MUMBAI, June 26 -- The urban development department (UDD) has de-reserved a 23,551 square feet plot in Dindoshi, marked out for a crematorium, to build a residential complex under the slum rehabilitation authority (SRA). The move by UDD is in defiance of a state government mandate, issued earlier this year, banning de-reservation of land parcels reserved for burial grounds and crematoriums in the development plan (DP) 2034. The plot in Dindoshi has been de-reserved for a cooperative housing society under SRA to house residents of Koyna Nagar (A-B), who hail from deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde's ancestral village Dare and nearby talukas, in Satara district. Shinde also heads UDD. Explaining the move, Shiv Sena leader and former MP Gajanan Kirtikar said, "There are around 900 slums on the hill slopes of Dindoshi occupied by people from Dare, Jawali and Koyna. The slum dwellers had shifted to Mumbai many years ago as it was difficult to farm on the hilly tracts of Satara. They approached Shinde saheb when he was CM in 2023. Since I was the local MP (Mumbai North Central) in those days, I was asked to look into the issue. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at the time had said that there were plots reserved for two or three crematoriums in the area, which were not likely to be put in use anytime soon. Hence such a decision was taken for the benefit of slum dwellers." A letter to this effect was drafted and presented by Kirtikar to Shinde on April 18, 2023, who wrote to the principal secretary of UDD to examine the case. HT has a copy of the letter. The department had called for suggestions and objections to its move on July 16, 2024, to delete the reservation of the plot. The final notice to delete the 23,551 square feet plot at Dindoshi was issued on June 23, 2025, by Nirmal Chaudhari, deputy secretary of UDD, to hasten the SRA project. In April, 2025, the state government had issued directives stating due to a paucity of cremation and burial grounds, no corporation should regularise encroachment on these plots or de-reserve them. The circular was issued by Pratibha Bhadane, joint secretary of UDD, to all municipal commissioners and chief executive officers of civic bodies in the state, in April. The circular adhered to the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, which also underlines that only the state cabinet has the right to change the reservation of plots in urban areas. It is believed that the plots are reserved in urban areas for cremation or burial grounds due to the increasing needs of people....