The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) interim open spaces policy, which seeks to hand out the city’s RG/PG plots to ‘responsible’ private players willing to maintain the plots on behalf of th
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) interim open spaces policy, which seeks to hand out the city’s RG/PG plots to ‘responsible’ private players willing to maintain the plots on behalf of the citizens has received mixed reactions from activists and public policy experts. While some view it as a way of giving politicians a means to maintain precious open land left in the city, other activists have hailed it as the only way to continue indiscriminatory citizens access to open spaces.
Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta recently sanctioned a policy to permit private entities to maintain public open spaces in the city, based on three criteria — as long as the access to the plot is non-discriminatory, free of cost, and the spaces are maintained during the BMC’s timings.
After chief minister Devendra Fadnavis directed the BMC earlier this year to take back all 216 plots not in the civic body’s custody, the BMC has taken back 126 plots, while 90 are still in the possession of private organisations, including NGOs, citizens’ groups, and politicians. The new interim policy will apply to all of the 216 plots.
City-based activist Shailesh Gandhi said, “The policy seems like a way to defraud the public. Despite the chief minister’s orders to take back all plots, the BMC has not yet taken back 90 plots, which mostly belong to politicians or are maintained by corporates. Now it wants to legally give them back to those very people.”
