Set up panel to look into issue of open-air gym: Bombay High Court

The HC had earlier directed BMC to file a reply to a PIL challenging permission granted to the open air gym on Marine Drive promenade in south Mumbai.

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The gym was inaugurated last month by Shiv Sena youth wing chief Aaditya Thackeray on Marine Drive. (Source: Express file photo)

Acting on a PIL challenging the nod for the open air gym on Marine Drive, the Bombay High Court has directed that a committee be appointed comprising the BMC commissioner, the Mumbai police commissioner, and the chairman, heritage conservation committee, to look into the issue.

The HC had earlier directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file a reply to a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging permission granted to the open air gym on Marine Drive promenade in south Mumbai. The civic body informed Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice A K Menon that the gym was put in place on an experimental basis for three months after due permission from the state departments concerned.

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After the gym was inaugurated by Shiv Sena youth wing chief Aaditya Thackeray, the Congress had alleged that preferential treatment was given to the ruling party, Shiv Sena, as they had made a similar demand a few years ago but were denied permission.

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Petitioner Vijay Yadav, a businessman said the area is a declared heritage precinct. “The locality…has been declared as heritage and no construction is permitted on the footpath,” the petition states. The petitioner’s lawyer, Ashok Saraogi, mentioned that in 2013 a former Congress MP had been denied permission to put up a gym citing that it was a heritage precinct.

The petition stated the civic body granted permission for the gym to be constructed by D M Fitness, which allegedly has links with the Shiv Sena.

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com

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