With less than 10 days left for citizens to file suggestions and objections to the revised draft development plan 2034 (DP), the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received over 3,000 such suggestions. While officials from the DP department have stated that they diligently go through all the suggestions and objects, sometimes technical issues prevent the municipal corporation from including suggestions in the DP.
An official from the DP department said, “There has been some communication gap. The true nature of the functioning of the DP has not been conveyed. Citizens have found a voice through the suggestions and objections venture, and the feedback we receive is welcomed. Sometimes it is misconstrued.”
While the department believes it has been easier to deal with personal suggestions, the macro policy suggestions involve several technical nuances. The official explained that there are other organisations involved in completing the draft DP. For example, the SRA is involved concerning data and decisions related to housing and slum rehabilitation; revenue department is involved in marking of koliwadas and gaothans. The BMC has affirmed that as and when these organisations upgrade their documents, the DP can be upgraded.
Many citizens’ organisations working to generate awareness about the DP, and have sent in suggestions around issues including slum rehabilitation, affordable housing, marking of religious structures.
One such example is the demand for number of homeless shelters in the city. While activists had asked for 500 new shelters, the BMC negotiated on constructing 100 of them. Despite this, it faced a space crunch and managed to make about 70 in the DP, which has not gone down well with the activists.
Among several of its demands, NGO Humara Sheher Mumbai Abhiyan has demanded access to livelihood for all. However, the DP department has stated that marking vending zones is not part of the DP, as the document cannot provide that kind of permanence. A civic official explained, “We have noted some suggestions by NGOs. However, the DP is an enabling document. It is a continuous process. We can build on it, and we add to it when, for example the revenue department sends us the updated list of traditional settlements.”
Meanwhile, the civic body has received a variety of suggestions related to personal plots. An official from the DP department said, “One of the requests is about deleting a nullah in the DP, from near the individual’s plot.”
