After missing deadlines in construction and approvals from the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), the infamous Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) project has again embroiled into controversies. This time, the under-construction PMAY project in Kalkheda (a village in the Neelbad locality of the city) has landed into arguments as the land boasted by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) to be the area of the project is not allotted on the corporation’s name, as per the land archives record ‘The Hitavada’ received. Moreover, the land claimed by the corporation has been scheduled to be utilised for nullah (drain), aggravating the situation further. With an individual visiting the PMAY project at the site, he/she gets to see a wall painted with the colours of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) stating, ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana’ and the Khasra numbers of the project, ‘108 and 09’. Interestingly, the Khasra number 09 here is not allotted to the corporation rather is on the name of the State Government. What worsens the situation is the fact that the project here is allocated for the cause of nullah (drain) in the village.

 

 

As per the land records, the land has an area of 0.5100 hectares. As per the Patwari of the village Rohit Yadav, no other land in the entire village is owned by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC). “The corporation had requested for a land with a Khasra number 128 but no decision was made in this regard,” he said. Significantly, the land (as per land archive records) has an area 18.37 hectares and is a Government land and is designated as a pastureland. With this, significant questions have risen up pertaining to the fact whether the corporation wants to refute its own rules. Earlier talking to ‘The Hitavada’ encroachment officer of the corporation, Shailendra Singh Bhadauriya had committed to resolve the issues relating to encroachment on drains but this action by the corporation poses questions whether the corporation just wants to save its tarnishing image and anyhow hand over the project to the public neglecting all the rules and plight of the denizens. Shubham, the site engineer of the project, told ‘The Hitavada’ that he is not aware of such a thing. On being asked about the thing, he seemed confused.

 

“Anything in this matter could be only said after looking at the site map. Ironically outside his office, is the painted wall where the Khasra numbers have been mentioned. The land on which the PMAY project is being built (Khasra number 108) spreads across an area of 10.2400 hectares and is named by the Commissioner, Bhopal Municipal Corporation. As per information, the PMAY project in Kalkheda was proposed at a 50 acre land to be built in two phases. With the first phase on the ground, the second phase still waits for the approval of authorities to come out of paper. “Shayad ye wahi hoga” (Maybe it will be the same again). The site engineer said to make him aware of the information. But, the statement made by the engineer refutes the information by the Patwari that no other land belongs to the BMC in the village leading to further questions.

 

This project is also important from the perspective that the project may accommodate the ‘illegal residents’ of Bhadbhada slums whose 386 houses were razed in February this year. The project was passed in the time of KVS Choudhary, the then Municipal Commissioner of the corporation. With this, the village Kalkheda has come into light again. Before, the village was in limelight as the Suraj Colony, as proposed by the former chief minister of the state, Shivraj Singh Chouhan had suddenly disappeared.