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.