All due procedures followed for Bal Thackeray memorial construction: BMC tells HC

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and a heritage panel told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that all necessary procedures were followed for the construction of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackerays memorial in Mumbai.Thackeray 86 died at his residence in suburban Bandra in November 2012.The BMC and the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee MHCC submitted their affidavits before a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M S Karnik in response to a public interest litigation challenging the decision taken by the Maharashtra government in 2017 to convert the mayors bungalow in Shivaji Park area to a memorial for Thackeray.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and a heritage panel told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that all necessary procedures were followed for the construction of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray's memorial in Mumbai.

Thackeray (86) died at his residence in suburban Bandra in November 2012.

The BMC and the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC) submitted their affidavits before a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M S Karnik in response to a public interest litigation challenging the decision taken by the Maharashtra government in 2017 to convert the mayor's bungalow in Shivaji Park area to a memorial for Thackeray. The petition was filed in April 2017 by one Bhagvanji Rayani after the government proposed to set up the memorial.

The memorial is to be constructed on a plot where the mayor's bungalow's was located at Shivaji Park in Dadar. The BMC in its affidavit said in May 2018, the state government sanctioned the change of the mayor's bungalow to 'Bal Thackeray Rashtriya Smarak', and the said land reservation was changed from green zone to residential zone.

The change in the reservation was done in accordance with provisions of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MRTP) Act.

The MHCC in its affidavit said the mayor's bungalow was a grade II-B heritage structure and the committee had given all necessary No Objection certificates (NOCs) for construction of the memorial.

''The allegation made in the petition that there is no permission for the said project (memorial) is not true,'' the affidavit said.

The HC bench posted the matter for hearing on August 25.