Scrap draft DP of Sambhajinagar, says city BJP unit

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The city unit of BJP has written a letter to chief minister Eknath Shinde requesting him to scrap the draft Development Plan (DP) for Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
The demand has been raised in the wake of the land record office admitting that the draft DP for municipal limits of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar is “completely faulty” and not in line with the certified base map.
Notably, while the revelation by the land record office had come in response to a query filed under the RTI Act 2005, it has come to fore now that the application concerned was made by local BJP MLA and cabinet minister Atul Save.
BJP city secretary Sameer Rajurkar, who has written a letter to the CM, said going ahead with the “faulty” draft DP would be injustice to the public.
“I had raised objection to the draft DP during a hearing before the state panel. The panel refused to buy my argument that the draft DP was based on incorrect base map,” he said.
Rajurkar alleged that the draft DP has considerably slashed reservations aimed at providing public amenities and facilities.
“Earlier, the number of such reservations was nearly 750. It came down to 625 in the draft DP. The drop reflects the outcry by different government departments over the draft DP,” he said.
Among other charges, the local unit of BJP alleged that the public participation mandated by rules was missing while preparing the draft DP.
“As per rules, there is a provision of filling up stakeholders’ questionnaire. The crucial exercise has not been followed by competent authorities,” the local unit has said.
In a letter addressed to the chief minister, the local unit of BJP also sought recovery of Rs 6 crore handed over to a private agency for preparing the key document.
Shrikant Deshmukh, in-charge of the panel formed by the state government to finalise the DP, could not be reached for his comments. An e-mail sent to the chief minister’s office remained unanswered till Saturday night.
In a nutshell, the draft DP published by designated authorit has not been prepared with the certificated base map dated March 7, 2024. Therefore, is completely faulty." Shrikant Deshmukh, who is in charge of the panel formed by state govt to finalise the DP, did not respond to phone calls and text messages sent to him.
Chhatrapati Sambhajingar is awaiting a much-awaited DP after a gap of almost three decades.