The Milli Gazette: Mumbai: Thursday, May 30, 2013.
A footpath, a public place, at Altamount Road,
Mumbai on which Reliance Industries (Ltd) chairman Mukesh Ambani’s 27-storied
grand mansion ‘Antilia’ spread over 37,000 sq metres is built was encroached on
and illegally occupied to build this mansion.
The encroached part was used for building a
sloping bund wall and flower beds. When the encroachment of the footpath was
brought to the notice of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) about a year
ago, it sent a belated notice (after about a year) to the concerned authorities
of the mansion to remove the illegally built parts and clear the footpath of
the encroachments.
About two weeks ago the mansion staff, in
compliance of BMC’s notice, themselves demolished portions of the mansion
illegally built on the footpath. This information was given to one Anil
Galgali, an RTI activist of Mumbai who had asked BMC under RTI Act what action
it had taken about the encroachment of public place (footpath) by Ambani or his
building contractors. Galgali subsequently said that Ambani’s mansion had
encroached on about 310 sq metres of public space and this action (vacation of
the illegally occupied land) sends a clear message that rules cannot be changed
at will to favour some one, no matter how wealthy he or she may be.
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