Why Is Congress Miffed With BMC Over Amitabh Bachchan’s Bungalow Prateeksha?

New Delhi: A part of Amitabh Bachchan’s bungalow Prateeksha in Juhu is reportedly coming in the way of a road-widening project. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) needs to take over a portion of the land for the work.

The Congress has complained to the Maharashtra Lokayukta about BMC’s “failure” to demolish a part of the bungalow. It has alleged that the BMC hasn’t acted despite asking survey officials to demarcate the portion in July, India Today reported.

The Lokayukta, Justice VM Kanade, has ordered the BMC to submit a report detailing the steps taken to acquire the land for road widening within four weeks. In 2017, the BMC notified Bachchan and seven other property owners in the area about the road widening work.

The civic body would take the compound portion of these structures and widen Sant Dnyaneshwar Road from 40 to 60 feet to alleviate traffic bottlenecks in the lane leading from Prateeksha to ISKCON Temple, the report quoted sources as saying.

In 2019, the BMC demolished the boundary wall of the building premises adjoining Bachchan’s bungalow. However, the compound of Prateeksha was left untouched.

With no development in the acquisition from July to October, Miranda moved the Lokayukta.

“The BMC stated during the hearing that they served Bachchan with a notice under Section 299 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, but he did not respond. They’ve waited four years for him to respond, which is both unfair and against the rules,” Congress corporator Tulip Miranda was quoted as saying.

“The acquisition of the Prateeksha plot is being delayed by the BMC. While other plots have been acquired, this one has remained untouched. The road widening project is stalled, and people are stuck in traffic,” India Today reported Miranda as saying.