The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) in Gujarat has issued a notice to TMC MP Yusuf Pathan, a former Indian cricketer and freshly elected Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha MP, for allegedly encroaching on a block of property that the civic body claims belongs to it.
The warning was delivered to Pathan on June 6. Shital Mistry, chairman of the VMC’s standing committee, briefed the media on Thursday about the problem, which was raised by former BJP corporator Vijay Pawar.
Pathan, who recently won the Baharampur constituency in the Lok Sabha elections with results announced on June 4, has been accused of encroaching on the plot by constructing a compound wall. Pawar claimed that in 2012, Pathan had sought to purchase the plot from VMC because it was adjacent to his under-construction house. He had offered nearly Rs 57,000 per square meter for the 978 square meter plot.
Although VMC approved the proposal and it passed in the general board meeting, the state government, which has the final say, rejected the sale. Despite this, Pawar alleges that Pathan built a compound wall around the plot without permission. Pawar called for an inquiry into the matter.
Mistry confirmed that the state government had indeed rejected the sale of the plot to Pathan and that a notice had been served to him for alleged encroachment. “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 decide on a further course of action. This land belongs to VMC, and we will claim it back,” Mistry asserted.
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