When, about residents of 70 buildings stood up against a developer to protect mangroves, little did they know that their case would wound up in Supreme Court.
But, they were elated when, around a year ago, they won the case against the builder. The case ended up sucking the residents dry financially but they were able to save around 425 acres of mangroves along Borivali- Dahisar stretch.
The residents are up in arms again! But this time, under the banner of New Link Road Residents’ Forum, the forum is aiming to get back land parcels reserved as open spaces, but which are being “misused” as commercial plots.
The residents are fighting for two land parcels on Dahisar Link Road, which according to them were reserved for a garden and a fire station respectively.
The status of the land parcels were revealed under a Right To Information (RTI) query.
According to the residents the plots were reserved under the development plan of 1991. And the residents insist that the land where a garden was to come up has been turned into a party plot. It has been around 20 years but the plot in question is still as it is and the projects are pending since the BMC has failed to acquire the plot.
Residents are also claiming that the plot which was reserved for the fire station has been allotted by the civic body on a 50-50 agreement to a developer (the fire station will come up on around 50 per cent of the plot, while the remaining will be used to create commercial complexes). They feel the civic body should have insisted on amenities such as post office, dispensary or a community centre alongside the fire station.
According to sources in the Development Plan department no instructions regarding the plots in question were issued by the BMC’s top officials hence, there was never an effort made to acquire the plot.
Additional Municipal Commiss-ioner Aseem Gupta has reportedly promised to look into the matter, but added land reservation could be a ‘slow process’. He was also reported to have added, “Whenever land is set aside for reservation, we have to ensure the land owners are compensated.”
However, according to redevelopment experts, a redevelopment plan is a civic issue and the entire responsibility to acquire the relevant plot and to develop it lies completely on the BMC.