Times of India: Mumbai: Sunday,
October 16, 2016.
The BMC's
draft Development Plan (DP) hearing committee is most likely to seek an
extension from the government as it has received thousands of suggestions and
objections. The panel is suppoused to complete the hearings by December.
Even though
citizens had submitted their suggestions and objection by July, the six-member
committee, consisting of experts appointed by the Maharashtra state director of
town planning and civic standing committee members, managed to meet for the
first time only on Saturday to chalk out the strategy for the hearings to be
held from Monday onwards.
According to
data obtained by the Urban Design Research Institute under the Right to
Information (RTI) Act, the DP 2034 released in May this year has received
around 84,000 suggestions and objections as opposed to BMC's claim of around
13,000. Civic officials from the DP department said that though the hearings
are expected to be completed by December, because of the large volume of
suggestions and objections received, the committee may have to seek an
extension from the urban development department.
A senior
official from the BMC's DP department said, "Various categories have been
formed for the hearings. The committee plans to begin with the feedback of
government agencies like the public works department and railways, followed by
that of MLAs, MPs and corporators. The next category includes institutions like
architects associations, NGOs and citizens. From Monday, the committee will sit
from 10.30am to conduct the hearings."
It is also
learned that the six-member committee may be split into three teams of two
members each to speed up work. BJP party leader in the BMC and a member on the
hearing panel Manoj Kotak said, "As it was first meeting, the methodology
for the hearings was decided. While initially, all suggestions and objections
will be heard by the panel together, in later stages, we may plan to split into
groups."
The BMC plans
to publish an advertisement in newspapers to let citizens know when their
suggestions and objections are to be heard. The same details would be put up on
the civic body's website.
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