Capital chaos

The present demolition drive in Delhi would prove to be a futile attempt to rectify the larger problem of poor urban plan implementation

Sandeep Yadav Delhi

A pro-active High Court came down heavily on flagrant encroachments and illegal structures in the capital compelling the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to train its bulldozers towards new, mighty targets. The hue and cry reminiscent of the demolitions of the Emergency surrounded residential colonies and commercial establishments. The noise-making class felt the heat, influencing a nervous Chief Minister of Delhi to contemplate an ordinance on the lines of the one recently issued in Mumbai. But better sense prevailed and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the formation of a committee under the central urban development ministry to study all illegal constructions, except those on government land. Although the political class thus has bought valuable time, the roar of the bulldozers has not been silenced. "Had the ten specific measures recorded in the cabinet note during my tenure been followed, the situation would not have been so drastic," said Jagmohan, the former urban affair minister.

As the foreground is dominated by these happenings, some basic questions remain. How did such a massive unauthorised build up take place under the nose of the mandated government bodies? What about the master plans for the showcased capital city?

Many inconvenient bits of history are tucked under the belt of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which was set up in 1957 as a single planning and controlling body for all urban areas in the city. It is altogether different matter that it refuses to be embarrassed. DDA very conveniently puts all the blame of Delhi's woes to the increasing population of the city. But the fact is that all the master plans had been formed visualising this increase in population that has by and large kept pace with the expectations of the planners. Sometimes there has been a marginal increase of 8 to 10 per cent over expectations, but then, that should have been manageable.

The real reason is the deviation from the master plans. "The Delhi Master Plan was a landmark in every sense of the word, and is followed by several smaller cities. What fails the people is the non-implementation of it," rues Professor Kavas Kapadia, Head of the Department, Urban Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi.

What was planned was not carried out. And what was carried out was not planned. For example, there was no mention of the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games or Olympics in the 2021 Plan. Now the fund allocated for other projects and construction has been pumped into developing the infrastructure for these games. In the Master Plan (1981-2001), 32,000 hectares of land were allocated for housing schemes, whereas only 11,000 hectares were actually provided. The same holds for commercial centres and industrial areas, for which only one-third of the proposed land was provided. The result? Not enough shopping centres in the city and sprouting of shops in the residential areas. How could these shops flourish if there were enough provided for by the DDA?

SS Shafi, who was involved with the planning of the city since the Authority's establishment, is on record as saying that the DDA has "emerged as the largest real estate agency in the world, with over 50,000 acres of prime metropolitan land at its disposal". The DDA is administered by the central government and is answerable only to Parliament. Its monopoly, without any popular control, over land, and the lack of transparency in its functioning are its fatal flaws. Every Master Plan is based on the study and research by the DDA. However when it is asked to make those reports public, it refuses on the grounds of "not being in public interest".