Translation delays regularising of forest land flats

The process of regularising flats in buildings on forest land in Mumbai has been delayed because the documents need to be translated from Marathi to English.

Meanwhile, nearly 4.5 lakh residents staying on forest land in the eastern suburbs of the city recently got reprieve from the Supreme Court, which ordered payment of Net Present Value (NPV) as penalty to the state forest department. Wasting no time, the flat owners rushed to the forest office and paid the NPV about a month ago. The forest department will now have to forward the list of residents to ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) for final clearance.

However, it is faced with a mammoth task of translating the property and government documents from Marathi to English as MOEF officials will not be able to understand Marathi.

Among the documents, which need translation, are the 7/12 papers, the property card (original history of the properties), the IOD-CC (commencement certificates), the OC (occupation certificate) and plan approval documents. The petitioners will raise the issue before the Supreme Court when the matter comes up for hearing on Friday.