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.