Pune: Hill Top Hill Slope controversy in Bibwewadi is giving govt a bad name, Parvati MLA seeks CM’s intervention
Pune: Hill Top Hill Slope controversy in Bibwewadi is giving govt a bad name, Parvati MLA seeks CM's intervention
A day after the residents of Bibwewadi expressed their anger and frustration towards the state government over the issue of Hill Top Hill Slope (HTHS), MLA Madhuri Satish Misal wrote a letter to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. In her letter written on Monday, July 29, she stated that the whole controversy was giving the state government, under his leadership, a bad name.
The residents got irked when they came to know about a 7 acre plot in their area being de-reserved from HTHS. The plot owned by a prominent developer is all set to be declared as Residential zone. To add salt to their wounds the state urban development department has lined a few more plots, owned by developers and land owners to be removed from HTHS. The decision is limited only to the ones owned by developers and land bank owners, while land parcels where poor and middle class have built homes continue to be in HTHS zone. Residents accused the government of favouring developers.
The HTHS reservation makes any construction on the plots impossible and those already standing are considered illegal. A vast majority of land in Bibwewadi was included in HTHS in Pune’s development plan of 1987. With several structures, mostly slum pockets already in place, there was a hue and cry back in the day. As the voices grew stronger, in 2018, the decision to enforce HTHS on the plots, was kept in abeyance.
In 2023, in a bid to de-reserve 11 plots owned by developers, the state urban development department called for opinion of the Pune Municipal Corporation. The then municipal commissioner of PMC Vikram Kumar, gave a positive opinion for the same, paving way for removing select plots from HTHS zone.
Based on this opinion from PMC, state government recently issued and order asking for objections and suggestions to de-reserve a plot, located in the heart of HTHS zone. The plot in question was owned by one Sanjay Bafna and sold to companies run by developer Sachin Ishwarchand Goyal. The plot admeasuring 7 acres has development potential of Rs 2,300 crores.
Locals say that two more plots owned by Mukesh Yeole and Sanjay Shah are also in the process of being removed from HTHS. The total development potential of these plots also crosses several hundred crores.
According to residents of the area, whose houses stand on plots in HTHS zone, the government is being partial towards wealthy developers and land owners. This decision comes at a time when the residents are forced to pay property taxes three times over the regular rates, since the houses on such plots are considered illegal. More so, the plots being de-reserved are surrounded by slum pockets and houses which continue to be in HTHS.
Locals say that their homes are often targeted by PMC under this pretext. In contrast large landholdings of developers, mostly located in the middle of other HTHS plots are being dereserved and declared as residential plots.
Misal has now taken the mantle of taking up the issue with CM. “I believe that the controversy of de-reserving select few plots owned by developers while leaving houses of poor and middle class in HTHS, is giving the government under your leadership a bad name. I request you to put on hold the decision to de-reserve plot owned by one developer and consider de-reserving the entire area at one go,” her letter to the CM stated.
Misal has sought time from the CM to meet him and apprise him of the issues raised by her constituents.
