‘Arrest bureaucrats over error-ridden plan’

Two days after BMC officials released the Revised Draft Development Plan 2034, social activists are crying foul over the faulty demarcation of the important religious and heritage structures like Mumbadevi Temple, Mahim Dargah, Parsi Fire Temple amongst several others. Irked activists have threatened to raise strong protest and demanded arrest of the officials, scrapping of the proposed RDDP 2034, alleging violation of Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, 1966 for committing technical errors and hurting religious sentiments.

The RDDP 2014-2034 was prepared by about 530 engineers, town planners and other supporting staff from 24 Municipal Wards post rectification of the previous draft, which was also scrapped by the state government. However, even after extensive research and planning, a number of religious locations are wrongly marked in the RDDP.

While the RDDP has correctly marked structures like Babulnath Temple (Malabar Hill) and St. Michael’s Church (Mahim), a number structures are either absent or wrongly marked in the submitted document. As major religious places like Kenesenth Eliyahoo Synagogue (Kalaghoda), Nipponzan Myohoji Temple (Worli), Babu Amichand Panalal Adihwarji Jain Temple (Malabar Hill) aren’t marked in the RDDP.

Moreover, Jama Masjid near Mangaldas Market and Mumbadevi Temple at Bhuleshwar are shown as commercial areas while Haji Ali Dargah, Mahalaxmi Mandir and Siddhivinayak Temple are shown as residential areas with a four-metre wide pedestrian walkway on stilts as proposed from the Junction of Cadbury House to the Temple. Sri Sri Radhe Gopinath Temple, near Wilson College, Girgaon has also been wrongly marked as a primary and secondary school.

Godfrey Pimenta from Watchdog Foundation said that an error while marking religious structures belonging to numerous faiths is a serious matter.

“If Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation can list approximately 12,000 religious and heritage structures on its Development Plan, what prevented the BMC from doing it so correctly These officials who carried out the survey either lacked requisite qualifications or did their job within the four walls of their offices using Google Maps,” said Mr Pimenta.

Apart from scrapping the proposed Development Plan, the Foundation has demanded arrest of the BMC officials involved with the DP.