Six-acre Children's Aid Society land in Mankhurd cleared of encroachments, taken over

The Mumbai Suburban district administration on Tuesday removed the last phase of encroachment on a prime six-acre government plot in Mankhurd. The land is leased to the Children's Aid Society. Huts and ground-plus-one residential structures on the plot, which lies along the Sion-Panvel Highway, were demolished. The structures stood on 10 gunthas, or about 10,890 square feet, and were valued at about Rs 10.42 crore.

In Tuesday's action, residential structures of eight to 10 rooms belonging to a single family were demolished. Excavators, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation staff and police teams reached the site at about 11.30 am and the action began. Residents were given time to take out their personal belongings before the demolition. Police maintained law and order, while municipal teams supervised the demolition and the clearing of debris.

The action was carried out jointly by the suburban collector's anti-encroachment staff, officials of the local municipal ward office and the police. With this, the administration gained possession of the entire six acres. The land is worth about Rs 250 crore in the open market. Notably, a hearing was scheduled in the Bombay High Court at 3 pm the same day, and possession was taken a few hours before it. The High Court dismissed the appeal.

The dispute began in 1939, when the government gave about 140 acres and six gunthas of land at Mankhurd and Deonar to the Children's Aid Society on specific conditions. According to revenue records, about 23 acres of it was sub-leased over the following decades, without permission, to five private parties. This led to illegal possession and unauthorised construction.

The sequence of the dispute is as follows. In 1939, the government gave the land to the society. Of it, 23 acres were sub-leased to five entities without the state government's approval. In 2018, the Mumbai Suburban collector directed eviction drives on the land. Appeals before the higher revenue authorities and to Maharashtra's revenue minister were dismissed, which cleared the way for the final action.

The six-acre plot along the Sion-Panvel Highway is considered one of the most valuable sites in Mankhurd. In earlier phases of the action last month, 57 unauthorised commercial units on this large encroached area were removed.

Suburban Collector Saurabh Katiyar said, "We had demolished about 57 unauthorised commercial units on this land. At that time, on humanitarian grounds because of the monsoon, we had not touched the residential huts. This action has cleared the entire land, and it is part of our ongoing campaign to reclaim government land from encroachments."

Additional Collector (Encroachment) Padmakar Rokade said, "This action was possible because of coordination among all the agencies concerned. The entire Children's Aid Society plot is now free of encroachments. The government will now decide on the further use of this land."

With the structures removed, the administration's focus is now on tightening security around the land and completing the paperwork on the government file.