Citizens want greater say in development plan of city

Citizen groups are coming together on Wednesday to demand that the civic body let them have a greater say in the drafting of the new development plan (DP), following a series of reports in HT about flaws in the recently completed existing land use (ELU) survey, which will form the basis for the DP.

Citizen groups are coming together on Wednesday to demand that the civic body let them have a greater say in the drafting of the new development plan (DP), following a series of reports in HT about flaws in the recently completed existing land use (ELU) survey, which will form the basis for the DP.

HT Image

The DP is the blueprint for Mumbai's development for the next 20 years, and activists are worried that discrepancies between the ELU and the 1991 DP, currently in force, could reduce Mumbai's green cover and open spaces and affect the civic amenities that Mumbaiites are entitled to.

The city-based Urban Design Research Institute, which discovered 1,200 discrepancies in the ELU document, will hold a meeting with various citizens' groups on Wednesday.

Dr Nandita Shah, co-director of NGO Akshara, which will attend the meeting and hold another discussion in October, said: "Locals understand their locality the best, so our demand is that the ELU and DP process have citizen participation."