Mumbai development plan: Shiv Sena's 130-odd amendments cut to 83 by BJP

The BMC headquarters

The Shiv Sena may be the ruling party in the BMC, but it seems to have less of a say than the BJP when it comes to the draft Development Plan (DP) 2034. Before the civic body met to discuss the DP yesterday, the Sena had initially proposed 130-odd amendments, but the party was swiftly cut to size by the BJP, and they only managed to get 83 amendments listed.

BJP wins the day
Compare the Sena's amendments to the 115 changes that were suggested by BJP corporators. According to sources, Sena was told by BJP leaders to remove various amendments from the list or they would demand for voting.

Racing against a deadline to clear the draft DP, Sena did not want further controversy or delay, so the objectionable amendments were deleted from the list. From the 130-odd changes on Saturday, the Sena went down to 122 on Monday morning, which was whittled down to 83 in the evening.

A BJP corporator said, "We had clearly asked them to remove their amendments to approve reservations for commercial purposes, and to reserve No Development Zones (NDZ) as gardens. If they had not struck down the proposals, then these would have definitely been put to vote."

Other parties had fewer changes that were included. Congress got 26 of its suggestions listed, while the Samajwadi Party, NCP and MNS got 14, 10 and 18 respectively. There were two amendments on the draft Development Control Rules (DCR) 2034 as well, one each from Congress and Sena.

Sena's says
A Sena corporator said, "Numbers don't matter; our victory is removing the Metro car shed from Aarey Colony - this is a major change to the DP."