June 25: Unfazed by a series of controversies that have been dogging him, the Thane guardian minister, Ganesh Naik is all set to stage a comeback. Tomorrow, the minister will host an `open house' where senior officials of the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) Ltd., till recently the planning authority for Navi Mumbai, will come face to face with the residents.

The day-long gathering is to be held at the Vishnudas Bhave Natya Sankul at Vashi, with a capacity of 1000 people, and will even be directly relayed over the local cable channel.

This is being seen as Naik's attempt to make his presence felt. He had suffered a major setback after Thackeray called for a ban on quarrying activities throughout Navi Mumbai. Naik's family controls 13 quarries.

The minister has already collected over 700 questions on issues pertaining to CIDCO. ``The complainants will get an opportunity to ask their questions and get answers immediately from the CIDCO officials,'' Naik told Express Newsline.

The opposition Congress-I has termed the session as ``yet another drama.'' Senior Congress-I leader D R Patil said Naik is only trying to salvage his image. ``But, people are not fools to be misled. They will judge him on his actual performance.''

Naik said the questions will relate to various issues ranging from the compensatory plots to be given to Navi Mumbai's project affected people to erratic water supply, leaking houses, bad roads, and non-availability of plots for public purposes.

``All corporators, heads and office-bearers of various civic committees and other distinguished residents have been invited for the session,'' he said. and explained that similar open sessions will be held with other authorities throughout the Belapur assembly constituency spanning Bhayander, Kalyan and Dombivli.

However, a senior CIDCO official said the open house might put the officers in a tight spot. ``We may be in an embarrassing situation if we are unable to reply to a particular query from the public. And this is quite possible if we are not given advance notice about the likely questions,'' he added.

But an associate of Naik said, ``The questions have been pending with CIDCO for well over two decades. If they cannot answer them now, they have no business to be in their chairs. After all, they are collecting their salaries from the tax-payers' money.''

The open house session will begin at 10 am and is expected to last the entire day.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.