PIL filed challenging de-reservation of land

A public interest litigation has been filed before the Bombay high court challenging deletion of land reserved for a library, school, hospital and playground among others in Barshi, district Solapur.

A public interest litigation has been filed before the Bombay high court challenging deletion of land reserved for a library, school, hospital and playground among others in Barshi, district Solapur.

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The petition has been filed by an advocate, Shivaji Kshirsagar, and claims that the president of the Barshi Municipal Council has entertained various proposals at the behest of the owners of the reserved land under the development plan of Barshi Municipal Council.

According to information accessed through the Right to Information Act, by Kshirsagar and social worker Manzur Shaikh, out of 23 applications filed by land owners, six proposals have been sanctioned by the government by exercising power under Section 37 of Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act since 2005.

The petition states that the authorities have even deleted reservation of lands meant for housing the dishoused, de-reservation of an industrial zone and land meant for a vegetable market and shopping centre.

The petition states that with regard to the land reserved for the dishoused, the application was filed by the landowners which were rejected by the state government in September 2006.

Surprisingly, a similar application dated October 18, 2007 filed by the same landowners was forwarded to the planning and development committee of Barshi. In June 2008, the municipal council approved the proposal of the land owner for the deletion of the reservation which was approved by the state.

The petitioner has also sought a director-general of police (DGP)-level inquiry into the alleged land scams.