Deshmukh sets up one more body for city’s development

MUMBAI: In its mission to renew urban areas, the Vilasrao Deshmukh government seems to have developed a penchant for creating as many planning bodies as possible. The latest addition to the crowd of urban and civic bodies is Metropolitan Planning Committee.

The state government would soon set up Metropolitan Planning Committees for Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur. Modalities would be worked out in next three months, the state government announced in the Assembly.

Members sought to know the progress on the state government’s plan to establish Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) on the lines of MMRDA.

The Metropolitan Planning Committees for three major cities have been on the cards for the last six months. A phenomenally high rate of urban growth in these cities powered by the boom in real estate and industrialisation has prompted the state government to contemplate setting up planning bodies with sweeping powers.

“The 74th Amendment to the Constitution also makes establishment of democratically elected planning bodies mandatory on government,” an official said.

In Mumbai, though the city is governed by the BMC, the role of planning body MMRDA always comes into clash with the civic body. Bodies like MMRDA and Nagpur Improvement Trust are not elected.

“Politically speaking, bodies like MMRDA and NIT which report to the state government are a via-media worked out by the state to have stakes in the city planning in case the civic body is ruled by a rival political party,” sources said.

In Mumbai, the clash between MMRDA, which is presided over by the chief minister, and Shiv Sena-BJP ruled BMC stems from this power struggle.

The Metropolitan Planning Committee would, however, have two thirds of its representatives elected so that there is no further clash among different bodies.