Indian Express 10.12.2010
3 yrs after expiry, PMC seeks another extension for plan
Ajay Khape Tags : Pune Municipal Corporation, new development plan Posted: Fri Dec 10 2010, 02:15 hrs
The civic body has to get approval for the DP for its jurisdiction for 20 years as per the Mahrashtra Region Town Planning Act, 1966. The tenure of the DP for the city, approved in 1987, had expired in 2007. The PMC, however, declared its intention of revising the DP in December 2007, which meant it got two more years for preparation of the draft plan.
The PMC had to seek extension from the state government with the work not finished till December 2009, but it applied for it only in February 2010. Though an extension of one year was given till December 2010, the civic body has again failed to complete the work on draft DP on time. “The process for revision of the DP has been initiated and the land use survey work needs more time to be considered for the new DP. Thus, it is necessary to extend the tenure for preparing the final draft DP by an year till December 2011,” municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade said in the proposal.
The civic body had, in October, set up a dedicated cell for revision of DP with city engineer Prashant Waghmare in charge and delegated his routine work to additional city engineer Vivek Kharwadkar.
Zagade had said, in the administrative order, that the revised DP should have come into existence by 2007 as soon as the 20-year term of the DP prepared in 1987 expired. He said the notification for the revision of DP was published in December 2007 and accordingly, the maps of land use should have been ready in six months but they have not been prepared even after 33 months and added that the draft of the revised DP should have been completed in two years of notification so that objections and suggestions of citizens could have been invited.
“Any delay in DP means denial of civic amenities to public,” said activist Satish Khot of National Society of Clean Cities (NSCC), adding that the work for the revised DP should have started four-five years earlier than 2007. “The civic administration has started working on it only now. Also, they should ensure the time-bound implementation of DP for the next 20 years as not even half of it gets implemented usually.”
Though the PMC has been seeking extension for preparation of the revised DP, it is not mandatory for the state government to accept it. The government can instead entrust the responsibility to any officer. The development plan sets rules for residential, commercial properties, schools, hospitals, markets, roads, water bodies, sports grounds and cultural halls.
