MUMBAI, May 14:The Mumbai police have questioned the continuing allotment of plots to allegedly fraudulent applicants by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) under a World Bank Project.

In a letter to MHADA, the police have sought the documents concerning the 11,000-odd beneficiaries of the project. According to police investigations, most of them are non-existent and most documents fake. This has led to the unearthing of a land-allotment scam in which fake applicants deprive genuine buyers of much-needed housing.

The recent arrest of a former employee of the MHADA and an agent, Babaji Tanavade, by the Pant Nagar police provided enough clues to such a practice being rampant in MHADA in connivance with officials, said a senior officer who refused to be identified.

Tanavade was caught with incriminatory documents that revealed that most allottees of government housing plots are made up of real-estate speculators, estate agents and the like.

Surprisingly, the officer said, nothing is done to prevent such people from exploiting loop-holes in land-allotment procedures.

To elaborate, in this case, MHADA, while accepting the applications, did not ask for original documents. Instead, it accepted certified-true copies of documents such as birth certificates and ration cards. It did not even bother to verify their authenticity despite doubts raised in the recent state Assembly session.

The huge project was launched in 1994 and 320,000 applications were received for the 11,000 plots spread around Malvani, Charkop, Gorai, Mulund and Majiwade. The applications were divided into two categories: open and reserved. Lots were drawn in January 1995 to choose winners.

Explaining the methods adopted by the agents, the officer said the catch was in the two parts of the allotment procedure. First, the agents forwarded hundreds of bogus applications to MHADA. To those they attached photocopies of documents doctored to spin out the non-existent names. It appeared that the agents were sure the authenticity of the papers would not be cross-checked, said the police officer.

So against such applications, he asserted, plots were and are being allotted. The agents would then immediately arrange for reselling them to genuine buyers at a much higher price. With the previous owner clearly existing on paper, the buyer would never raises questions. Asked if he knew about agents being involved in the fraud, MHADA vigilance officer Gajanan Chawnekar replied in the negative. ``We do not know of any such thing. And if there are any, we do not have any powers to arrest them,'' he said.

He admitted that MHADA was satisfied with only photocopies of the documents submitted by the applicants. The project brochure, however, clearly mentions that an applicant will have to produce certified photocopies of the documents at the time of allotment of the plot.

MHADA chairman Ashok Lal was not available for comment as he had gone for a meeting at Mantralaya.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.