Toil of residents, corporators and PMC help a garden bloom
Last week, PMC saved ₹54.77 crore in land acquisition compensation cost after the Supreme Court’s decision on Salisbury Park garden case
The joint efforts of residents, elected members and civic administration spread across two decades have given a garden located at city’s prominent locality Salisbury Park a new lease of life.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) dereserved the plot, earlier allotted for a public garden, to local developer as a step towards earning revenue. The move invited protest from residents who formed the Salisbury Park Forum to oppose the civic body’s decision.
Prashant Waghmare, PMC city engineer, who has been observing the case since last two decades, said, ‘The PMC general body dereserved the plot citing fund crunch. The Salisbury Park Forum approached the court and the latter asked the PMC to submit its opinion on land acquisition. PMC put the general body’s decision of not having money to acquire it.”
Waghmare said, “When PMC submitted the affidavit that it would not have fund to acquire the plot, the citizen forum claimed that they would collect money for land acquisition. Meantime, the corporators elected after the next civic polls passed a resolution to acquire the plot for garden. With the PMC general body showing interest to acquire land, the civic body set the ball rolling to expedite it.”
Senior advocate NP Bhog, who was part of the citizen movement, said, “It was PMC’s duty to acquire the land. Even I had doubt about why the civic body planned to dereserve it at that time. It is a good example of unity among citizens and administration.”
Last week, PMC saved ₹54.77 crore in land acquisition compensation cost after the Supreme Court’s decision on Salisbury Park garden case.
The Supreme Court, according to PMC, disposed of the case in February 2022 and asked the Pune district collector to fix a new land acquisition cost.
The land acquisition cost was fixed at ₹71.55 crore in 2009, but PMC had initially challenged it in the High Court. In 2019, the High Court had given decision against the civic body, which prompted PMC to challenge the decision in Supreme Court by objecting to the escalated land acquisition cost.
The collector on February 28, 2023, fixed the compensation at ₹16.77 crore.
According to statement issued by PMC, “Due to continuous follow-ups and fighting the case in the apex court, PMC was able to save ₹54.77 crore. Municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar, additional commissioner Ravindra Binwade and city engineer Prashant Waghmare led the case and supported the administration to fight till the end. As PMC put up its side strongly and opposed the escalated cost, we were able to save ₹54.77 crore.”