The Maharashtra government has been accused of modifying the rules of Mumbai's Development Plan (DP) and sacrificing open spaces to benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) office in South Mumbai which is also the ruling party's state headquarters, The Indian Express reported.
In March, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced that his government would not compromise on publicly accessible open spaces in Mumbai while sanctioning the financial capital's new DP. But on 22 September, while sanctioning major modifications to the DP, the Fadnavis-led Urban Development (UD) department approved a proposal that said "Structures constructed in designated public open spaces, with the due sanction of the competent authority, before the coming into force of Mumbai's new development control regulations, stand protected."
The BJP headquarters currently stand on part of a 72,000 square feet public recreation ground, known as the Jawaharlal Nehru Garden, situated near the state secretariat. It has been in the line of fire since 2013 when a local residents' body, Nariman Point-Churchgate Citizens' Association (NPCCA), started a campaign to free up the famous public open space. They had even filed a public interest litigation in this regard in the Bombay high court.
In March, 2017, the NPCCA's campaign had an impact when, after a court order, the Mumbai municipality demolished large parts of other government offices and encroachments existing on the land. But while the ruling BJP at that time reduced the size of its office, it continues to function from space, with the party's top state brass claiming that it had the "requisite permissions" from relevant authorities.
The area was marked as recreation ground (RG) in the 1961 DP and the 1991 DP. However, on 8 May 2018, the government first proposed a change in the reservation status of the open space. In modifications proposed to public reservations in the new DP, it was marked as RG+, recognising other uses on the portions of the ground. But this is yet to be cleared, and the NPCCA has formally raised a strong objection to it. Then, on 22 September, the government approved another modification—this time in the development control regulations, recognising that structures already existing with due permissions on a designated public open space as "tolerated".
Speaking with The Indian Express, CM Fadnavis denied the claim that the "tolerated structure" clause had been incorporated in the new regulations to "protect" the BJP office. "As far as the BJP office is concerned, we have already demolished two-third portion and only the part that was allowed as per the court order is in existence. The BJP's office is already protected by the order, so it doesn't need any such provision."