PCMC checking resettlement at Red Zone

Pardeshi commended the efforts of the land surveyors in carrying out the work in a phased manner. The surveyors have simultaneously been given the work of marking land for widening of the one kilometer Pune-Nashik Highway stretch at Bhosari.

The decision to undertake the survey was taken following a meeting held by Defence Minister George Fernandes in New Delhi on July 6. The Minister had directed the defence authorities to make an inspection of the area along with the civic authorities. Over 25,000 families in the Red Zone area at Bhosari have been demanding provision of basic civic amenities like water supply, roads, and drainage for the last 15 years. As the area is in the vicinity of the Magazine Depot at Dighi, the defence authorities had said that all the constructions were illegal and no civic amenities could be provided there.

While the outer safety distance8217; near the Magazine Depot was fixed up to a radius of 1145 metres, as per the Defence Act, no residential constructions could be permitted in the area. A proposal to reduce the radius up to 760 meters from the Bhosari village side is under study. The local citizens action committee has however demanded that the radius be reduced to 540 meters.

If the radius was reduced to 760 meters, about 300 houses will have to be rehabilitated, while civic amenities could be provided in the remaining area. If the proposal of reducing the radius up to 540 meeters is accepted, the entire area will be spared where the civic amenities could be provided.

Mayor Hanumanth Bhosale, was irked last Thursday, when the civic authorities allegedly neglected him in the scheduled meeting with the Red Zone civic action committee. Bhosale charged that he was neither given any invitation nor informed by the civic authorities about the meeting.

The meeting could not take place in the absence of Pardeshi who was in Mumbai to attend an official meeting.