Whither Delhi?

Pioneer Thinkpad: | Whither Delhi? | Sleeping DDA | Vertical growth coming | Save Delhi from racketeers |

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Save Delhi from racketeers

Harsh Vardhan President, Delhi BJP

The same people who institutionalised the practice of violating Delhi's Master Plan are now appearing in sackcloth and ashes. They wish to redeem themselves by bringing Amendments. Of course, amendments are necessary because unless these are done, the Government will simply go ahead and "regularise" all the monuments to its disregard to the law. But instead of using the Parliamentary numbers game, it must involve the citizens of Delhi in a wide, transparent consultative process. The issue must not be politicised because it involves the future of Delhi, a city-state whose population is expected to cross the 20 million mark by 2015.

Regularisation is a serious matter. It is safe to assume that the vast majority of houses, offices and other forms of dwelling in Delhi violate one or two crucial building rules. This is well known to the administration, whether the DDA or MCD or NDMC. The inspector raj flourishes and so the matter lies buried under a big mountain of corruption.

It is only when the Master Plan abuse becomes glaring that the media takes notice. From the moment a violation gains newspaper attention, everything works in predictable fashion. The inspectors feign ignorance of the violation only to secretly jack up their bribes. Then lobbying begins for "regularisation", The matter attains a political colour.

Finally, it is regularised. But the sufferer is Delhi.How long will this game go on? It is time the government evolved an iron clad set of rules which cannot be penetrated by corrupt realtors and babus.

Recently we witnessed a farce over the sealing of industries. But it was a dangerous game played out to loot hapless factory owners.Under the National Democratic Alliance, a Cabinet decision was taken to regularise the industries lying in residential areas by amending the Master plan. The Sheila Dikshit government had only to implement the decision but instead chose to politicise the issue and allow morecorruption and blackmailing the factory owners.

Over the last six years, an industrial development park has come up in Bawana which lacks basic infrastructure. The survival of Delhi's 364 villages depends on the cottage sector. For proper settlement of industries, at least 1,533 hectares is required apart from 265 hectares for heavy industries.

The Chief Minister now says that she has asked five private agencies to carry out a "scientific survey" of Delhi. But the parameters are unknown. What we need is a 20-year vision outline for Delhi. The manner in which the government is privatising civic amenities betrays a latent scheme to use Delhi's future for maximising profit. The orientation should not be rupee-anna-pice, but maintaining the environmental balance of Delhi.

Vertical growth coming

AK Walia, Urban Development Minister, Delhi

The problems of Delhi may be varied, but the solution hinges upon a unified control mechanism. Due to the multiplicity of authorities, there is little that the state government can do, until it is entrusted with the sole functioning of Delhi's affairs.

Delhi, with its dense population and unsafe, environmentally- unsound clusters of buildings, cannot aspire to be a leading global city.There is a need for total revamp of the city's building by-laws as the root of the problem is the inadequacy of existing laws and the total ineffectiveness of the enforcement model adopted by local authorities.

Delhi has very diverse neighbourhoods and imposing a uniform set of building bye-laws over the entire Master Plan area is very difficult.It is not surprising that the public views the present set of laws as totally unfair or irrelevant and the majority of them do not comply. There was a need to prepare "Area Specific Urban Designs".

In spite of all efforts, unplanned urbanisation has continued parallel with almost half the Capital's population living in it. This is one of the biggest challenges we face today and the guidelines for Master Plan 2021 envisage several changes from the earlier policies. Permitting suitable patterns of mixed land-use, re-development along metro corridors and incorporation of unauthorised colonies are some of the new rules to be followed.

Delhi's growth was horizontal which was the reason behind all problems. The growth should be vertical, which means more high-rise buildings, space for parking and proper greenery. We should encourage group housing societies. Apart from that, a parallel city - Dwarka is a fine example - should be developed.

It is ironic that the city's planning is entrusted with Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which comes under the central government. Delhi is the only state which does not have a land and planning wing. The state government is only a recommending authority. We have been demanding that land should be at least be with the state as several development works could not see the light as the concerned authority failed to provide land.

It was the Centre's failure to implement the various provisions of the Delhi Master Plan and other central agencies which led to the present crisis. Now it would not be possible to demolish unauthorised colonies so the government has demanded their in situ development.And as far as relocation of industries was concerned, the Environment Protection Act, 1986 says polluting units should be shut. But other industries that have been established on a need basis should be allowed to continue in residential areas. The manufacturing sector employs 14.40 lakh people or 41.4 per cent of the workforce. The move to relocate them would adversely impact the state economy.

(As told to Rajesh Kumar)

Sleeping DDA

Pramod Kumar Singh

Powerful industry owners have won and their illegal units will keep dotting the city's landscape for a long time to come. Despite the objections by the town planners and the Apex Court of the country, the United Progressive Government (UPA) on Thursday notified the amendments to the Master Plan-2001.

The notification implies that non-conforming clusters of industrial concentration of minimum contiguous area, having more than 70 per cent plots within cluster under manufacturing activity and us, may be considered for redevelopment on the basis of surveys. Mercifully, certain exclusive areas have been spared the whirr and smoke of factories. The polluting industries have been barred from the Bungalow Zones (New Delhi and Civil Lines), Ridge Road, river bed along water bodies, canals, sensitive areas from the security point of view, heritage areas, protected forests, DDA falts, private cooperative group housing societies and government flats.

The redevelopment work shall be undertaken by the societies at their own cost and completed within the period specified by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in this regard. Clusters which fail to complete the redevelopment proposals within the specified period, would have to shift to other conforming industrial areas.

However, apart from the latest amendment,all the governments falling in the NCR are guilty of having effected modifications and changes in the Master Plan with an eye on their vote banks. The malaise kept assuming gigantic proportions owing to the inefficiency of DDA in performing its assigned duties. A study of the Master Plan has revealed that the DDA was to develop 16 new light industrial estates over 1,553 hactares in the urban extension over the past two decades to meet the expanding needs of industry. Each area was supposed to have up to five units of industrial estates of about 20 hectares each for industries like cotton, wool silk, synthetic fibre, textile products, furniture, fixture, wood, paper, leather, fur products, rubber, plastic and petroleum, metal products and other such items.

The DDA failed miserably in performing its assigned task and none of the 16 proposed industrial estates have materialised till date. It resulted in the mushrooming of small units operating in residential areas.There are allegations that the failure on part of DDA in developing the industrial estates and earmark them for use has led to the present situation. On the other hand, the DDA kept on changing the landuse and amending the rules to confer favour on few powerful people.

There is another disturbing aspect which puts the onus on DDA and the central agencies for failing in performing their duties. The figures tell the tale of mismanagement. There were only 82 polluting units on the capital out of which 30 percent were operating in non-industrial areas. DDA and central agencies owe an explanation how these units have grown into more than 30,000.

Similarly, the Master Plan provides for 30 Kv of power for light and flatted industries. On the contrary, the industries have been sanctioned a load of 100 to 150 Kv for many years in blatant violation of the Master Plan. It was also provided in the Master Plan that household industries with five workers with a sanctioned load of 1 Kv of power be allowed to continue in residential areas and no polluting industry be permitted for inclusion in the "household industry" category. This was also brazenly violated and the DDA permitted thousands of such units to come up in industrial areas over the past few years.

According to experts, the Master Plan had also outlined that non-conforming light and service units with 20 or more workers were to be shifted to the industrial-use zones within the stipulated period of three years after the alternative sites were allotted and necessary incentives were provided them.

However, DDA not only failed in its duty to move these units, but messed up in developing the alternate sites.The Master Plan had also made it clear that non-conforming light and service industries having 10 to 19 workers may be allowed to work in their respective locations. These units were supposed to be reviewed after every five years.

They were also allowed to change their locations but nothing of the sort happened and the blame for this sorry state of affairs lies squarely with DDA and the union Urban Development Ministry which allowed the situation to drift away Its Planning Department should have been engaged in the modifications of the Master Plan level policy under the Delhi Development Act in order to meet the challenges of urban dynamism. But it has been going about its work in piecemeal fashion.

Modifications to Plan norms to be rushed through to pre-empt due process of holistic Plan revision. Its Planning Department should have been engaged while formulating the modifications of the Master Plan under the Delhi Development Act in order to meet the challenges of urban dynamism. But it has been indulging in piecemeal modifications to Plan norms .The modification also tantamounts to the frustrating process of law as the Supreme Court is seized of the issue. The issue of commercial use of residential premises is also pending in the Apex Court. Even the contentious issue of regularisation of the unauthorised colonies is sub-judice

Whither Delhi?

Delhi is an urban law breaker's paradise. Nobody violates the city's Master Plan more than the government. Against the backdrop of decibels over industry closure and regularisation, Geeta Dewan Verma wonders where Delhi is headed

The latest of Delhi's grand regularisation melas is on. The old debate is revived: To regularise or not to regularise industries, slums, etc. that have come up in violation of the Delhi Master Plan is the question.

Over one lakh industries in Delhi are in places not meant for them because more than 2,000 hectares of dispersed industrial space has not been developed according to Plan (not like in Bawana). Census-2001 had found four lakh families in slums because over 2,000 hectares of dispersed space has not been used for 4.25 lakh cheap plots according to Plan (not like in slum-like resettlement); etc. For half a century, land in Delhi has been compulsorily acquired only for development.

According to Plan, it is a central government responsibility and the sole mandate is enjoyed by the Delhi Development Authority ( DDA), which has all the tiers of government duly represented on it. What to do with land which has been used in a manner beyond the Plan is not a question of regularisation, but divide-and-loot. "Regularisation" is a red herring to divert attention. The question is if this "Great Terrain Robbery" by the State might be regularised. The temerity to open such a question to debate leads many to wonder - Whither Delhi?

In 2003, the CBI busted a scam at Plan minding levels of DDA, which escaped the attention of the 13th Lok Sabha. The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Urban Development invited views, which it did not hear. So-called "guidelines" for the Master Plan with no basis in law were issued to condone and perpetuate huge distortions in Plan allocations for different uses. This had deleterious implications for equity and efficiency guarantees.

The Supreme Court's Order of June 7, 2004 for industries has upheld Plan provisions and processes. It directed closure as per a schedule starting in four months, but did not preclude the Plan solution. The UPA government's commitment towards small-scale industries and employment did call for viewing the schedule as one for enforcing the statutory solution of making available forthwith to industries their full range of options (in planned industrial/ redevelopment space, in commercial and regulated mixed use space) and, by extension, for a key role by DDA.

This ption was sought by industries and planners. But, come September, the Delhi Government assumed charge of compliance through the closure option - without powers to penalise Plan violations, with typical arbitrariness. Both the BJP and Left rallied around to demand regularisation, which the Delhi Government had proposed in 1999 and the Apex Court had rejected.

The rally-tally made the Central Government sit up and take note. But its view was through the prism of opportunism. It wanted to hijack the consensus. The MP from New Delhi (mind you, neither East Delhi or Outer Delhi, where most industries are located) was fielded to paint a saffron-red sunset. He did point out that the on-going sealing of units, the basis of the regularisation-consensus, was not called for even by the Court. Meanwhile, units had been unlawfully sealed and in apprehension of sealing three persons had died.

Their obituaries, like those of the children who died in Bawana after eviction from Pushta, - read much like a requiem for Delhi. Only this time it is written in the brick and mortar of willful projects on public land denied to the people. The shade is dark (not saffron, nor red) because these schemes downsize Plan rights and jeopardise Plan solutions both for the present and for posterity.

A striking piece in this requiem is the Metro IT Park on the Yamuna riverbed. On September 18, even as the industries regularisation debate raged and sparks flew over the review petition, Ordinance, "enabling provisions" and what not, DDA issued a public notice (mandatory u/s.11A of its Act for any Plan modification) inviting objections and suggestions on the central government's proposal to change the landuse of six hectares of the riverbed for the purpose of building a commercial (IT) park. The public has 30 days to respond to this declaration of scandalous intent. The notice is only a fig leaf to cover up a grand plan to regularise the Delhi Government-Delhi Metro joint encroachment on the banks of the Yamuna.

Work on the IT Park started in November 2003, that is after the Court order to clear all riverbed encroachments. On January 28 this year the Parliamentary Standing Committee visited metro sites. On February 5, the Chief Minister visited and lauded the progress of work on the upcoming IT park. On February 13, the Pushta clearance began. As slum after slum fell under the encroachment clearance drive, floor upon floor was added to the IT Park.

In April, a public notice was issued to allow property development on up to three hectares at all metro sites. In September another was issued to regularise the six-hectare IT Park. On October 15, amid renewed regularisation consensus, there were reports that construction on the project was in full swing despite the public notice. On November 1, we heard of the likelihood of its completion by year-end. Plans have been drawn up to woo IT majors by showcasing the project as the India International Trade Fair which begins November 14.

The worse-than-slum resettlement scheme and the excessive concentration industrial relocation scheme in Bawana are both violative of the Plan. On October 27, while the mess it had made of the industries' affair was being sorted out at highest levels, the Delhi Government got an award for "proper relocation of industries" at the "International Infrastructure Business Summit" held in Mumbai, an event supported by 11 Central Ministries and organised by one "India-Tech Foundation" that promotes, among other sectors, the IT industry. This, however, was not the first unplanned project to be given an award by a corporate consortium.

In the past, the Delhi Secretariat, which stands on space not meant for government offices in the Plan, was honoured on June 7 with the "Indian Building Congress Award". From this exalted Plan-violation of a seat of government, the administration simply watched ("helplessly", as it claimed) the war-like eviction of slums and the formalisation of plans to evict industries. Why two sets of standards when the Government is itself violating the Plan? When it comes to slums and poor industries, the Government works enthusiastically citing "court orders", but when it comes to its own projects which are in total disregard to planning and environment laws, all that flows are statements and promises of regularisation. Most are broken. Examples: The assurance on affidavit to continue unlawful closure of industries, reported on November 3, and by the Chief Minister's direction of the MCD Byelaws Reforming Committee to frame byelaws for slums (despite the Apex Court's scathing remarks about MCD's illegal licensing of non-conforming units), reported on November 2.

Those genuinely aggrieved by regularisation should know that since Plan violations infringe development rights, safeguards against their regularisation are inbuilt in due processes that require the issuance of public notices for Plan modification. Other forms of protest are weaker, besides undemocratic and tending to obfuscate law and atrophy statutory safeguards. Those genuinely caught in non-conforming situations should know that it is foolish to settle for promises, not least because these promises cannot - and are not even meant to - be kept. Both should know the rest is monkey-business, being helped along by their cat-brawls.

Regularisation of Plan implementation backlog and that of wilful projects in disregard of the Plan are inter-connected and equally devoid of basis in law or sense. A ludicrous idea is afloat that the issuance of mere promise gives the State the freedom to abrogate planned development.

By 2021 Delhi is to have 23 million people, which is twice what Delhi has land and water for. What is happening now is development for some new semi-legal schemes for NRIs, PIOs, MNCs, second-home buyers, etc. Besides, there is a full range of illegal tourism projects involving illegal freehold conversion of public land. For Delhiites this discourse fabricates and celebrates only do-it-yourself governance options and mere promises of regularisation, while exploring and crafting all options for penalties to ensure certainty, when push comes to shove, of the boot.

(The author is a reputed town planner)

unedited text of Whither Delhi?