At a press conference today, Congress corporator Ravindra Pawar, one of the co-petitioners in the case, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has already submitted its affidavit to HC. ``The controversial modification of this reserved land in the Deonar-Trombay belt involves a total deletion of the one and only city park meant for development of sports and recreational activities for locals. It will also lead to an ecological imbalance as the mangroves near the sea coast will be destroyed, and will affect the fish-breeding phenomena, especially in an area like Chembur, the `gas chamber' of Mumbai,'' said Pawar.

He added the matter was also raised in theHouse last month, but since BMC could not give any satisfactory answers, he had decided to move court. ``I still don't know how BMC could dereserve the plot under Section 37 (i) of the Mumbai Region & Town Planning Act (MRTP) Act, which can only allow finer modification in a project but not total revamp such as this,'' Pawar said.

He added a proposed 46,680-sq metre-long cemetery for all religions that was supposed to come up on the plot will also not come up if Lok Group is allowed to construct residential and commercial complexes.