Pune: Maharashtra CM accepts MLA Misal’s plea, stays Bibwewadi developer’s de-reservation
Pune, 30th July 2024: The Chief Minister of Maharshtra Eknath Shinde stayed the order of de-reserving a developer’s plot from Hill Top Hill Slope zone in Bibwewadi, Pune. He issued instructions to state urban development department to stay the decision of removing select plots from no development zone and submit a fresh proposal considering the entire HTHS zone in the area, which is a home to around a lakh people. The decision was taken in the backdrop of BJP MLA Madhuri Misal’s request last. She has written to CM on Monday that the entire issue was giving the government under CM’s leadership a bad name. When she met the CM on Tuesday, he accepted her request.
It started with residents of Bibwewadi getting irked on Sunday, when they came to know about a 7 acre plot in their area being de-reserved from HTHS. The plot owned by a prominent developer was all set to be declared as Residential zone. To add salt to their wounds the state urban development department had lined a few more plots, owned by developers and land owners to be removed from HTHS. In all this, land parcels where poor and middle class have built homes would have continued to be in HTHS zone. Residents accused the government of favouring developers.
The HTHS reservation makes any construction on the plots impossible and those already standing are considered illegal. A vast majority of land in Bibwewadi was included in HTHS in Pune’s development plan of 1987. With several structures, mostly slum pockets already in place, there was a hue and cry back in the day. As the voices grew stronger, in 2018, the decision to enforce HTHS on the plots, was kept in abeyance.
However, recently, the urban development department issued an order asking for objections and suggestions to de-reserve a plot, located in the heart of HTHS zone. The plot in question was owned by one Sanjay Bafna and sold to companies run by developer Sachin Ishwarchand Goyal. The plot admeasuring 7 acres has development potential of Rs 2,300 crores.
The decision did not go down well will locals, who urged MLA Misal to intervene on Monday. The same day BJP MLA from Parvati wrote a letter to CM, requesting him to stay the selective order and consider the entire HTHS area. She stated the poor and middle class residents were forced to pay three times the taxes as their homes were considered illegal by virtue of being on HTHS land. She also mentioned in her letter that while developers were being favoured, the poor were being left out, giving his government a bad name.
“I met Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday and urged him to reconsider the urban development department’s decision to de-reserve select plots from Hill Top Hill Slope zone, while the poor and middle class continue to be in the no development zone. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was also present during the meeting and backed my request. The CM immediately passed the order to stay the de-reservation of a select few plots and instructed the urban development department to submit a fresh proposal to de-reserve all the land parcels from HTHS zone in Bibwewadi. I am grateful to CM and DCM for helping me in getting justice for poor and middle class from my constituency, who have been suffering for decades,” concluded Misal, who has been an MLA for three consecutive terms.
