The Hindu         13.12.2011

‘Visionary’ Master Plan for Delhi

J. Balaji

The process of amending the Master Plan 2021 for Delhi
has begun and soon the government would set up a committee to work out
ways to develop Delhi as a clean and beautiful city, Union Urban
Development Minister Kamal Nath said on Monday.

The Master Plan “has to be visionary, keeping the next 25 years in mind,” he said.

Replying
to a debate on the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special
Provisions) Second Bill, 2011, in the Lok Sabha, which he introduced
earlier, he said the Bill was aimed at giving the government time from
January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2014, to give effect to and for orderly
implementation of government’s programmes, strategies, schemes,
guidelines, policies and plans to improve jhuggi-jhopri clusters,
regularise certain institutions that were rendering cultural and
religious (including spiritual, health care and educational) services.

The Master Plan was notified on February 7, 2007, which provided for its review and revision every five years.

Modifications

The
first review of the Master Plan, which was on now, would lead to
necessary modifications in the existing guidelines for matters such as
land use, notification of new commercial and industrial areas,
regulation in influence zone along metro lines and industrial areas
along with floor area ratio changes.

Mr. Nath said
the revised Master Plan would not only cover unauthorised colonies and
village abadi areas, but the whole of the National Capital Territory
(NCT) of Delhi.

The Bill was aimed at providing
relief and minimising avoidable hardships and irreparable loss to the
people of NCT Delhi against any punitive action by any agency in respect
of the persons covered by the government’s policies.

Jhuggis
(slum dwellings) posed a major problem to the administration. Over 90
per cent of the labourers who came from other States for construction
activities for the 1982 Asian Games remained in the Capital. Such jhuggi
clusters kept on increasing since then and the government would find a
solution for this, he said.

Mr. Nath also announced
that part 2 of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
(JNNURM) — the Central government’s programme for developing
infrastructure in the urban areas — would be implemented from the next
year.

Earlier, Sandeep Dikshit (Congress) made a
strong plea for providing statehood to Delhi (presently it is NCT Delhi)
to improve the infrastructure in the capital and to provide more
autonomy in the management of law and order and economics.

Vijay
Bahadur Singh (BSP) highlighted how the “permanent cold war” between
the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi Development
Authority (DDA) had made life miserable for the Delhiites.

‘Grave errors’

Shahnawaz Hussain (BJP) referred to the “grave
errors” in the Master Plan 2021 and claimed that the authorities
acquired farm lands in the Capital at throwaway prices and sold it at
exorbitant rates to the builders and the affluent. Delhi had thus gone
beyond the reach of the common man, he alleged.