District court gives civic body reason to smile by vacating stay
District court gives civic body reason to smile by vacating stayu00a0
Atu00a0a time when the Bombay High Court has ordered all construction near rivers in the city be stopped, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has got a reason to put at least a small smile on its face. A district court lifted the ban on the controversial 4.1-km Mutha riverside road yesterday. The court, however, has kept the stay on the riverside road for one more dayu00a0-- till July 1.u00a0 The order was issued by Justice V B Kulkarni, allowing the PMC to construct the road under the provisions in Section 205 of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Act.
On behalf of the PMC, Advocate P V Hardikar pleaded the case. Parisar, a local NGO, had gone to court against the PMC over the laying of the riverside road in 2000 by filing a public interest litigation. The district court had put a ban on the construction of the road in 2008, when Parisar went against the PMC by making an appeal in the same court.u00a0
The ban was lifted by the district court with an order of paying charges of court expenses to the PMC, said Manjusha Idhate, chief legal consultant of the PMC. The lifting of the ban has given the PMC a chance to strengthen the construction of the road. Currently, the 4.1-km stretch of road between Shivaji Bridge and Mharatre Bridge is in working condition, and has eased the traffic flow on Deccan Gymkhan as well as city roads like Laxmi Road and Shastri Road, said Idhate.
"The court order has also come as a morale booster for the PMC towards continuing with the further 24-km-long road, starting from Mhatre Bridge to Kharadi near the Mutha river," Idhate said.u00a0u00a0Ganesh Bidkar, chairman, Standing Committee, said that on behalf of the PMC they were filing a caveat in the Bombay High Court that Parisar should not continue to go to court on the same issue.u00a0 Vijay Paranjpe and Sujit Patwardhan of Parisar said they could still go to the Bombay Hight Court even if PMC files the caveat. "The PMC has been using the river road for the last 10 years despite the ban imposed by the court," he added.
