 1.09 crore as the present cost of the land and the litigation to settle the issue permanently. The civic administration however offered to pay him just around Rs 72 lakh towards the land and litigation costs. As both sides refused to budge on their position the existence of the school building came under threat.
The issue was finally resolved after the General Body (GB) House of the corporation intervened. Members from the ruling Shiv Sena BJP alliance as well as the opposition took up the subject on the floor of the House during the GB meeting of June 23. The House directed the corporation to pay the entire sum of Rs 1.09 crore towards the cost of land and litigation to the land owner. The members also thanked Patil for not pressing for demolition of the school building and take possession of his land.
The authorities are likely to pay the amount to the land owner within a few days as per the directives of the GB House. With this the hundreds of students of the municipal school will heave a sigh of relief as the settlement will save their school from getting demolished.
courtesy:www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com
