Mumbai: Seek To Make MoEF Notification Applicable In City
The state urban development department is hearing arguments of Campa Cola residents for regularization of their flats under a draft notification by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). The notification is not applicable to Mumbai, Goa and Kerala.
There are 102 illegal flats in the Worli compound that houses seven buildings. These flats were made uninhabitable by the BMC in May 2014, after the Supreme Court refused to stay residents' eviction. In its order, the SC held that the residents had bought the flats knowing they were unauthorized.
Ranjit Patil, minister of state for urban development, who held the first hearing last month, said the residents had approached the chief minister for a hearing. “The CM directed me to hold the hearing. The SC has granted them liberty to seek a hearing,“ he said.
Patil said the buildings were governed by the 1967 De velopment Control Regulations, which do not allow lift, staircase, lobby and other amenities to be treated as free of FSI. But, post-1991, amendments in the DCR allowed these amenities to be free of FSI.
On March 31, the MoEF issued a draft notification which stated that in case of CRZ-II “all buildings permitted on the landward side of the existing and proposed roads or existing authorized structures shall be subject to the existing local own and country planning regulations as modified from ime to time, except FSI which shall be as per the 1991 level“.
The residents sought two months' time to file their suggestions with the MoEF to make the notification applicable to them. Patil said that the next hearing is in July .
When the residents had launched a media campaign to save their flats, the city BJP unit had demanded that the st ate issue an ordinance to regu larize the flats. The Prithviraj Chavan government had re fused, saying it would go by the law. Asked if the BJP govern ment would now regularize the flats, Patil said, “Sympathy aside, we will go by the court di rectives. The case will be decid ed on existing laws.“
Uniform devpt control rules in state in 15 days
The state will soon come up with uniform Development Control Regulations for all 16 D-class civic bodies. Ranjit Patil, minister of state for urban development, said the state will finalize the new DCR within a fortnight. “One of the highlights of the DCR is that it will allow regularization of illegal constructions on fulfilment of certain conditions and bring relief to many residents of these corporations.“ When informed that a similar relief was granted to Ulhasnagar almost a decade ago but not many residents took advantage of it, Patil said if the allowed FSI is 1.5 and constructions are in the range of 4 FSI, then there is little the state can do. “There'll still be a few unauthorized constructions.“
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