Save Powai lake, put brakes on redevelopment: Citizens’ charter
The residents demand that BMC should stop cutting trees indiscriminately
The residents of Powai released a citizens’ charter for the candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the Mumbai North-East constituency. The charter demands to press brakes on redevelopment, GST exemption to cooperative societies, and bringing Powai lake under the watch of the Ministry of Environment.
With citizens’ associations from across the city releasing their own charters for candidates, the association of residents from Hiranandani Gardens in Powai, one of the most affluent residential localities in the eastern suburbs, also released its demands on Monday.
The Powai Action Forum wants the government to put a stop to commercialisation of well-built residential colonies. Citing policies, the charter demands that commercial and industrial activities should be shifted to peripheries of large metropolises.
The residents of Powai want their elected Member of Parliament to support their fight in stopping the Citipark redevelopment project, alleging that it will ignite the end of a peaceful residential locality and start a renewed frenzy of redevelopment of commercial buildings, creating bigger traffic chaos and noise pollution.
Demanding GST exemption to cooperative housing societies, the residents also want freedom from perennial road repairs and want relaying of Juhu-Vile Parle Link Road (JVLR) even as Metro work is underway.
They want Powai Lake to be brought under the watch of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change for its sustained nurturing, with the pollution control board looking into noise pollution in the area and penalising the violators. They also want BEST to replace all old, big diesel buses with smaller electrical buses to combat pollution in the area.
Powai charter also lists making the area stray-dog free with controlled neutering operations. Besides, they also want hawkers to vacate the illegally occupied parts of the area to facilitate smooth vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Parking spaces, according to their charter, are a scarcity here and should be introduced as multi-storey lots, while banning parking of school buses on busy roads.