Mumbai: The Standing Committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday voted in favour of a 10-fold increase in the entry fees at the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan at Byculla.
The rates will be increased to ₹50 for adults, ₹25 for children, and ₹100 for a family of four (two adults and two children).
The members from the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) voted in favour of the move, and the BJP opposed it. The motion passed 14-10.
Members of the Save Rani Bagh Botanical Garden Foundation said they would explore every available avenue, including legal recourse, to counter the fee hike.
The zoo had no entry fee till 1960, and has historically been an open public space that was accessible to people from the weaker socioeconomic sections. Members of the Save Rani Bagh Botanical Foundation and non-governmental organisation NAGAR have termed the fee hike as anti-poor.
The organisations had met BMC chief Ajoy Mehta on two separate occasions to object to the fee hike, and had also lobbied with corporators and members of the ruling party.
Hutokshi Rustomfram, trustee, Save Rani Bagh Botanical Garden Foundation, said, “This is the darkest hour in the history of the 156-year-old public botanical garden. It is a great betrayal by the electoral representatives, who have sought to deny the fundamental right of all citizens to visit Mumbai’s largest public space and public botanical garden. For 156 years, people have had unrestricted access to the egalitarian public garden. They are now raising an economic barrier to deny access to the people that have been historically welcomed here. We raised these concerns with the Standing Committee and the Mayor, but they were ignored. We are outraged by this decision.”
Meher Rafaat, trustee, NAGAR, said, “The zoo is a secondary function of Rani Bagh. First and foremost it is a garden. The primacy of the garden is that it is a reserve open public space. They cannot use a secondary function of a space to dictate restrictions on it. People that use it everyday cannot pay ₹50 every time they enter. Therefore, it’s primary benefit is being robbed.”
Ms. Rustomfram said the foundation would continue protesting the move, and ask the Chief Minister to hear their concerns. With the prior permission of the House, they would also be interested in making am presentation of the issue in the House.
