The Gazetteers Department

The Maharashtra State has an independent Town Planning and Valuation Department under the administrative control of the Urban Development and Public Health Department. This Department came into existence in the year 1914 with the Consulting Surveyor to Government (now designated as "Director of Town Planning") as its head. The department as its name indicates, principally deals with two important subjects, viz., 'Town Planning ' and ' Valuation of Real Property'.

Functions.

The duties and functions of this department as stipulated by Government are as under:—

Town Planning—

(1) Educating the municipalities regarding the advantages of town planning and preparation of development plans and town planning schemes under the Bombay Town Planning Act, 1954,

(2) Advising the municipalities in the selection of suitable areas for preparation of town planning schemes.

(3) Giving the required assistance to the municipalities in the preparation of development plans and town planning schemes in the shape of advice as well as loan of the services of technical assistants for the preparation of development plans, draft town planning schemes, etc.

(4) Performing the duties of the town planning officers when so appointed by Government, to scrutinise building permission cases, to tender advice to the Board of Appeal and to draw up the final schemes.

(5) Issuing Certificates of Tenure and Title to the owners of lands included in the town planning schemes.

(6) Advising Government on all matters regarding town and country planning including legislation.

(7) Advising and preparing town development, improvement extension and slum clearance schemes under the municipal Acts,

(8) Preparing development schemes or layouts of land—

(i) belonging to Government, and

(ii) belonging to co-operative housing societies and private bodies with the sanction of the Government.

(9) Tendering advise to the officers concerned in respect of village planning and preparation of layouts for model villages, etc.

(10) Advising Government on housing, slum clearance, regional planning and prevention of ribbon development including legislation.

(11) Preparing type designs for the housing of the middle and poorer classes including Harijans.

(12) Scrutinising miscellaneous building permission cases and layouts received from the Collectors and to recommend suitable building regulations for adoption in the areas concerned.

Valuation.—The Director of Town Planning is the chief expert adviser of Government on the subject and his duties under this heading include—

(i) valuation of agricultural and non-agricultural lands and properties in towns and villages belonging to the Government and intended for the purpose of sale or lease;

(ii) valuation of Government properties for purposes of rating under the Municipal Acts;

(iii) valuations for miscellaneous purposes such as cantonment leases, probate on stamp duty, etc.;

(iv) valuations for the purposes of fixing standard rates of non-agricultural, assessment and prescribing zones of values in all villages and rising localities in the vicinity of important and growing towns;

(v) valuations for the purposes of fixing standard table of ground rents and land values in respect of lands in cantonments;

(vi) scrutiny of awards of compensation (if and when received from the Government);

(vii) supplying trained technical assistants to do duty as special land acquisition officers in important towns where the land acquisition work is of a very important and responsible nature;

(viii) giving expert evidence when called upon to do so in the District Courts and High Court when appeals are lodged against awards of compensation under the Land Acquisition Act;

(ix) undertaking valuation work on behalf of Railways and other departments of the Central Government and private bodies with the sanction of Government on payment of fees, etc.

Other Duties—

(1) To advise the various heads of departments of Government in the selection of sites required for public purpose.

(2) To see that all town planning schemes or layouts schemes sanctioned by Government are properly executed within a reasonable period or periods fixed in the schemes.

(3) To advise Government as regards interpretation, amendment or addition to the Bombay Town Planning Act, or Rules thereunder.

Organisation.

The department as stated above was started in the year 1914 with the Consulting Surveyor to Government (now designated as. " Director of Town Planning ") as its head who was later on given the assistance of one Assistant Consulting Surveyor to Government (now designated Deputy Director of Town Planning), one Deputy Assistant Consulting Surveyor to Government (now designated as Assistant Director of Town Planning), and two Senior Assistants (now designated as " Town Planner ") with the requisite staff. As the activities of the department increased, these Assistants had to be posted at prominent places in the State to attend to the work of town and country planning essentially required in and around these towns and cities. There has been tremendous increase in the activities of the department in recent years with the consequential increase in the number of branch offices in the State. The head office of the department is. in Poona with branch offices in Bombay, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Amravati, Aurangabad, Jalgaon, Kalyan, Sholapur and Satara. Some of the officers have been appointed to function as the Land Acquisition Officers. There are three full-time Special Land Acquisition Officers in Poona and one full-time Land Acquisition Officer in Bombay in addition to two partime Land Acquisition Officers in Bombay and in Poona.

The statutory powers regarding planning were embodied under the Bombay Town Planning Act, 1915, which was in force so far in the State. This Act has been replaced by the Bombay Town Planning Act, 1954 which is in force from April 1, 1957. The new Act generally incorporates the provisions of the Bombay Town Planning Act, 1915 and in addition makes obligatory on every local authority (barring village panchayats) to prepare a development plan for the entire area within its jurisdiction. The development plan aims at the improvement of existing congested gaothan portion of the town and contains proposals in respect of the outlying open areas so as to guide the development on planned basis. The proposals of the development plan can be implemented by the preparation of statutory town planning schemes. In preparing town planning schemes, the planner can ignore to a great extent the existing plot boundaries. In designing his layout the existing holdings can be reconstituted and made subservient to the plans and building plots of good shape and frontage can be allotted to the owners of lands ill-shaped for building purposes and without access. The cost of a scheme can be recovered from the owners benefited to the extent of 50 per cent of the increase in the value of the land estimated to accrue by the carrying out of the works contemplated in the scheme. When a draft town planning scheme prepared by a local authority in consultation with the owners is sanctioned, a Town Planning Officer is. appointed. His duties are to hear each owner individually, consider his objections or suggestions and make suitable adjustments or amendments in the draft scheme proposals, if found necessary.

Most of the local authorities have no technical staff of their own to prepare the development plans and it has been decided that this department should prepare the development plans on behalf of local authorities under the provisions of the Bombay Town Planning Act, 1954. Accordingly a scheme for the preparation of development plans was provided in the Five-Year Plans and additional staff was sanctioned for this purpose.

There is at present no branch office of this department in Sangli district and the work of town planning, valuation and allied matters arising from the district is being looked after by the Assistant Director of Town Planning, Kolhapur.

During the post-independence period, the Kolhapur office, after its creation in December 1949, has so far prepared the development plans for the towns of Sangli, Miraj, Tasgaon, Ashta and Uran-Islampur. The development plan of Miraj has been finally sanctioned by Government under section 10 (1) of the Bombay Town planning Act, 1954, which came into force from 1st November 1958. Similarly the development plan of Tasgaon finally sanctioned by Government has come into force from 1st November 1962. The local authorities of Ashta and Uran-Islam-pur have submitted development plans of these towns to Government for sanction which is expected to he accorded soon. The Sangli municipality has prepared and published the development plan for inviting suggestions from the public and the development plan would be finalised and submitted to Government for sanction soon. There are six municipal towns in the district of which five towns have already been covered by the Scheme of preparation of Development plans. Development plan for Vita would he prepared shortly.

The Miraj Municipality has prepared a Draft Town Planning Scheme, Miraj No. I for an area of about 159-84 hectares (395 acres). Government have sanctioned the draft scheme which is now on hand with Arbitrator for finalisation.

In addition to the above, a number of layouts for the planning of open lands ripe for development and replanning of congested areas have been prepared by the Kolhapur office which included layouts for industrial estates, market yards and new village sites.

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