From: bcsabha.kal...@gmail.com To:
HC says PIL filed over draft plan is
`premature'
Rosy Sequeira
Mumbai:
The Bombay High Court on
Monday said the state government has wide powers to accept or reject the
draft development plan for Mumbai, while declining to entertain a
public interest litigation challenging it.
“How can we direct a
fresh draft development plan to be prepared?'' asked a bench of Justice
Abhay Oka and Justice C V Bhadang. NGO Vanshakti's petition said the
draft does not take into consideration the coastal zone management plan
maps which are required to identify coastal regulatory zone areas.
Its advocate Gayatri Singh argued that the draft DP relies on the
existing land use maps which have not identified the CRZ areas. She said
failure to do so will legalise constructions after the 1991 CRZ
notification.But the bench said the PIL was premature. “The whole thing
is at a preliminary stage. You are assuming what the corporation has
done is the gospel truth,'' said Justice Oka. To the court's query ,
Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority's advocate Sharmila
Deshmukh replied the Coastal Zone Management Plan map is still in the
draft stage and is not finalized.
The bench said the BMC, the
planning authority , has called for objections and suggestions to
the draft DP . These will be forwarded to the planning committee which
will make an enquiry after giving reasonable opportunity of hearing and
submit its report to BMC. “Even at this stage, the planning authority
can make modifications and changes,“ the bench added.
The
court said thereafter the draft DP has to be submitted to the state
government and the government may reject, modify , sanction a part
or even return the entire draft DP . “In case the planning authority
retains it as it is, the government has power to reject the plan,'' it
added.
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