Mumbai: ‘Why allow pvt individuals to possess open spaces?’

With the new open space plan of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC becoming the talk of the town herersquos where political parties activists and other stakeholders stand on the draft Recreation Grounds and Playgrounds RGPG policyIn general Mumbaikars and activists have opposed the draft policy which was released on Friday and have sought information about a lot of its aspectsCongress and Samajwadi Party have opposed it tooth and nail questioning the unnecessary hurry to finalise the policy as well as its basic premise of adoption and renting out of open spaces Neither the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party BJP nor Shiv Sena UBT have voiced their view on the policy as yetSenior Congress functionary and former Opposition leader Ravi Raja slammed the draft saying ldquoWhy give private institutionsindividuals the possession of our cityrsquos open spaces This decision is not at all in the interest of Mumbaikars but of the municipal corporation It seems that this decision is being taken for the benefit of some individuals and organisations If the municipal corporation can spend R1700 crore on beautification it can certainly spend on maintaining and utilising plotsrdquoHe added ldquoIt is not appropriate for the administrator who is technically in charge temporarily to make such an important decision when the municipality has been dissolved What exactly is the rush for the civic administrators to finalise this policy Instead let the elected representatives make the appropriate decision after the civic elections The Congress party is against this arbitrary decisionrdquo Raja addedAlso read PM Modi given rousing welcome at BJP headquarters for G20 successldquoThe BMC seems to have all the money for all projects except when it comes to maintaining its own open spaces If the civic body can spend a whopping R1700 crore on the recently undertaken Mumbai beautification project why should it have a problem spending money on maintaining grounds and gardens I donrsquot understand this If we look at the history of open spaces it has been noticed that there have been incidents of largescale encroachment on public land which has been given for adoption and the places have been shut to the public ldquoSamajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh a former party leader in the BMC saidHe added ldquoThe participation of peoples representatives is crucial for making strategic decisions on civic parks recreation grounds playgrounds and sidewalks At present there are none in the BMC so it is not possible to discuss with peoples representatives Therefore the BMC should think about this kind of policy after the civic election The Samajwadi Party strongly opposes the policy of giving entertainment grounds and playgrounds on an adoption basisrdquoShiv Sena UBT spokesperson Kishori Pednekar said the party would soon declare its stand on the policyGuardian Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha has called a meeting with the administration and citizens to discuss the policy on September 15 at 4 pm the BMC headquartersldquoThrough this meeting we aim to facilitate an open discussion about the policy where citizens can voice their opinions and collectively make decisions in the public interest Our government is here to serve the people working alongside them and we are committed to addressing all their concerns and considering their feedbackrdquo said LodhaEssence of the policyAs per the draft of the policy BMC is going to maintain grounds by appointing its own contractor But in some places it will use an adoption policy to appoint caretakers In exceptional situations if the BMC is unable to develop or maintain a ground it can give it up for adoptionFacts and figuresCurrently there are 52 plots with private parties which cover an area of 121 acres These private parties are mainly leaders of all political parties In 2016 then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis scrapped the BMCrsquos original RGPG policy after activists had opposed the adoption of groundsThere are 1104 recreation grounds and playgrounds which span 562 hectares in total