Congress takes dereservation row to court

The decision to file the petition was taken after Governor Dr P C Alexander refused to meet Congress corporators, who sent him a memorandum detailing their objections, Ravindra Pawar said at a press conference today. The party had written to the governor seeking an appointment to request him to intervene but were turned down.

The dereservation proposal, which was prepared by the state government, was passed by the Improvements Committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC and later bythe General Body of the corporation last week. The Congress and the Samajwadi Party had fiercely opposed the proposal when it was taken up for discussion in the General Body, but the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party, which enjoy a majority in the House, passed it when put to vote. Incidentally, the BJP, an alliance partner of the Sena, has now raised several objections as well.

Pawar has alleged that the DP had been altered to deliberately favour the Lok Housing Group, which is close to influential persons in the government. For instance, he pointed out, the reservations had been modified in such a manner that a plot purchased by the Lok group in 1995 is free from encroachments while those reserved for public amenities have been occupied by hutment-dwellers who are eligible for housing under the free housing scheme for slum-dwellers. Also, the roads to be developed by the BMC in the revised plan are strategically located such that they will benefit the builder, Pawar alleged.

8220;About 19 lakh sq mt ofland reserved by the Congress government for public amenities do not find any mention in the new reservation,8221; Pawar pointed out. Moreover, the area of those which have been retained has been drastically reduced, he said.

Also, it is the first time a plot has been reserved for heavy industries, he said. The state government has ignored the pleas of the Cong takes dereservation row to high court Atilde;?Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Anushaktinagar, which had requested that no heavy industries be allowed in its vicinity since it would prove environmentally hazardous, he added. About 34.5 lakh sq mt has been reserved for commercial, industrial and residential purposes in the revised plan.

The dereservation has also been challenged on techical grounds. He said the government has erroneously invoked Section 37I of the Metropolitan Regional Town Planning MRTP Act while dereserving the land as it pertains to minor modifications only. The section can be invoked only when the modifications amount to 10 per centof the total area or less.

8220;But in this case, the state government has changed the reservation of over 90 per cent of the total area and hence it should have been done under Section 38 of the MRTP Act. However, it would have therefore been bound to invoke Sections 23 to 31 of the act as well,8221; he explained.

Pawar also alleged that the DP Department of the civic corporation is being 8220;run by architects from the Lok Housing Group and the BMC could not do a thing about it due to pressure from Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and Mayor Nandu Satam. The governor and the chief minister do not have time to listen to us when Mumbai is being sold,8221; Pawar remarked.

As per procedure, the state government has sought objections and suggestions from the public till November 18, after which it will it will give the proposal its seal of approval.

The Congress also held a day-long morcha at the Azad Maidan today. Public amenities in the original Development Plan which have been excluded from the revised plan.