The Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis took his first step towards handing over the controversial 12-acre land for a Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar memorial without passing any law in Parliament. Mr Fadnavis convinced PM Modi to hand over the land for the memorial before Dr Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 14.

The three-party agreement between the National Textile Corporation, which owns the Indu Mill land in Mumbai, the state government, and the Centre was signed at New Delhi on Sunday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union textile minister Santosh Gangwar.

Mr Fadnavis said that it was the opinion of the Attorney General that NTC could hand over the land to the state with prior permission of Central government under section 11 of The Textile Undertakings Nationalisation Act-1995. There is no need to pass an Act in Parliament, which is what the Congress was claiming during its regime at the state and at the Centre.

Mr Fadnavis personally followed up on the issue, which resulted in signing of the agreement on Sunday. With the Centre’s nod, the land will be handed over to the state in the upcoming days. The state will compensate NTC against the land. But it will take time to get possession of the mill land. As per the earlier government’s move, the land would remain owned by the Centre. However, now the state would be the sole owner of the land.

However, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan raised a question over the procedure claiming that a sick mill could not hand over the land directly to the state. Mr Chavan maintained that his government was advised to pass an Act in the Parliament so that no one can at a later stage challenge the handover process of the land.

Chavan said that as per his knowledge, NTC was a sick company and as per the Sick Industries Act, the sick company could not hand over its property without a grant from the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction.

Meanwhile, Devendra Fadnavis has invited Mr Modi for bhoomipujan of the memorial. Mr Modi is said to have agreed to attend the puja and a date will be finalised after his return from Germany. However, the state to call on reputed architects to design the memorial.