The Indian Express 06.09.2012
Old city draft DP: Parties get ready for showdown with PMC
The draft development plan (DP) for old city limits is generating
heat, with political parties in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)
planning strategies to counter any loopholes in the proposed DP tabled
in the City Improvement Committee (CIC) last year after much delay.
The tenure of the DP being 20 years, the new draft should have been ready in 1987 but the civic administration failed to do it.
With the likelihood of the state government taking over if it was
delayed further, the PMC administration got the DP prepared in a year
and tabled in the Improvement Committee in December last year.
The committee then was chaired by Congress as per the
power-sharing arrangement. After the February civic polls, the ruling
NCP got the post for its corporator.
Alliance partner, Congress, however, has decided it won’t remain a
mere spectator. “The city Congress has formed a committee of its
corporators to study the DP and decide a strategy on it,” said a
Congress leader.
The development of any city is based on the DP, he said. “We are
committed to development of the city in the larger public interest.
Therefore, the committee would study the DP in detail before taking a
stand.”
MNS chief Raj Thackeray, too, had shown interest in the DP and
had planned to visit the civic headquarters to get details of the draft
DP but his meeting was cancelled as MNS corporators conveyed to him
technical difficulties in making the administration give him a
presentation.
Efforts of the Shiv Sena to get the copy of draft, too, did not yield
result. “The draft DP should be published on the website as per Right
to Information Act. The PMC has failed to do so and has been denying
access to anyone who wants to go through it,” said Sena leader Shyam
Deshpande.
He said with civic administration tabling the draft DP in the
improvement Committee, it has become a public document but the PMC, on
the pretext of violation of MRTP Act, was not disclosing it.
Citizens and environmental groups need to study the draft and put
forward their suggestions, Deshpande said, urging the PMC to make the
document public.
Although political parties have been showing interest in the
draft DP, the Improvement Committee headed by NCP leader Chetan Tupe
postponed the meeting by three weeks, against the practice of daily
meets to discuss the DP.
Meanwhile, the state recently informed the PMC that it has to
send the draft DP for final approval by January next year or the state
government would take a decision on it.