State Govt told to explain dezoning mystery

PUNE, OCT 4: A division bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the State Government to file an affidavit by October 11 about t...

PUNE, OCT 4: A division bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the State Government to file an affidavit by October 11 about the alleged interpolations of nearly 50 surveys of land in the regional plan of Pune in a notification issued on August 7.

The bench also directed the government to produce the entire record in the matter before the court including the sanctioned regional plan of Pune district gazetted in 1997 which was modified by the State Government by its notification on August 7.

The interpolations and, in fact, the entire process initiated in December by the State Government in modifying the regional plan of Pune gazetted in 1997 has been challenged in a public interest writ petition by BJP corporators, Ujwal Keskar and Suhas Kulkarni.

The matter came up for admission today before the division bench comprising Justice A P Shah and Justice A M Khanwilkar.

The petitioners have prayed that the notification of the State Government on August 7 this year be quashed and pending the hearing and final disposal of the petition, a stay on the execution, operation, effect and implementation of the notification be granted.

The petitioners have also prayed that pending the final disposal of the petitioner, the Pune Municipal Corporation be directed to undertake and complete the process of finalisation of draft development plan for newly added 38 villages as per its own declared intention on January 24, 2000 8220;without taking into account the fact that there is a purported modification in the regional plan of Pune district on August 7.8221;

The State Government on December 9, 1999, issued a notification intending to convert 381 surveys of agricultural and no-development land in 38 villages which merged with Pune Municipal Corporation three years ago into residential and other zones. Suggestions and objections were called for and the final notification incorporating the modifications was published on August 7 this year.

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While the government announced that it had kept back dezoning of entire hill area which was earlier slated for dezoning under the December 1999 notification, it included nearly 50 additional surveys of land among those dezoned into residential use and which were not notified earlier without giving an opportunity to the public to give their suggestions and objections for this change.

8220;It is a case of clear malafides,8221; the petitioners argued.