The general body meeting today took up the issue of dereservation of the land, over which two Congress corporators, Annie Shekhar and Vijaya Dhulla, had earlier submitted written complaints to the civic Improvements Committee. The Sena-BJP alliance reasoned that nearly Rs 74 lakh would have to be spent on land acquisition and providing the six tenants residing on the plot alternate accommodation.

Although Mayor Nandu Satam had earlier proposed that the purchase notice for acquiring the land not be allowed to lapse, Shiv Sena councillor Ganesh Mahalay today asked for an amendment, triggering off a debate in the house. Chairperson of the Improvements Committee, Digambar Kandarkar, told the house that the cost for acquiring the entire land in Colaba would be Rs 10 crore, something the cash-strapped BMCwould not be able to afford. In the end, 106 councillors voted for dereservation, while just 51 members from the opposition voted against.

Some weeks ago, the Director (Engineering Services & Projects) had recommended that the BMC dereserve the prime land, currently worth Rs 38.95 lakh. The plot is part of a larger reservation of land (2,451 square metres) in the area, on which the school was to be built. The Improvements Committee rejected this recommendation.

During the debate, Congress councillor K A Bastiwala raised a point of order that it was strange that a proposal put forward by the Mayor himself had to be turned on its head by one of his party members. A municipal school was the need of the hour for children who could not afford expensive education, he pointed out.

The Congress party is contemplating approaching the Bombay High Court against the dereservation, said Annie Shekhar. Bharatiya Janata Party corporator Dr A S Rao, who was absent from today's session, said he would support Shekhar.``The purchase notice for the plot was given in December last year, but was circulated in the Improvements Committee only recently. There seems to be no just reason for such a long delay, except that vested parties in the BMC are keen to gift away such prime land,'' he told Express Newsline.