Chavan, who was in the city to attend various events, discussed the proposed park with a group of prominent citizens and activists.
Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan in a meeting with environmentalists and civic activists in Pune on Saturday, supported the green development plan (DP) for 23 merged villages with the proposed biodiversity park (BDP). He, however, asked activists, politicians and bureaucrats to submit a concrete proposal for raising Rs1,000 crore for land acquisition for the BDP.
Chavan, who was in the city to attend various events, discussed the proposed BDP with a group of prominent citizens and activists. President of city unit of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and environmentalist Vandana Chavan had taken the initiative to hold the meeting.
Chavan told media persons after the meeting that the chief minister emphasised that there should not be any construction on the hills. He said the financial feasibility of developing a BDP should be considered.
Activists, senior bureaucrats and office-bearers of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) would prepare such a proposal within a fortnight.
She said that during the meeting, various options to raise funds were discussed. According to an option, the project could be partly funded by the PMC with a share of 20% and the state government could provide 30% of funds while remaining 50% of funds could be procured from the central government. The chief minister assured to pursue the matter with the central government.
She said there can be a solution of allowing transferable development rights (TDR) worth Rs1,000 crore for land acquisition for BDP. “Once the problem of funding is solved, there would not be any opposition from politicians to the BDP,’’ she said.
Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal said out of total 4,000 acres land on which the BDP is proposed, the private land is about 2,400 acre. There is a requirement of Rs1,076 crore for acquiring the private land. The chief minister wanted to know how the PMC, non governmental organisations and the corporate sector would take up the responsibility to raise funds.
Rajpal, who belongs to the NCP, said the Congress has been supporting the green DP and BDP so that party should provide a solution regarding ways to raise funds. The Congress has the chairmanship of the standing committee of the PMC, which would soon present its budget.
Hence, the Congress should make a provision of Rs300 crore to Rs400 crore for the BDP in the budget.
The meeting was attended by noted environmentalist Mohan Dharia and other prominent citizens like Mukesh Malhotra, Pradeep Bhargava, Anita Beninger, Satish Khot, Vinod Bodhankar, Mukta Manohar and Nitin Pawar. Senior Congress leaders like Ulhas Pawar, Mohan Joshi, Ramesh Bagwe, deputy mayor Prasanna Jagtap, Abhay Chhajed, Arvind Shinde and Aba Bagul met the chief minister.
Shinde said the Congress has been consistently supporting the green DP and want the BDP without allowing any construction in it.
The PMC as a planning authority had finalised the DP for 23 merged villages and sent it to the state government for its approval in December 2005.
The DP, considered as a green DP, has a proposal to develop a BDP on about 4,000 acres on various hills in these villages. There is a difference of opinion amongst political parties about allowing construction in the BDP area and it has become a major hurdle in the approval of DP. Against this background, the CM’s meeting with activists has gained importance.
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