Civic activist Sujit Patwardhan said the notice mentions that the company constituted the LPAC to prepare the draft planning proposals for the notified area.
A non-governmental organisation (NGO) has objected to the locus standi of the Lavasa Corporation Ltd inviting suggestions and objections from citizens to the draft development proposals of Lavasa Hill Station (LHS).
Civic activist Sujit Patwardhan has objected to the authority of Lavasa Planning Authority Committee (LPAC) for preparing such a proposal and filed objections on behalf of the NGO, Parisar.
Lavasa, in its notice published on April 21, had said the state government has appointed the company as the special planning authority on June 12, 2008, for the area owned by the company from 18 villages in Mulshi and Velhe talukas of Pune district.
Patwardhan said the notice mentions that the company, by its resolution passed in the meeting of the board of directors held on September 19, 2008, constituted the LPAC to prepare the draft planning proposals for the notified area.
“But there is no provision in Section 40 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MR&TP) Act, 1966, to appoint any committee in addition to the special planning authority to prepare the proposals for the notified area,” he stated.
“The government resolution referred to lacks legal support from the Act and we object to the authority of the committee,” he said, adding that the report of the draft development plan (DDP) should have been published in newspapers having wider circulation. Instead, the notice has been published only in English, and that too only in dailies with low circulation.
“Further, the report is not available in Marathi, hence the publication of the notice and the report is incomplete. It needs to be scrapped and reissued with prominent publicity, so that objections and suggestions contemplated under the MR&TP Act are received through a transparent process,” he said.
The activist also objected to Lavasa Lake City being called a “hill station” as the project is located along the backwaters of the Warasgaon dam, not on a hill.
He noted that the demographic projections of Lavasa township show a very high population of 2.5 lakh people, which is three times the population of the hill stations of Malabaleshwar, Matheran and Lonavla-Khandala put together.
He said as Lavasa does not qualify for being called a hill station, the modifications carried out in the hill stations notification of 1996, explicitly to favour Lavasa, should be scrapped.
“There is no traffic and transportation network plan showing the impact of traffic of this “hill station” on the adjoining part of the region,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lavasa authorities said that Friday was the last day to file suggestions and objections.
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