The Hindu  02.12.2010

UDA decides to shelve project

Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA: The board of Vijayawada Guntur Tenali Mangalagiri – Urban Development Authority (VGTM-UDA) on Wednesday resolved to shelve the Ambapuram township project that failed to make any headway during the last four years.

The board meeting, presided by Krishna district Collector Peeyush Kumar in his capacity as ex-officio chairman, was attended by a representative of the Finance Department, another of the Town and Country Planning, Municipal Commissioner G. Ravi Babu and VGTM-UDA Vice-Chairman G.S.R.K.R. Vijay Kumar. It passed a resolution to shelve the project and the resolution would be sent to the State government, which would have to take a final decision. The Ambapuram Township is one of the most controversial projects taken up by the UDA. Controversies, contradictions, violations, protests and legal wrangles mired the project from the very first day it was conceived in 2006. The UDA, despite vociferous protests and opposition from local farmers and plot owners, was determined to go ahead with the project as it hoped to pocket nearly Rs. 100 crore from its 40 per cent share of the developed land.

With plot owners refusing to part with their lands, the district administration issued a notification for acquisition that was challenged in the High Court. As the Court stayed the notification, the UDA changed its strategy and began negotiating with the farmers. This too failed to meet with any success.

A large number of small plot owners as well as farmers would benefit if the proposal is shelved. In view of recent developments such as Layout Regulation Scheme (LRS), legal and financial implications involved, resistance from the public and so on, the UDA has been toying with the idea of withdrawing the proposal. Stiff opposition from land owners and the LRS have also contributed to this. Many small plot owners of Ambapuram area applied under the LRS to get their plots approved by the UDA, which was hitherto arguing that the layouts were not approved by it, and, hence, the plot owners had no right to oppose the township. Moreover, the plot owners for long have been banking on GO 400 issued in 1996.

The Times of India                 02.12.2010

Cops red flag 180 parking lots

NEW DELHI: Municipal Corporation of Delhi`s plan to turn illegal parking lots in the city into authorised ones seems to have backfired. The civic agency had recently floated tenders for 225 parking lots out of which 180 are illegal. Delhi Traffic Police, meanwhile, refused to give NOCs for these parking lots and MCD will now approach the L-G over this issue, seeking his intervention.

``The Environment Pollution Control Authority and the court have clarified that we will have to take clearance from the traffic police to run parking lots in the city,`` said B N Singh, officer-on-special duty, R P Cell.

Justifying the reason behind floating tenders for such sites, Singh added: ``Since most of the 225 parking lots under MCD were anyway running illegally, we decided to go ahead and float tenders for 180 such sites and operate them as authorised parking lots. But with the traffic police refusing to give us permission, MCD commissioner K S Mehra will now meet the L-G on this issue.``

Meanwhile, MCD councillors criticised the officials for going ahead with the tender process without getting NOC from the traffic police and pointed out several illegal sites in the city. ``The problem of unauthorised parking would have never taken place if MCD had registered FIRs in such cases,`` said leader of opposition, J K Sharma. Councillors also alleged that the highest bidder was not allotted the parking lots in many cases.

Explaining this, Singh said in three such cases, the bidder had not submitted relevant documents and had only given the applications. ``In all such cases, the parking lots were allotted to the lower bidder,`` said Singh.

Singh further stated that he was going to now issue a booklet to all 272 councillors on the number of parking lots under MCD, the contractor responsible for running each of these, the period of contract, etc, so that councillors were aware of which parking lots in their areas were unauthorised. Meanwhile, according to MCD officials, around 20 parking sites under MCD will now be handed over to ex-servicemen so that they can operate them properly.