Fresh bloopers in DP, citizens want deadline extended

MUMBAI: Citizens want BMC to extend the November 30 deadline for submission of objections and suggestions to the development plan (DP) designation survey. Many of them pointed out that they had noticed several errors being repeated in the designation survey and, therefore, would want to scan the entire survey for which they would require more time.
The DP draft 2034, which had been published in February this year, had run into a controversy as there were new DP roads proposed which had been marked as passing through buildings and through heritage structure premises.
These “repeat” errors have reactivated a campaign, www.dumpthisdp.org, which was launched in February after the DP draft 2034 was released. Started by citizen groups, the site pointed out some errors in the DP 2034 designation survey done. The survey with the errors have been uploaded on this website.
Anthony D’souza a member of St Anne’s Church, Bandra, said, “St Anne’s Church and School has not been shown in the survey and so we will be submitting our observations towards it. We hope that BMC takes cognizance of them.”
According to BMC officials, 8,855 designations in DP 2034 had been checked, of which 1,600 mistakes were found and were corrected. Errors in designations like JJ School of Art, which was shown as veterinary hospital, and Elphinstone College as police facility were corrected.
Activist Shyama Kulkarni said it is questionable if BMC is taking cognizance of observations. “In Bandra St Peter’s Church, the actual use of site is cemetery plus church while designation shown on draft DP is school. By doing so, mistakes are only being repeated,” said Kulkarni.
An architect said that with Diwali celebrated this month, many were not able to file their observations.