Thamburaj held the office of the GOC-in-C, Southern Command, between October 2007 and December 2008 before assuming the office of the Vice Chief of Army Staff on January 1, 2009. The proposed revision of FSI from 1 to 2 in civil areas and from 0.5 to 1 outside civil notified areas, which was looked upon by activists as pro-builder lobby in the city, was made public through a notice dated December 31, 2008 in a leading English daily.

The notice, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, says, “Representations were received to the effect that the FSI of 1 in civil and bazaar areas was very stringent and unfair as the FSI in the neighbouring municipal corporation is more liberal — between 1.5 and 2 in congested areas — which are comparable with the civil areas of Pune Cantonment. The GOC-in-C is inclined to believe that their grievance is genuine and that it is not advisable to have wide disparity between the FSI applicable in the cantonment and that applicable in municipal areas in the neighbourhood. Therefore, it is proposed by the GOC-in-C to rescind the said order dated 26-03-1984 and substitute it with the following scheme of restrictions: The permissible FSI shall be 2 in the civil area and bazaar area. The permissible FSI shall be 1.0 in Bungalow area, Ghorpuri Village, Bhairoba Nallah and Fatima Nagar (outside civil area which had existing FSI of 0.5).”

The GOC-in-C’s proposal to rescind the order, which fixed the FSI to the then existing values, was objected to by activists. With more than 300 activists opposing the proposal, it was argued that as per the Cantonment Act, the GOC-in-C had no powers to raise FSI in cantonment; it was decided under the Bye Laws set in the Parliament. An advocate who represented the activists, said, “The GOC-in-C could propose restrictions to avoid overcrowding. There is no provision to relax the FSI as it is the Parliament which decides the same. We strongly objected and it was only in January-February 2009 that the subsequent GOC-in-C rejected the proposal.”

The public notice was an outcome of a discussion on the issue of FSI restrictions held on December 1, 2008 and was presided over by Thamburaj. A draft of the public notice dated December 30, 2008, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, has the signature of Lt Gen Thamburaj, Brigadier R J Sharma, president, PCB and S K Sardana, the then CEO of PCB.

Prior to making the notice public, the Joint Director for the PDDE had, in a letter dated December 30, 2008, said, “We do not recommend any upward revision of FSI on buildings outside civil notified area from the existing 0.5.”