A month after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis scrapped the controversial Mumbai Development Plan 2034, a RTI query has revealed that civic body MCGM earned a revenue of nearly Rs. 60 lakh against providing information to citizens on the draft.
City-based activist Anil Galgali had filed a query with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), seeking details about the total number of applications received from citizens and the charges paid by them to get information on the development plan (DP).
In response to the query, an Administrative Officer of the DP department informed Galgali that a total of 6,839 people had sought information on Development Control regulations (DCR) booklet, DP report, sheet and remarks from the MCGM, thereby generating revenue of Rs 59,48,087.
Out of this, Rs 39,05,312 was earned by providing remarks on the DP to about 2220 applicants. About 4130 people sought DP sheets that earned nearly Rs 13 lakh. The MCGM sold about 312 DCR booklets that earned it Rs 4,25,880 and 177 people applied for the DP report, thereby generating a revenue of Rs 3,15,945.
While answering a query, it said that until April 27, it has received a total of 64,867 suggestions and objections from citizens.
Reacting to the mounting number of complaints against the draft Development Plan 2014-34, the state cabinet in April issued orders asking the MCGM to scrap Mumbai’s 2014-2034 blueprint and resubmit it.
The controversial DP was released by MCGM in the end of February and suggestions and objections were sought from citizens. The DP received a major backlash from citizens across the city who pointed out to grave errors.
In a letter addressed to Fadnavis, Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya and Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta, Galgali demanded that the civic body refund all charges collected from citizens as the plan was “faulty”, thereby nullifying all suggestions received by people.
