At the panel meeting on Thursday, the MNS led by corporator Santosh Dhuri got support from the Congress, Shiv Sena and Samajwadi Party too. Despite heading the panel, the BJP could not hold back the move to refer back Mehta's report.
In another twist to the vegetarians versus non-vegetarians controversy, the Civic Improvements Committee asked the BMC administration to modify existing rules so that the BMC could take action on developers denying flats to non-vegetarians. The move has come as a boost for Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) which had mooted the proposal in the first place. Interestingly, the panel is led by the BJP which has opposed the plan.
At the panel meeting on Thursday, the MNS led by corporator Santosh Dhuri got support from the Congress, Shiv Sena and Samajwadi Party too. Despite heading the panel, the BJP could not hold back the move to refer back Mehta's report.
Last year in November, Sandeep Deshpande, MNS group leader in the BMC had submitted a proposal to the BMC to revoke permission to developers who refused to sell apartments to non-vegetarian households. However, in his written reply, Mehta had said that the BMC cannot dictate people's eating habits and neither can it tell builders developing new residential societies whom to sell and not sell flats, as there are no such provisions in the Development Control Regulations (DCR).
"We are with the MNS on this issue. There should be no discrimination on any grounds which include food preference, religion, caste or even region. The BMC must amend the existing act and modify it so that action can be taken on dubious developers and pure veg housing societies," said Samajwadi Party corporator Ashraf Azmi.
With the Congress and SP backing it, the MNS has made sure that Mehta does a re-think on the issue and comes up with a detailed reply. "The municipal commissioner must modify the rules. Anyway new DC rules are being prepared by the BMC along with the new DP. Provision must be made so that such developers and housing societies can be taken to task. The MNS will not tolerate if Marathi people are being discriminated against for eating non-vegetarian food," Dhuri said.
There have been several instances of people being denied flats in new developing colonies because of their eating habits. Also, there have been cases of ugly fights between residents over eating habits, with vegetarians saying they can't tolerate non-vegetarians' eating habits in their neighbourhood. Deshpande had demanded that if such instances are found, then the civic administration should reject or revoke the Intimation of Disapproval and Commencement Certificate, and also stop water connection to the building concerned.
BJP corporator Prakash Gangadhare, who heads the panel, said that the civic administration would submit another reply on the issue. The BJP has opposed the proposal and is backing Mehta. While the Sena's Shubha Raul walked out of the discussion for a while, Shraddha Jadhav backed the plan.
The vegetarian versus non-vegetarian debate took off last month, when a Maharashtrian family in Dahisar turned a two-year-old dispute with their Gujarati neighbours into a sectarian quarrel. The Maharastrians said the neighbours discriminated against them as they cooked non-vegetarian food at home. The Gujaratis, however, said the family was over-reacting.
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