Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, Oct 22: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has officially scrapped the Rs 12-crore Urdu Learning Centre project in Byculla and recovered Rs 4 crore from the state skill development department as construction costs. Civic officials stated that the land will be formally handed over for an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) once the pending rent of Rs 44 lakh is cleared.

The land had been leased to the state ITI for 30 years in 2011 at an annual rent of Rs 5.1 lakh. The decision marks a setback for the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, whose former corporator Yashwant Jadhav and ex-MLA wife Yamini Jadhav had been advocating for the Urdu Learning Centre. Opposition came from BJP leaders Mihir Kotecha and Nitesh Rane, who in 2023 demanded that the centre be scrapped in favour of an ITI. Construction was stopped last month despite 40% of the work already being completed.

Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh criticised the move, saying, “BMC returned the land without consulting stakeholders. This is a loss to lakhs of Urdu speakers and lovers of Mumbai. Urdu is a language of love and poetry, but it is being demonised for petty political gains.”

In December 2023, Kotecha had claimed in the state assembly that an ITI was originally planned for the Byculla land, but the Maha Vikas Aghadi government had forced BMC to change the reservation and begin construction of the Urdu Learning Centre. Shaikh added that BMC and the state government risk contempt of the legislature for not consulting Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar before returning the land.