Green development plan: Dharia cries foul

Reacting to the state government altering green development plan DP of Baner-Balewadi, environmentalist and former union minister Mohan Dharia has alleged that there are irregularities worth crores of rupees in turning the reserved land into residential areas in the DP. He urged the chief minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh and Pune guardian minister Ajit Pawar, to look into the matter.

Pune Municipal Corporation PMC standing committee chairman Shyam Deshpande, environment activist Vandana Chavan along with other activists have opposed state government8217;s stand to lift all the reservations in the DP, without providing any convincing reason. As part of their opposition, all activists and representatives of various non-government organisations NGO have come under one roof 8211; 8216;Green Pune Movement8217; 8211; and have decided to file a public interest litigation PIL in this regard.

Dharia was chairing a meeting of activists on Saturday to oppose the changes in the DP proposed by the state government. He strongly cracked his whip on the state government for not furnishing the maps of the altered DP and for using vague language in the notification. 8220;For instance, some parts of the notification reads as 8216;survey number 12, 13, 14, 15 etc8217;, where it is left for the reader to understand which other survey numbers are included,8221; he said.