Hema Malini says the land has not been handed over to her yet.
Former actor and BJP lawmaker Hema Malini today rejected charges of land grabbing, saying she was yet to get the land which has come under controversy. Once she gets it, she will make the all payments according to law, she said.
In an address to the media, the lawmaker from Mathura said, "I'm not grabbing some land. I have struggled for 20 years. It is my right to have this land. I don't even know how much I have to pay. I'll pay according to law," she said.
The dance academy she will build there will be a "pride of the area", where children will be taught or free, she said.
She said she also has to create a garden there and hand it over to the Mumbai civic body." This is besides creating the dance academy... So it is like a white elephant for me," she said.
The allotment of the 2000 sq ft plot in the posh Andheri area to Hema Malini Andheri came under controversy after an RTI activist said she was getting it for only Rs 70,000, which amounted to land grabbing. According to some estimates, the land is worth at least Rs. 50 crore.
According to the documents obtained under the Right to Information Act by activist Anil Galgali, Rs. 70,000 happened to be the plot's market value in 1976.
Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse had said that in 1997, Hema Malini had been allotted land for her project but was unable to develop that because of environmental laws.
She was then assigned a plot in Andheri in 2010 by the Congress-led government. Though the area was meant to be reserved for a public garden, Mr Khadse said the rules were changed.