Revised draft DP to be tabled by March 7

The planning committee is ready to submit the plan with over 1,400 amendments by March 7

After months of battling over 12,000 objections, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) sixmember planning committee of the revised Draft Development Plan (DP) 20142034 are ready to submit the plan with over 1,400 amendments by March 7.

The planning committee had readied the draft by January and was signed by three government representatives out of the six members, however, the other three (two from Shiv Sena and one from BJP) agreed to sign it by March. This led to the delay in the submission of the draft DP.

The planning committee will now table the revised draft DP before the general body meeting of newlyelected councillors for approval only after all sign it. Following this, the draft will then be tabled before the state government for the final approval. Sena leaders Yashodhar Phanse and Trushna Vishwasrao who were members of the planning committee lost their seats in the recent civic elections. However, Phanse, who is also a former standing committee chairman, said the election results will not affect the submission of the DP. Speaking to the Free Press Journal, Phanse, said, "The draft development plan will be submitted in time as we are ready with the amendments and the final draft. Despite two of the planning committee members lost their seats, the submission date of the DP will not be changed."

Phanse added that the committee members are appointed by the government and has nothing to do with the election results.

The civic body had prepared the development plan in 2015; however, it got scrapped by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis after it was found that the draft is filled with errors. Following this, Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta appointed former bureaucrat Ramnath Jha as officer on Special Duty for correcting the errors and releasing the revised draft plan.