Ashok Chavan converts 33 acres of greenbelt area into residential zone just before announcing his resignation over Adarsh scam

Gardens gone, apartments in, thanks to ex-CM

Ashok Chavan converts 33 acres of greenbelt area into residential zone just before announcing his resignation over Adarsh scam

Hisu00a0involvement in the Adarsh scam cost him his chair. But that didn't change things. Right before he announced his resignation, he issued a notification converting 33 acres of land belonging to greenbelt areas into residential zones.

One such open space is located in the heart of the city near Heera Baug, on Tilak Road, where the land cost is high.

The 33-acre land includes gardens inside the city, agriculture zone and land belonging to National Chemical Laboratory.

As per the notification of Town Planning department (TPS-1807/1836/PK 790/NV-3) issued on November 10, the open space of one and half acres on Survey Number 47 was reserved for developing public garden in the PMC's Development Plan made in 1987.

'Bad governance'
Vijay Paranjpye, President of Gomukh, an organisation working on environment issues in Pune, said, "This is an excellent example of bad governance. The urban area has one acre of garden to cater to a population of 1,000.
u00a0
By converting 33-acres of land into residential zones, 33,000 people will be deprived of fresh air. The former CM performed an autopsy of the lungs of the city."u00a0

Vilas Gogate, an expert on bio-diversity parks, said that the decision of converting the land into residential zone is grave injustice.u00a0 He said that Pune-based organisations including Maharashtra Vriksha Sanvardhini, Orange County Foundation and Kalpavruksha would come together to demand scrapping of the decision. "We will go to the court if the government will not organize a debate on the issue," he said.

BJP Corporator Ujwal Keskar had demanded a stay on the decision. He blamed Ashok Chavan for having taken the decision when the political scenario was against him and it was clear that he might resign any moment.

He said, "As per the Supreme Court ruling nobody can change the reservation for garden and school."

Stay demanded
Keskar demanded that the new chief minister Pritviraj Chavan put a stay on the notification. "The decision to convert Hirabaug land into a residential zone favours some builders," he said.

According to Srirang Landge, director, town-planning department said that these notifications are directly issued from the main office in Mumbai as these issues are directly related to PMC.