DP: Citizens’ suggestions get less time than netas’

MUMBAI:Citizens made 10,297 suggestions to the city’s blueprint. The civic body plans to hear them all in less than a month, just before its deadline.

MUMBAI:Citizens made 10,297 suggestions to the city’s blueprint. The civic body plans to hear them all in less than a month, just before its deadline.

HT Image

The BMC has set itself an unlikely target for conducting for the hearings on city’s Development Plan (DP) 2034. A schedule released on Monday shows how disproportionately time was allotted to hearings from government agencies, MPs, MLAs, corporators and institutions, as opposed to hearing objections from Mumbaiites.

For instance, on October 25, the planning panel will hear 113 cases of MPs and MLAs. Compare this to 921 citizen cases the committee will hear from the S ward alone on November 13, and 1,425 cases on the Development Control Regulations on December 15.

After much delay, the Sena appointed three standing committee members to the planning committee on October 7. The panel conducted its first hearing for the Railways, PWD and Mumbai Port Trust on Monday. Looking at the mammoth task at hand, the municipal commissioner will ask BMC general body to give the committee an extension till December 16. The report was initially to be submitted on November 26. This gives the general body less time to pass the plan, the timeline for which was the end of this year. “The individual cases are where multiple people have signed on just one issue. We have held objections filed by government agencies earlier as it is easier to communicate,” said a senior civic official. The BMC also has no plan of how it will inform citizens about hearings.

Trushna Vishwasrao, Sena leader and planning committee member said, “We will take a call when we get to the citizen cases.”

Sitaram Shelar from Hamara Shehar Mumbai Abhiyaan, said, “The policy-makers don’t want people to be a part of the process. MPs, MLAs are already a part of the system.”