MUMBAI: Corporators on Thursday slammed the BMC for its failure to implement its development plan. The rap comes after an influx of purchase notices issued by landowners to the BMC brought to light its inability to develop land reserved for specific purposes, the ).

Corporators said that the inability to acquire thousands of plots reserved for various purposes in the city has not only drained the BMC of crores of rupees, but has also resulted in a jackpot for private builders. The discussion comes at a time when the civic body is in the process of appointing consultants to revise the draft development plan (DP) of the city for the years 2014 to 2034.

Only recently, the BMC acquired five plots at JVPD at a cost of Rs450 crores after the JVPD Residents' Association sent purchase notices. Congress corporator Rajendra Choube said that most purchase notices are issued for lands that have been encroached upon. "Because of this, the BMC has to also deal with rehabilitating project affected persons (PAPs). The BMC should in stead hasten the process of acquiring reserved open plots soon," said Choube.

Under section 127 of the MRTP Act, citizens and societies can claim ownership if a reserved plot is not acquired by the state within 10 years of the DP plan's inception; the owner or any person interested in a land then gets the right to claim his interest and if the state fails to acquire it in less than 12 months, the land is deemed available for the owner's use. The BMC has to acquire these lands from its owners for implementing the reservations by either compulsory acquisition for vital reservations, purchase land from owners after he issues a purchase notice, get land from land owner in return of grant of transfer of development rights (TDR) to the owner or through accommodation reservation the BMC can acquire 40 per cent of the land and let the owner use the remaining land.

BJP corporator Ashish Shelar said that officials from the DP department had little idea about how many plots have been acquired for public purposes in the last 20 years.

Additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar said that plots reserved as markets, open spaces, schools, hospitals etc will be acquired on an urgent basis. "3,600 plots are reserved for different purposes. We will prepare a list of such cases in three months. We will also seek clarity on state urban development department on handling recently received purchase notices," said Mhaiskar. tnn