Call to oppose hill top plan

PUNE, May 11: Stating that there already existed a deficit of open spaces at Pune city, environmentalist Vijay Paranjpaye today made a ferve...

PUNE, May 11: Stating that there already existed a deficit of open spaces at Pune city, environmentalist Vijay Paranjpaye today made a fervent plea to the citizens to oppose the State Government8217;s proposal to permit 20 per cent residential construction on hilltops-hill slopes since it would lead to further loss of open spaces on a mass scale.

Quoting an experts8217; committee recommendation that the open spaces should be 0.6 hectare per 1000 population in urban centres, Paranjpaye argued that 1130 hectares of land area should have been set aside as open space considering that the population of Pune was around 18 lakh in 1996. However, only 745.46 hectares of open spaces remained accessible to citizens, he claimed.

Paranjpaye, director of Econet, an environmental group, was speaking at a workshop organised by WILD at Fergusson College here for the benefit of citizens called to depose on the State Government8217;s controversial proposal.

The citizens should oppose the proposal because it was not going to aid the implementation of the city development plan DP and would deny them access to the hilltops-hill slopes, which are categorised as open spaces, said Paranjpaye while seeking to remind them that open spaces meant 8220;open to public access for recreational purpose.8221;

He warned that though the State Government proposed to grant 20 per cent floor area ratio FAR as incentive to the private owners and builders, the entire hilltops-hill slopes area would become inaccessible to the public since the private owners would fence it once construction activities are permitted.

He also feared that once constructions come up, the hilltops-hillslopes admeasuring about 372 hectares under private and institutional ownership would be lost completely since the proposal was silent on additional area required for constructing road access, fencing, parking spaces and other requirements, besides, the 20 per cent construction. Thus, even the condition that 500 trees be planted per hectare appeared contradictory to the incentive.

The countered the argument put forth in support of the proposal that slums might replace the hills and that trees did not exist at many places on the hills, saying that slum menace was restricted to certain hills and that open spaces does not necessarily mean forests.