Following a top-level meeting with civic officials, who conveyed public dismay against the abuse of open spaces, Devendra Fadnavis asks BMC to take back the last remaining open spaces, all belonging to powerful Sena and BJP leaders
Poisar Gymkhana in Kandivli, led by BJP MP Gopal Shetty, maintains Veer Savarkar Udyan in Borivli and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Kridangan in Kandivli. File pic
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Politicians who have thrown their weight over city's open spaces are finally going to have to get up. After dragging its feet for months, the BMC will send notices to those holding on to the remaining 43 open spaces, to take them back.
The process will start in the last week of the monsoon session. The decision came after CM Devendra Fadnavis directed the BMC to take action in the case of the remaining plots, most of which are with Shiv Sena and BJP leaders.
The Veer Savarkar Udyan in Borivli is maintained by the Poisar Gymkhana led by BJP MP Gopal Shetty
According to a source in the BMC, on Thursday, there was a meeting between Fadnavis and civic officials on the issue. Following the criticism and public outcry, it was decided to go ahead and take back the remaining plots.
Out of the total 216 open spaces, BMC had taken back 173. Last month, it had sent a notice to Shiv Sena leader Vinod Ghosalkar's Dahisar Sports Foundation.
In May, the civic body had issued a notice to MLA and BJP leader Ramesh Singh Thakur in a bid to take back four open spaces maintained by his NGO.
A civic official said, "Since the monsoon session of the state assembly is going on, we have been asked to start serving notices during its last week. There are 43 plots yet to be taken back."
There has been a lot of pressure on the BMC for not taking any action on the plots given to politicians. These plots were given to private trusts, NGOs or people for maintenance under the controversial caretaker policy. However, later, many open space caretakers violated the lease and started commercial exploitation. In a few cases, they even constructed private clubs on the plots, barring entry of common citizens.
Following the blatant violations, citizen groups had started continuous protests. After that, last year, the BMC began taking back these open spaces.
Superintendent of Gardens J V Pardeshi confirmed the development but refused to give any details.
A message to politicos
A source from the civic body said, "Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta had taken a meeting of all the politicians and convinced them to not resist the reclamation procedure. Hence, parties then told leaders to allow the BMC to take back the open spaces. They also told the leaders not to demand money from the BMC for maintaining the plots." Earlier, a few politicians had demanded money for maintaining the spaces and creating facilities on the plots.
Another source in the BMC said, "To avoid any clash with the Sena, it has been decided to take back St Xavier's ground at the last. The ground is with the Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA), which is headed by Yuva Sena Chief Aaditya Thackeray."
According to BMC records, some of the plots in the custody of politicians are Swatantra Veer Savarkar Udyan in Borivli and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Kridangan in Kandivli, both maintained by the Poisar Gymkhana led by BJP MP Gopal Shetty, a plot in Goregaon maintained by Sena minister Subhash Desai's Prabodhan Foundation, St Xavier's ground in Parel with the MDFA, Aarey Bhaskar in Goregaon with Sena MLA Sunil Prabhu, and a plot in Vile Parle maintained by Sena leader Ramesh Prabhu's trust.
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