The Times of India            04.02.2014

1.5 lakh residents living on forest land no longer 'encroachers'

THANE: More than 1.50 lakh people residing in close to 200 housing complexes within the Thane municipal corporation limits will no longer be referred to as 'encroachers' on private forest land as the swanky towers on these lands has been regularised by the Supreme Court last week.

The much-awaited SC judgement will free over 1,742 acres land in the city from the tag of being illegal occupants on forest land, as declared by the state revenue department in 2001.

The SC verdict has also brought smiles on the faces of those living in the high-rise buildings at Ovala as more than 987 acres of land was classified as private forest by the state revenue department, officials from the Thane forest division said. Yeoor area, along Pokran Road 2, will also benefit by this move as more than 156 acres of land was delisted from the old classification of private forest land.

''Many buildings have come up on these lands after getting a clearance from the TMC. However, the legal status of residents was under dispute after the Bombay high court had some time ago upheld the action of the revenue and forest department to declare private forests in Thane city,'' a forest official told TOI.

The residents of Vasant Leela and Garden Court complexes along the Ghodbunder road were among the petitioners who contested the state government's decision of declaring their plots as private forest lands.

''In 2009, the Central Empowered Committee recommended that residents of these illegal housing complexes pay an afforestation fee between Rs 6 to Rs 12 per sqft, depending on when the building was constructed. We collectively paid Rs 62 lakh as fine. Now that the judgement has proved that the state government's decision was not in keeping with the law, the state government should refund the money,'' a resident of Garden Court said.

The SC judgement will also benefit industrial units at Wada and Shahapur talukas of Thane district where land rates had crashed after it was declared as private forests. ''We were incurring major losses because of poor manufacturing and to add to our woes the land cost crashed. There were no buyers and many units weremanufacturing was ordered shut by the forest officials as it was notified as private forests,'' said Chetan Koli, who owns a defunct unit at Wada.