This is just one of the many vital city-related development issues that MLAs want to discuss with CM; several sign memorandum submitted to Chavan

The demand to hold a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting to discuss important issues has gained momentum with many Congress MLAs signing a memorandum submitted to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan yesterday.


City MLAs want a discussion with Chief Minister Prithiviraj Chavan
on the newly approved Development Control Rules framed by
Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar

Such a meeting is traditionally held whenever a new session of the state legislature begins, but the CM failed to call one this time even though the Monsoon Session has been on for several days now.

With the BMC elections nearing, city Congress MLAs are unhappy that they are not getting a chance to thrash out worrisome issues related to the city with the CM.

Among the burning issues the MLAs want discussed thoroughly is the fear of a rise in the prices of flats because of the newly approved Development Control Rules (DCR) for the city.

By way of an example, an MLA said the BMC wants to charge 100 per cent premium for a balcony, which means Rs 3 lakh instead of the Rs 25,000 currently paid by builders.

Though initially it was the Vidarbha MLAs under the leadership of Sunil Kedar who were vociferous about the fact that the CLP meeting had not been held, Congress MLAs from the city have now joined hands with them and are demanding the meeting at the earliest.

And going by the direction in which the wind is blowing, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan may find himself in an uncomfortable situation for the first time since he took over in November from Ashok Chavan, who was asked to quit following the Adarsh co-operative housing society scam.

According to political sources, the memorandum submitted to the CM has signatures of several Mumbai MLAs, including Amin Patel, Baba Siddique, Madhu Chavan, Rajhans Singh, Aslam Shaikh and Kalidas Kolambkar.

An MLA, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the city MLAs want a discussion at the earliest on the newly approved DCR framed by Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar as these issues will have a wide impact on the development of the city.

"We want even the officials from the Urban Development Department and the BMC to attend the meeting, where we want to raise our concerns, as it may affect the prospects of the party in the coming BMC elections," said the MLA.

The issue of redevelopment of cessed buildings around 16,000 in the island city is getting complicated with the BMC administration insisting that six metres of open area should be left around the newly constructed buildings.
According to most party MLAs, this is just not practical and means most of the buildings cannot go for redevelopment because of the space crunch.

Explaining how the new DCR will result in an increase in the prices of flats, an MLA said, "For a balcony the BMC wants to charge 100 per cent premium and it will require Rs 3 lakh instead of Rs 25,000 currently paid by the builders."

Even the five Congress MPs from the city wanted a comprehensive meeting with the CM and this demand had the support of the city Congress unit, claimed the MLA.

Vidarbha MLAs' grouse
According to sources, the Vidarbha MLAs have been demanding five ministerial berths instead of the current two.

"Since the region has 24 MLAs we want adequate representation now," said an MLA, adding that all the important portfolios are currently held by ministers from Western Maharashtra.

Even Marathwada, with 17 MLAs, has low representation, with just two ministers.

Upon learning of the signature campaign, the CM is believed to have summoned Kedar and other MLAs and questioned the motive behind the campaign.

But the MLAs reportedly told the CM that he should first call the meeting and they would air their views in it.