Development plan: BMC report soon on changes made to draft

The first draft of the DP 2014-2034 was placed in the public domain by former Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte in February, immediately provoking an uproar over glaring errors in the document and maps. Over the next two months, the BMC received about 64,000 suggestions/objections including those from residents pointing out specific errors.

In April, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had asked the BMC to revise the blueprint and to publish the revised DP by August 21.

The BMC then appointed a senior retired IAS officer to head the team undertaking the revisions, following it up with appointment of ward-level urban planners to rectify the land-use errors.

After the draft was revised, a second round of suggestions and objections were invited, a process that started on November 7 and ended officially on Monday.

Contrary to activists’ expectations, the BMC decided not to extend the deadline for accepting citizens’ suggestions, but officials said letters that continue to arrive will not be rejected outright but treated on merit.

According to BMC officials, a total of 510 suggestions were received. After discounting the repetitions, 73 suggestions were recorded. A senior official said, “Most of the suggestions described what the Development Plan should be like. Of the 73, only 30 were relevant observations which have been considered.”

Meanwhile, activists maintained that the civic body had given them very little time to analyse the revised draft. Godfrey Pimenta, an activist with the Watchdog Foundation, stated that the submission of suggestions was a meaningless exercise as the revised draft had recurring mistakes.

“More than 60 per cent of the population lives in slums and have no access to the internet. The BMC has not given equal opportunity to the citizens to make their submissions. Like last time, they could have displayed the maps in the ward offices which would have given people the access they are entitled to,” he said.

Apart from errors like the Bombay High Court and Public Works Department being marked as a court complex and the Mahim Dargah being marked as an orphanage, Pimenta pointed out the Development Plan does not take flood mitigation measures into consideration.

“After the floods in 2005, agencies such as CPWRS had submitted reports stating that there should be a buffer zone adjoining all the rivers. However, none of the rivers have been marked with a buffer zone and buildings can be seen touching the river banks,” he said.

Another activist, Alphi D’Souza, who represents the Mumbai Gaothan Panchayat, stated that the revised Development plan does not mark any of the gaothans, areas occupied by East Indians and labels them as slums instead.

“Initially, there were about 189 gaothans which have reduced due to encroachments by slum dwellers. The BMC records show that there are currently about 120 gaothans in Mumbai. However, the DP does not demarcate any of them despite us sending our objections. In this way, the gaothans will only shrink further and this is injustice to the oldest inhabitants of the city,” he said.

While the report to be released this week will pertain to the designation or land use survey, the BMC will also publish, phase-wise, surveys on roads, the Development Control regulations and then finally on reservations for amenities. The final draft DP will be re-published with all the necessary changes by February 16 next year.