Congress, experts call for scrapping Development Plan

Key speakers at the seminar included actress and social activist Shabana Azmi, ex-Member of Parliament Priya Dutt, architect PK Das, Ramesh Prabhu and development consultant Satish Rao among others.

[related-post]

Nirupam said, “This DP cannot be imposed on the citizens, it will create a major impact in the city. Open spaces have been reduced drastically, floor space index (FSI) has been increased when there is an increasing infrastructural crunch. Since the government has not been able to introduce any citizen-friendly measure, the plan has to be rejected completely.”

He also said that the suggestions and objections presented by various party members and architects from the seminar will be sent as a separate report from the Congress soon.

Claiming that no group in the city is satisfied with the outcome, actress Shabana Azmi said, “We need to know whose suggestions have been incorporated by the BMC because no political party or citizen group is happy about the outcome. In fact, we need to throw the draft DP in the dustbin. At a time when affordable housing is such a huge problem, it is not rocket science for the government to realise that they need to create a land-bank and provide homes at subsidised rates.”

BMC presented its draft development plan for the next 20 years in the month of February. The civic body has given citizens a time frame of 60 days (till April 25) for their suggestions and objections, which will then be studied by a separate committee.

Objecting to the time-frame, architect PK Das said, “It is not possible for a common man to read 600 pages and present his viewpoints on such a technical subject within 60 days. BMC ought to highlight important points from the plan that can be presented before citizens to get their suggestions.”

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com