The policy, which the civic body was going to implement on a pilot basis in south Mumbai, had faced strong opposition from residents, local BJP MLA, as it involved a fourfold hike in parking charges
The government of Maharashtra has stayed the pilot implementation of the BMC’s recently passed parking policy, which had hiked parking charges by 300 per cent. Interestingly, a BJP MLA had supported local residents’ demands against the policy going against his own party, and its ally Shiv Sena, in the BMC.
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mid-day has a copy of the order that puts an interim stay on the project. Confirming the same, Manisha Mhaiskar, urban development secretary, said that the orders to stay the pilot project had been conveyed to the BMC. The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in the civic body had given its nod to the policy at the General Body Meeting (GBM) earlier this month.
Cars parked on the road on Marine Drive
The civic body had decided to implement it on a pilot basis in A ward covering south Mumbai from February 1. The decision had been decried by all local residents, who are opposed to paying such steep charges to park their vehicles on the roads outside their residential societies.
mid-day’s January 28 report on Colaba MLA Raj Purohit’s protest
They then approached Colaba MLA Raj Purohit, who took up their cause and went against his own party man, BMC group leader Manoj Kotak, who had supported the policy (‘It’s BJP vs BJP over new parking policy’, January 28). Purohit had even spoken to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis about it.
Purohit now wants a stay on the entire policy. “Colaba Residents Association are strongly opposing the policy and the fourfold hike is totally unfair. I had written to the CM and the state has stayed the implementation, and ordered a hearing on the issue. The stay is currently only on the A ward project, but the opposition (by residents) is to the entire policy.
So the stay should be on the entire policy,” he said. When asked why the state government had been approached in a BMC-related matter, he replied, “The residents have been following up with the BMC and have mentioned their dissatisfaction about the policy at various public meetings.
The CM heard their plight.” Meanwhile, Manoj Kotak, BJP group leader in the civic body, didn’t even know about the stay order. “If Raj Purohit has declared it, then it is authentic and right,” he stated. The civic body had already started marking parking spaces for residents, despite the latter’s apprehensions. After learning of loopholes and problems through the pilot project, it had planned to implement the policy in the entire city.
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