The Indian Express             28.11.2013 

Town planning dept receives 13,300 responses against BDP reservation

The town planning department has received as many as 13,300 responses objecting to the government's proclamation facilitating Biodiversity Park (BDP) reservation and giving Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) as compensation to land owners whose land would be acquired for parks.

The town planning department said they would conduct hearings on these objections on November 30, December 4, 5, 9, 13 and 16 at the Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Sabagriha at Sahakar Nagar.

"Once the notice was issued in February this year, we had invited suggestions and objections,'' said Avinash Patil of town planning department.

Patil said the hearing would cover issues pertaining to Wadgaon, Warje, Wadgaon, Dhairi, Lohegaon, Mohammedwadi, Kondwa, Ambegaon, Dhankawadi and Katraj. Individual cases from Warje, Hingne, Bavdhan, Baner, Kothrud and others will also be addressed during these days.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had merged 23 villages in its jurisdiction in 1997 and decided to make a Development Plan (DP) in the same year. The DP was declared in 2002 and was forwarded to the state government for approval after incorporating suggestions from villager. Of the total 978 hectares of land reserved for BDP, 853 hectares was privately owned land. The Chief Minister had declared BDP with a provision of 8 per cent TDR as compensation along with 74 hectares for excluded properties.

Citizen's group had opposed the move saying this was a poor deal for land owners.

The committee for the BDP included experts K V Jain and Rakesh Kumar, forest department official Nandkishor, UDD deputy director Srirang Landge and civic chief Mahesh Pathak.