Accordingly, NMC obtained applications dated December 2, 2009, from the two owners of the lake Dr Sudha Sutariya and Dr Rekha Rani Bhivapurkar. Then, NMC's town planning department prepared a proposal dated December 14, 2009, to grant TDR for Sonegaon lake. The department was aware that TDR cannot be granted for a lake, on which one cannot build a structure. Therefore, the department prepared the proposal to grant TDR by showing the lake to be heritage land, since it was in the heritage list.

Interestingly, the TDR proposal was prepared for just 13.40 hectares of the total 16.42 hectares, despite documents like sale deed available to prove exact area of the lake. There has been no application from the third owner, Sadanand Thote, in the matter till date. Actually, Thote had purchased 0.81 hectare of Sonegaon lake from Sutariya on April 13, 1992.

Then municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta and other officials approved the proposal, and the department started calculating the quantum of TDR to be granted to the owners. However, the two owners objected to the value arrived at, and submitted a valuation report dated April 26, 2010. This calculated the lake's worth at Rs695.68 crore, including the lake bed, stone wall and excavation value.

Amid this dispute, Gupta was transferred to Mumbai. On June 3, 2010, Sanjeev Jaiswal assumed charge as municipal commissioner and put the proposal on hold to look into the issue.

He handed over the case to additional deputy municipal commissioner Ravindra Kumbhare. "Kumbhare had good knowledge of land issues. He was shocked to learn about the TDR proposed for a lake. NMC was bound to follow the high court deadline, therefore he sent a letter to the government on December 26, 2011, asking whether TDR may be given. The government wrote back on February 13, 2012, to say TDR may not be granted to Sonegaon lake as it was a water body, said the sources.

This, Jaiswal and Kumbhare's caution saved NMC from severe strictures in the case. Interestingly, the NMC letter to the government mentions the area of the lake to be acquired as 15.21 hectares.

Later, Jaiswal prepared a proposal to acquire the lake and NMC's general body approved it on April 30, starting the acquisition process. Thus, NMC's wrong proposal delayed the acquisition of Sonegaon lake, giving a headache to NMC as well as the lake owners.

A senior NMC official said NMC proposed TDR to save money. "It does not cost anything to grant TDR while NMC will have to pay for land acquisition. We did not know TDR cannot be granted for a lake," he said.Now, NMC is again in the midst of a controversy for preparing a proposal to acquire the lake with a discrepancy of three acres.