Former Indian cricket star and freshly elected Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha MP from Baharampur, Yusuf Pathan, has received a notice from the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) in Gujarat for allegedly encroaching on a plot of land the municipal body claims is its own.
While the notice was served to Pathan on June 6, VMC’s standing committee chairman Shital Mistry said on Thursday after former BJP corporator Vijay Pawar highlighted the matter.
Pawar said that despite the state government’s rejection of VMC’s 2012 proposal to sell Pathan the plot, the recently elected MP had encroached on the plot by building a compound wall.
“I don’t have any grudge against Yusuf Pathan. A plot in the Tanadalja area under TP 22 is a residential plot owned by VMC. In 2012, Pathan had demanded this plot from VMC because his house, which was under construction at that time, was adjacent to that plot. He had offered nearly Rs 57,000 per square meter,” Pawar told reporters.
At that time, the VMC approved the plan, and the general board meeting approved it. But according to Pawar, the state government, which has the last say on such matters, did not approve.
“Though the proposal was rejected, the VMC did not put up a fence around the plot. Then I came to know that Pathan had encroached upon the plot by constructing a compound wall around it. Thus, I have asked the municipal corporation to conduct an inquiry,” he said.
Mistry stated that Pathan had received a notice for purported encroachment and verified the series of events that resulted in the state government refusing to approve the sale of the 978-square-metre plot to Pathan.
“Recently, we received some representations about him constructing a compound wall. Thus, on June 6, we served a notice to Pathan and asked him to remove all the encroachments. We will wait for a couple of weeks and then we will decide further course of action. This land belongs to VMC and we will claim it back,” Mistry asserted.
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