Congress moves Bombay High Court against Mumbai’s Development Plan

While Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had approved Mumbai’s new DP on April 23, the state’s urban development department had published the same on May 23. (Express photo)

POLITICS OVER Mumbai’s new Development Plan (DP) intensified on Thursday with the Congress approaching the Bombay High Court, seeking an extension to submit suggestions and objections to the DP and the development control and promotion regulations (DCPR).

Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, filed a PIL in the court seeking extension for submission of suggestions and objections on the ground that the Marathi translation of the DCPR is yet to be made available.

“In the absence of the Marathi version, the common man is finding it difficult to understand the new blueprint,” Vikhe-Patil said.

While Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had approved Mumbai’s new DP on April 23, the state’s urban development department had published the same on May 23. Apart from the sanctioned portions, the department had separately notified major modifications proposed to the approved plan the same day in the form of the ‘Excluded Part (EP)’ of the new DP, over which suggestions and objections had been invited till June 22.

The petition cites various laws and provisions that make publication of all official communication in Marathi, the state’s mother tongue, compulsory. Another ground made by the PIL is that the DP report, on the basis of which the plan had been formulated, and the development plan maps were yet to be put out in public domain.

A day earlier, BJP’s ally Shiv Sena had targetted the Fadnavis government over the delay in publication of the new plan in Marathi. It, too, has demanded an extension of the timeline for submission of suggestions and objections to the EP.

The Indian Express had reported on Thursday that the implementation of the new development plan was likely to be pushed back by at least another couple of months on account of the growing list of errors in the sanctioned plan.