BENGALURU: The High Court on Monday restrained the state government from approving the Revised Master Plan (RMP) – 2035 without obtaining permission from the court. A division bench of acting Chief Justice H G Ramesh and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar passed the interim order after hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Citizen Action Forum and another NGO. They have challenged the lacunae in forming the Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Committee.
The petitioners contended that the 74th Amendment to the Constitution to include provisions for constitution of a Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) were not implemented by the Urban Development Department. They also submitted comments to the draft rules indicating the various flaws in the rules and the resulting violations. They added that the rules notified by the government do not reflect any of the suggestions/comments offered by them. The final notification for setting up the MPC was issued on January 8, 2014, they said.
The petitioners submitted that Section 503B(3) of the KMC Act provides for inclusion of the CM, the Minister for Urban Development, MLAs, MLCs and certain MPs as members of the MPC. This is contrary to the objective of the formation of a decentralized model of local governance and is in violation of the mandate provided in Article 243ZE of the Constitution, they said.
Based on the existing constituencies within Bengaluru, the inclusion of the elected representatives as MPC members will result in an imbalance in the number of members from local authorities, they added. Further, the rules fail to include individuals such as the mayor, who are involved in all matters relating to planning. They added that one of the rules fails to state which members of the MPC will have voting rights.