AMC''s 40 primely located open spaces in private possession

Aurangabad, Jan 2:

Believe it or not, 40 primely located properties of Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), are found to have possession of private persons. There are 1,300 plots of AMC in the city, and the value of these properties is believed to be around Rs 5,000 crore per the market rate. It is alleged that on the one hand, the AMC is falling short in protecting its own properties and on the other hand it had initiated to lease out open spaces, which were handed over by the Cidco administration during the merger.

The assessment and valuation of plots owned by AMC was done while the civic body was struggling to obtain a bank loan for implementing parallel pipeline project. It had also come to notice that many properties were not transferred in the name of AMC. Besides, many open spaces in the name of AMC were under private parties'' possession.

For e.g., the AMC took possession of open space in Ravindranagar after 15 years. In Trimurti Chowk, the open plot was in AMC''s name, but the person concerned approached the court. In this case, the AMC failed to submit its say, as a result, the verdict went in favour of the opponent. Later on, the name of AMC was erased from the PR Card. The AMC had lost many such open spaces in the vicinity of Katkat Gate area and Salim Ali Lake said the sources.

It is learnt that a racket is active in the city which usurps open plots of the government and the AMC based on bogus documents. Some of them are on the police radar, but the land mafia continues to be active in areas like Himayatnagar, Padegaon, Mitmita, Subedari Guest House vicinity etc.

Earlier, the civic administration had undertaken the drive to prepare PR Cards of all AMC''s open plots during the regime of former municipal commissioner Aseem Kumar Gupta. The drive, however, was shelved after his transfer. Taking advantage of this, many of them, based on bogus land documents, had filed ownership claims in the courts against the AMC. There would be 30-40 claims in different courts, said the sources.