No data or study backing the ``required change'' was put forth. No debate was allowed by the Shiv Sena-led committee and for most of the corporators who had only a piece of a rather technical paper in hand, the matter, after passing the proposal, ended there.

Not so, however, for some Congress workers who rushed to the local ward office and going through the previous development plan (DP) of the area discovered that what was reserved as a city park, was deleted to make way for aresidential-cum-commercial complex. And, not so coincidentally, the land had been bought by a local financially challenged builder - Lok Group, which has since then announced its plan to construct a Rs1,300 crore technical park there.

The Congress -- which has now gone to court against the modifications -- would like to flog this for political gains, describing it as one of the largest land scams of this Shiv Sena-BJP government. But it highlights only one instance of the systematic, government-backed take-overs of open spaces reserved for public utilities in the city that has been going on for years.In this particular case, the attempt is all the more glaring since the 300 acres of land is by and large unencumbered fortuitous in this jungle of concrete and slums. Adjacent to a thin inlet of the Thane creek, the land is an erstwhile saltpan with the saltbed still soft under the feet. It is of course prime property being just a stone's throw from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the Mumbai-Panvelhighway running along it. Some 25 km from the city, it demarcates the city's boundaries with those of the satellite city of Navi Mumbai. Located in the gas chamber of Chembur, which has factories like the Rashtriya Chemical Fertilisers Ltd and Oswal Petrochemicals -- the park would have been the ideal green lung that this region so urgently requires.

Yet it is not just the city park that has vanished. Also gone is a cemetery, very much needed for the area, a playground has been truncated and a primary school playground has been deleted. All for the cause of an industrial and commercial complex.

The second major takeover move of open spaces is the Shiv Shahi Punarvasan Prakalp -- or the corporate body of the Shiv Sena-BJP government to implement the ambitious free housing policy for slumdwellers. ``They wanted us to hand over all the open spaces in the city,'' whispers a state urban development officer, ``we refused. For we know, the slums will not go and we would have lost the open spaces.'' Yet, despitethe stiff opposition put up by the housing and the urban development departments, the government's decision to build 50,000 tenements for slumdwellers marches on bringing with it a cloud of TDRs or Transfer of Development Rights which would further congest the city. A unique feature of Mumbai, TDRs were introduced with the present development plan made in 1992. It seeks to give incentives in the form of development rights to owners in areas north of their existing plots so that they give up their own plots for the reservations. Through this, town planners believe the implementation of the on-going development plant (till 2014) would be around 50 to 60 per cent.

Land it would seem is the most liquid asset for the state government. So we have an amazing scenario of buildings coming over buildings in places like Juhu-Vile Parle -- flats growing over existing buildings which may or may not have the ability to take the additional FSI. Not only are the requirements for parking spaces and garden spaces that shouldfollow these additional houses ignored, there is a double whammy in store. ``If there is any need for an electric substation for these houses or a police booth, the nearby gardens are encroached upon,'' says Debi Goenka, member of the Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG).

For the BEAG, the dereservation of land at Mankhurd only added insult to injury. Fighting to save the 80 acres of the Borivali National Park from an ever increasing army of encroachers, BEAG had recently moved the Bombay High Court. To its chagrin, the state government has stated that it would have to relocate the encroachers in the park itself since there was no land available. ``We have been asking for 165 acres, which the state government claims in unavailable. Then how does it explain the releasing of 340 hectares for commercial and industrial purposes?'' Goenka asks.

To be fair, this is not the first state government to embark upon this haphazard course. It had inherited a system of haphazard planning. The earlier DevelopmentPlan had an implementation percentage of eight. Town planners mark reservation of public spaces on maps they know are filled with either existing buildings or encroachments.

A perfect example of this is Mohammad Ali Road in South Mumbai, which is literally overflowing with buildings. What's more, there is a major traffic bottleneck in the region, where vehicles have to wait for a minimum of five minutes before they can make their way into the central business district. Roads have been marked on the Development Plan which may never be implemented.

The town planners seem to be waiting for the buildings to collapse or reach a state of utter dilapidation, before they make their moves. If one of these buildings does crumble after a period of 50 years, the department may have to wait for another 20 years for the rest of the buildings to follow suite so that a road can be accommodated! Till then, people will continue to stew in their claustrophobic environs its seems!

With a land mass of 265 sq kilometres anda population of around 13 million, Mumbai has a density of 30,000 people per sq km in the island city and 60,000 in the suburbs, according to a survey conducted by the Save Bombay Committee. This makes it the densest city in the world. Compare this to other metropolises. Berlin has a density of 2,900, Hong Kong of 11,000, London of 1,200 and Singapore of 6,500.

And Mumbai and its residents have paid and continue to pay for this. Schools in the island city take turns in using the limited playgrounds that are here. A high noise pollution ensures the largest sale of hearing aids in the country. It has an increasing incidence of throat and respiratory diseases and nine out of ten newborn babies are estimated to have difficulties in taking their first breath. The city, cradled as it is by hills, gets flooded with rains because its sewage and drainage system have not kept pace with the population and congestion.

It is estimated that the ratio of open spaces for public amenities in Mumbai is around 0.3 acres per1,000 people, which means an area of 3X3 feet per person! Ideally, it should be around around 10 to 12 acres per 1,000.