Home minister R.R. Patil on Thursday ordered an inquiry by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Crime Investigation Department (CID) into the public work department’s decision of declaring nine police buildings at Worli “dangerous to live in”. The inquiry was ordered after PWD officials did a volte-face and declared the building safe. The ACB and CID will investigate who was interested in getting the said building vacated and why.
There are 84 buildings in Worli police camp that are occupied by 2,040 families of policemen. In June this year, the PWD had declared nine of these buildings unsafe and subsequently the police commissioner’s office issued a notice on August 1 to 180 families to vacate the buildings. However, the issue immediately took a political turn. Shiv Sena led an agitation of the affected residents on the same day, demanding that they be provided alternate accommodation before they were asked to vacate. Following the political pressure, the commissioner’s office also stalled the process of getting the buildings vacated.
Mr Patil on Thursday reviewed the Worli police camp. Minister of state for home Sachin Ahir and PWD officials accompanied him.
In the meeting with the home minister, the PWD department took the stand that the buildings were now safe for living. According to a senior official from the home department, the home minister was livid at the PWD officials, as well as the police commissioner’s office and ordered the inquiry by the ACB and CID to find out if there was any conspiracy behind the original decision to declare the nine buildings unsafe.
“The buildings, which were declared as dilapidated in the month of June, have become safe within three months. How is that possible?” the minister asked the senior officers of the police department and PWD present in the meeting.
Mr Ahir said that some issues were agreed on in-principle. “A school would be built on build-operate and transfer basis on the Worli police housing land and 30 to 50 per cent seats will be reserved for children of police families. Old buildings will be reconstructed and those displaced families will be shifted within Worli police camp itself,” he said.