Surprisingly, the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance in the Pune Municipal Corporation failed to make an issue when the matter was disclosed by Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) corporator Satish Dhotre at the general body meeting on Friday. Dhotre who incidentally was elected as corporator on a Congress ticket, switched parties and joined Suresh Kalmadi's MVA.

Raising the issue, Dhotre said: ``When the final plot numbers 456, 458 at Shivajinagar had been earmarked for a primary school as per the development plan of 1987, how was it that certain sections of the plot had been dereserved for allowing the construction of an eight-storeyed building.''Pointing out the need for more schools in the ModelColony area, Dhotre said that there was no other school apart for Vidyabhavan school and Chhabria school. The problem of admissions was acute as school authorities received over 2000 applications for a mere 60 seats. ``When such is the case, how is it that the land was dereserved,'' Dhotre asked.

City engineer Madhav Harihar explained that the plot admeasuring 1.23 lakh sq ft had been earmarked for school purposes in the development plan of 1966. The reservation was continued as per the DP of 1987. The standing committee and the general body of the PMC had also given permission to initiate land acquisition proceedings in 1985 after which the PMC notified the district collector via the divisional commissioner's office. In the interim, the PMC also shot down the owner Shantaram Bahirath's request for construction of a building at the plot in 1988. The owner's appeal was admitted with reservation being lifted on land admeasuring 32,000 sq ft as per section 47 of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning (MRTP)Act, Harihar added.

Harihar said that both the PMC and the director of Town Planning had argued that the purchase notice of the owner in 1988 was not valid. If a notification is not issued within six months of the purchase notice, the reservation lapses, as per section 127 of the MRTP Act. Following which the appeal was upheld by the State Government who lifted the reservation.