BMC Takes Over Cuffe Parade Garden After 50 Years, Residents' Association Alleges Encroachment Negligence And Haste

Mumbai: Although the BMC has taken over the 12,000 sq ft garden on Capt Prakash Pethe Marg, Cuffe Parade, citing adoption lease non-renewal and alleged poor maintenance by the the Cuffe Parade Residents Association (CPRA), the latter is up in arms against the BMC's action, citing the ward office's ``deriliction of duty and failure to prevent encroachments on the public open space." The association has now questioned if the garden is taken over for an futuristic housing project which requires 35% open space?

However, the BMC officials quashed all allegations citing that garden was taken over after repeated complaints.

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Takeover date

It was on April 10, the civic garden department took over the CPRA Greens garden in its custody from the CPRA, which was maintaining it for the last 50 years. "Although the lease was last renewed in 2008 for the period of five years, the CPRA has been getting letters from the BMC that the CPRA is the adoptee," said it's current president Dr Laura D'Souza. She added that the CPRA was also in process of getting funds sanctioned from Rajya Sabha MP Milind Deora for the garden's further facelift, for which a comprehensive site visit from a MHADA official had taken place on April 7 and work was expected to start from April 13. However, the BMC took over the garden in haste on April 10 by barging in, she said.

Haste alleged

"The land falls under the collector, but the garden falls under the BMC. We have been complaining against the rising encroachments both to the Collector's office and the BMC. But they have been passing the buck, which has led to the entire section from Hotel President to Macchimar Nagar being encroached upon, including a part of the garden, to be encroached upon," Dr D'Souza said.

She further alleged that the encroachment is nothing but a illegal land grabbing, which the authorities have been failed to prevent. "Since 2022 have been complaining that the north end of the CPRA Greens is encroached upon and misused commercially by a local group. When we complained to the police, we learnt that events were organised with the permission of a politician. However, instead of any action against the encroachers, the CPRA was repeatedly questioned for the misuse."

Land grabbing allegation

Meanwhile, local corporator Makarand Narwekar has clarified that the BMC took over the garden in the wake of illegal activities such as holding private functions, using the chowki for office purposes, and restricting entry to citizens by the CPRA. "The garden was taken over by the BMC from the CPRA following due process. Some residents tried to illegally lock the garden, so we intervened. All legal recourse is available to the CPRA, but until then, the garden cannot be locked,” the corporator added.

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A resident of Cuffe Parade Ramesh Narayan, who has planted as many as 800 trees in the CRPA Greens said, "The garden is maintained by the CPRA proactively by decades. In fact it's made into a garden from a barren land by the residents. I fail to understand the unreasonable haste in taking over the garden by the BMC. Why can't an elected ALM take the responsibility? Can the BMC guarantee that it will do a better job of maintaining the garden? , Narayan asked.

On the other hand, the BMC's garden department has another version to tell. A garden department official told the FPJ that CPRA's lease ended years ago, the garden was also ``poorly maintained and the department recieved several complaints against it, which led to the non-renewal of the adoption. "The lease ended in 2013 and it has not been renewed. Neither the CPRA has applied under the new 2020 BMC's garden adoption policy, nor we have received any letter from MP Milind Deora on funds sanctioned for the garden's renovation."

Only the garden adoption commitee led by an additional municipal commissioner can refer an adoptee and the final decision is taken by the commissioner, the officer added.

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