The Hindu : New Delhi News : Joshi brokers peace between Delhi Govt., DDA officials

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 11, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Joshi brokers peace between Delhi Govt., DDA officials

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

The Delhi Lt.-Governor, B.L. Joshi, addressing the Members of the DDA and Advisory Council during the presentation of draft Master Plan for Delhi-2021, at Raj Niwas in Delhi on Monday.

NEW DELHI, JAN. 10. The Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi, B.L. Joshi, today averted an ugly showdown between the officials of the Delhi Development Authority and Members of the Authority and the Advisory Council when he declared that DDA would only send the draft Master Plan for Delhi-2021 to the Centre after it had incorporated the suggestions made by the Delhi Government.

It has been learnt that the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, was particularly peeved at the way DDA had been conducting its business of preparation of the draft plan without consulting the Delhi Government. As such, she had called some Members of the Authority, who are also Congress MLAs, and told them to walk out of the meeting at Raj Niwas -- where DDA was to submit to its Members and those of the Advisory Council the draft Master Plan for Delhi 2021 -- if the suggestions of the Delhi Government were not incorporated in the draft plan.

Ms Dikshit had also sent a letter to the Chairman of DDA, Mr Joshi, through the Delhi Urban Development Secretary, O.P. Kelkar, in which she had demanded that all residential areas having over 70 per cent of units engaged in industrial work, be declared industrial areas.

She also sought adherence to the 1977 policy for regularisation of all unauthorised colonies without any demolition, in situ development of jhuggi jhopri clusters and keeping land use flexible for the needs of the Capital. A Member, who attended the meeting, said the walk-out was averted by Mr Joshi as he assured the Members that the suggestions given by them and the Delhi Government would be incorporated in the draft plan before it is sent to the Centre.

At the meeting, the Member of Parliament from Outer Delhi, Sajjan Kumar, also used his stature as Member of the Advisory Council to seek protection for the rights of the villagers, jhuggi jhopri dwellers and residents of unauthorised colonies.

The DDA Member and MLA from Nasirpur, Mahabal Mishra, sought regularisation of unauthorised colonies without any demolitions, while the MLA of Jahangirpuri, Zile Singh Chauhan, vehemently opposed the proposal for a landfill site in his constituency in North West Delhi.

The Vice-Chairman of DDA, Madhukar Gupta, said at the meeting Delhi Government also aired its view that the Master Plan should be seen as five-year perspective plans to allow for greater flexibility in the future. Stating that the Members gave several suggestions, he said, they would be incorporated before the draft plan is submitted to the Centre. He said the Members also wanted involvement of local bodies such as MCD, NDMC and DDA in preparation of local area plans and demanded that the zonal plans for all the 15 zones -- which had not been prepared for the last 20 years -- be prepared within six to eight months. "We will make the zonal plans like structure plans,'' he declared.

Another major area of concern for the Members, he said, was rain-water harvesting. Stating that storage of water under houses would be taken up, he said, the plans would incorporate both roof-water harvesting and rain-water harvesting.

Finally, Mr Gupta assured the Members that the monitoring of the plan would be improved and physical date-wise targets would be set. Also, a high-level committee will be constituted to monitor the implementation of projects and the adherence to the set targets.

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