Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
The town planning section of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) has received more than 8,500 objections and comments on the rough draft of the integrated city development plan (DP) in the last 60 days. The draft was published on March 7 and the last date to submit the objections and comments was on May 6.
The citizens formed long queues to register their objections on Monday. Till late in the night, the town planning personnel were busy counting the bundles of complaints and completing the registration process.
As reported earlier, acting upon the orders of the state government an integrated plan comprising the old city and the extended portion of the city was prepared by the Development Plan (DP) unit. The independent unit was established two years ago. The team led by Raza Khan prepared the draft, however, the government appointed Shrikant Deshmukh as an officer on special duty and he prepared the new rough draft in three months.
The citizens pointed out severe mistakes in the draft and submitted their objections in large numbers. The areas where the CSMC is not the planning authority were also included in the draft. The roads (whose land acquisition was completed) approved in the old DP Plan were missing in the new draft. The places of more than 450 places of worship were reported missing. The colonies built on sanctioned layouts were listed under Green Zones. The reservations were demarcated in the slums. The boundaries of gaothan areas were tampered with in many places.
It may be noted that each alert citizen spent between Rs 200 and Rs 500 to file his/her objection, apart from document fulfillment. Hence on the last day till evening, the section concerned had received more than 8,500 objections, it is learnt.
Objection by CSMC
The municipal commissioner G Sreekanth had formed a committee under the leadership of the deputy director (Town Planning) Manoj Garje to review and study the rough draft. The committee by paying visits to 10 prabhags listed their observations in the report. The report was submitted to the municipal commissioner and the OSD. The report pinpointed the technical shortcomings in the rough draft.
Four-officers committee
The CSMC will scrutinise objections received by it till the last date. Later on, it will conduct a hearing upon them before the government’s committee comprising four retired officers including deputy director Uttareshwar Londhe, assistant director Asha Dahake, joint director Narayan Kulkarni, and principal Umesh Kahalekar.