President of the city unit of Congress Prof Janardhan Chandurkar on Monday demanded the immediate scrapping of the heritage committee and threatened to burn BMC's circular on the issue in public.
"I will personally lead a march to BMC headquarters and burn the circular," he said at a citizens' meeting organised by the Dadar Matunga Residents' Association (DMRA). Chandurkar said entire areas have been included in the list of heritage precincts and buildings which have no heritage value. "Because of this, redevelopment of over 20,000 buildings in Dadar, Matunga and other areas has been adversely affected. Even though I belong to the ruling party, I have no hesitation in leading an agitation against the state government on this critical issue," he asserted.
Earlier, president of the city Youth Congress Ganesh Yadav appealed to the people to join his organisation on a mass agitation from August 15. "The redevelopment of so many dilapidated buildings is now on hold because they are in the heritage list. We will hold the heritage committee responsible if these buildings collapse and the tenants living in them are killed or injured," Yadav warned.
President of the Gujarati cell of Congress Manish Shah said thousands of people will take part in the agitation. "In a large number of cases, both the landlords and tenants are willing to go in for redevelopment of their buildings under section 33 (7) of the Development Control Regulations, but they are unable to do that because the structures have been put in the heritage category. Huge injustice is being done to innocent people," Shah noted.
Congress MLA Kalidas Kolambkar declared that he will submit his resignation as a legislator on August 15 if the state doesn't resolve the issue by then. He said several appeals have been made to the government, but there has been no progress. He warned that people's patience is wearing thin. "My commitment is to the people. I will wait till August 15 and, if there is no progress, will resign," he added.
Several other Congress legislators are likely to follow suit that day. Former MP Eknath Gaikwad said chief minister Prithviraj Chavan should take the initiative and resolve the issue quickly. Chairman of the legislative council Shivajirao Deshmukh said he will convene a meeting of Chavan, deputy CM Ajitdada Pawar, urban development secretary Manu Srivastava, BMC commissioner Sitaram Kunte and other officials soon to solve the problem.
A DMRA activist, Dharmesh Chheda, said, "Despite the Bombay high court order of February 3, 2014, staying BMC's circular, civic authorities are not approving any files for redevelopment. This is nothing but gross contempt of court and we will move a contempt petition against BMC this week." He alleged that redevelopment in the prime Dadar-Matunga belt is being delayed so as to help certain builders who are having projects in Wadala and neighbouring areas.
Ashish Seth, another DMRA member, said: "When the Supreme Court issued an order on the issue of keeping a minimum six-metre distance around buildings, the state urban development department amended the rules within one week. But despite the high court staying the BMC circular on heritage issue six months ago, the department is yet to issue an order."
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