Indian Express 01.10.2010
Build on 25% land, help maintain rest: BMC caretaker plan for open spaces
Even as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) finalises its controversial caretaker policy for roping in private parties for the maintenance of fast-shrinking open spaces in Mumbai, officials said one of the fresh ideas in the new policy will be a system whereby the civic body will allot a plot of land to a private player, permit some construction on 25 per cent of the land as allowed by the policy, and charge the private player a fee while pumping in its own manpower to oversee the maintenance of the remainder of the plot.
Such a move is expected to be met with stiff opposition from activists who have opposed the caretaker policy on the grounds that it clears the decks for private parties to gain control of BMC-owned public land for a pittance while denying common people access to these open spaces meant for recreational purposes.
According to the new rules that are being finetuned, 75 per cent of a plot of land handed over to a private party under the caretaker policy will be always accessible to Mumbaiites, demarcated by constructing a boundary wall. It will be maintained by BMC staff, with money paid by the ‘caretaker’. “We have suggested that the caretaker can either pay for the beautification of the 75 per cent, or do it himself but according to our plans,” said a senior official of the BMC. The BMC can then charge the caretaker a fee while continuing to control access rights and other modalities.
In order to ensure that the caretaker complies with the regulations, one suggestion being considered by those drafting the policy is that development rights to the remaining 25 per cent of the plot, as permissible under the existing caretaker policy, should be denied until the private party pays the charges for maintenance and beautification, said the official.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Aseem Gupta said that the BMC is taking into consideration these suggestions. “Ultimately we will ensure that the private party complies with our rules,” he said, adding that the policy is not yet finalised.
Activists campaigning for the protection of the city’s last open spaces say the policy is flawed, and ultimately gifts away portions of public land to private players. “This means by just collecting the money to maintain 75 per cent of the space, the BMC is giving away the precious 25 per cent of open space, practically free. Somehow the BMC is trying to please everybody, but making a hash while drafting such an important policy,” said Nayana Kathpalia, co-convenor of non-governmental organisation Citispace. “As the policy gets more and more convoluted, there is more scope for loopholes, which means more manipulation and various interpretations. Ultimately it is the citizens who stand to lose by getting even less open space,” she said.
Activists and citizens also question why the BMC, the country’s richest civic corporation, cannot cough up the few crores needed for the upkeep of open spaces.
Under the re-worked policy, the civic administration is expected to ensure that caretakers for open spaces will be selected after advertisements are published regarding plots available for adoption. While the ‘adoption’ policy permits no construction, the ‘caretaker’ policy allows development on a quarter of the plot of land. This quarter may be used for constructing restaurants or clubhouses. In either case, priority will be given to local citizens’ groups to come forward to maintain these plots either under the adoption policy or the caretaker policy.
The caretaker policy is now being revived after the state government’s stay on the allotments in December 2007 after a spate of protests from angry citizens’ groups who pointed out that public open spaces were being gifted away to private parties while the common Mumbaiite was being denied entry into clubhouses built on such public land.
