Mumbai: Shiv Sena, Congress join hands to fight ward separation plan

The BMC's plan to separate Five Gardens and Parsi Colony has irked residents Pic/ Shadab Khan

The BMC has done the unthinkable -- got the Shiv Sena and the Congress to join hands against it. The rival parties are opposing the civic body's plan to separate Parsi Colony and the iconic Five Gardens into two different administrative wards.

The BMC has proposed redrawing the boundaries of the city's 24 administrative zones for administrative parity and better management. This threatens to shift Parsi Colony in Dadar from its current F-North (Matunga) ward to F-South (Parel) ward. The proposal will be tabled for approval at a group leaders' meeting at the end of this week.

Sources said given the opposition, the plan is likely to be junked. A senior BMC official said, "Corporators are not happy with this proposal and because powerful opposition from residents of Matunga, this may lead to the proposal on administrative parity being dropped."

Dubbing the proposal "absurd", Congress group leader in the BMC, Ravi Raja, said, "We are definitely going to oppose it."
Amey Ghole, Shiv Sena corporator from Parsi Colony, said, "The residents had a meeting with Sena's Leader of the House, in which I was also present. We are all completely against this separation."

A statue of Five Gardens founder Mancherji Joshi stands in the area

Zarine Engineer, a resident of Matunga and granddaughter to Mancherji Joshi, civil engineer, former head of the Improvement Trust (now the BMC), and founder of the Dadar Parsi Colony, said, "Separating Five Gardens and Parsi Colony is like questioning the vision and work done by Mancherji Joshi. We are against this move and will meet the BMC chief."

Another resident said the separation would be an injustice to Joshi's vision. "It was his vision that gave the city this large an open public space back in the early 1900s."

After electoral ward boundaries were redrawn last October, BMC chief Ajoy Mehta proposed the redrawing of administrative ward boundaries. A committee of three deputy municipal commissioners and a chief engineer was instructed to study the possibility of a ward reshuffle.

The proposal looks at bringing in parity by having a minimum of eight electoral wards and a maximum of 11 under one administrative office, instead of the existing disparity, including two electoral wards in one administrative ward (That B ward includes Masjid Bunder is an example) and 18 in another (P-North includes Malad).

Under the proposal, though, the tony A ward, which includes Colaba, Nariman Point, Churchgate, Fort and CST, has remained untouched and will continue to house only three electoral wards. B and E wards (Masjid and Byculla) will be merged to become one ward. C and D (Kalbadevi, Marine Lines, Malabar Hill, Peddar Road, Girgaum) also will be joined. P-North (Malad East and West, which has the majority of the city's population) will be split into two -- P West and P East. The same will be done with L ward (Kurla).