37,500 objections and counting: Complaints against PCMC draft DP pour in as citizens and politicians want it scrapped
'We have received more than 35,000 suggestions and objections to the draft DP…and the state government DP unit has received 2,500 objections and suggestions,' an official from the town planning department said.
The last date for filing the suggestions and objections is July 14.
From citizens taking out protests, demanding that it be scrapped, to MLAs and MLCs raising concerns about reservation or allocation of land for specific public purposes, the draft DP has triggered unrest across the industrial city.
MP Shrirang Barne has demanded the cancellation of the draft DP. 'I met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently and urged him to cancel the draft DP as it has several wrong reservations. I pointed out to him how citizens are agitated,' he said.
Barne said that Fadnavis has promised to act on his demand. 'He told me, let the suggestions and objections come in. He said that when the draft DP comes to the state government for approval, the government will take an appropriate decision,' he added.
Barne said he has also filed a few objections to the draft DP. 'Like several citizens, I too found that the DP unit has made several incorrect and highly objectionable reservations,' he said.
BJP MLA Mahesh Landge and MLCs Amit Gorkhe and Uma Khapre have criticised the reservation for a slaughterhouse in Moshi, which was close to the temple town of Alandi, saying it 'is highly objectionable'.
Landge pointed out that even temple trust lands have come under the ambit of reservation in his constituency. 'The DP is full of objectionable reservations. In Moshi, temple land has been brought under the purview of the reservation,' he said.
Seema Sawale, former chairperson of the PCMC standing committee, filed 134-page objections to the draft DP on Friday. Speaking to The Indian Express on Saturday, she said, 'The draft DP is the most shocking piece of document ever prepared in the history of Pimpri-Chinchwad. It should be scrapped. The DP unit has made reservations where it should not have. And where reservation was required, it has turned a blind eye.'
Sawale alleged the draft DP favours the affluent, including the builders. 'The draft DP has removed reservations from hilltops and hill slopes, which is a clear indication that the civic body wants to hand over land to builders,' she alleged.
Sawale also highlighted concerns regarding the floodline marked in the DP draft. 'The floodline favours builders and does injustice to farmers who are set to lose their land if the DP reservations are implemented. The floodline is not based on the one marked by the irrigation department,' she said.
Sawale said the entire Bhosari-Dighi red zone, where construction is not permitted, is shown as a green belt in the draft DP. 'The Rupeenagar-Talawade red zone has 46 reservations. No constructions are permitted in red zones. The draft DP shows the area as a yellow belt with 46 reservations,' she said.
Civic activist Avinash Chilekar flagged the reservation of 175 acres in Jadhavwadi-Kudalwadi for a convention centre. 'There is no need for a convention centre in Jadhavwadi. This is because a 250-acre convention centre has already been set up in the Moshi area. Close to it, there is a Bhosari district centre on 100 acres. There is another space for a 50-acre convention centre in Moshi. If there are three convention centres, why do we need one more?'
Chilekar also questioned the reservation for a High Capacity Mass Transit Route (HCMTR). 'HCMTR reservation will lead to the demolition of 5,000 houses in Thergaon, Kalewadi, Rahatni, Chinchwad Nagar and Bijlinagar. This reservation was there in the old DP of 1995, but the PCMC failed to implement it. Now, three decades later, it has made the same reservation again,' he said.
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