The Hindu : New Delhi News : Master Plan dubbed as `elite plan'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 03, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Master Plan dubbed as `elite plan'

Staff Reporter

`Common man will lose out in the scheme of things'

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Government may have envisaged the Capital as a "World Class City" by 2021, but concerned citizens have labelled the draft Master Plan 2021 as an "elite" plan. Criticising it for "emphasis" on privatisation, "lack" of planning especially in the transportation sector, "concentration" on the rich and numerous other counts, various people's organisations are trying to put together a "People's Plan".

Notified in early April, the draft plan is available for comments, objections and suggestions till July 7.

And with just about a month left for sending in objections for the Master Plan, various citizen groups are busy preparing a strategy to register their objections.

According to citizens groups, the plan with its emphasis on privatisation is far from being a plan for the common man. "There is a lot of emphasis on privatisation. The logic is that the government agencies have failed to provide the services they were supposed to. And also, private agencies are more efficient. But has anyone tried to find out why the public enterprises did not work out? In this way, it is the common man who will lose out," said Dunu Roy of Hazards Centre. The impressive projections sketched in the plan have also been criticised. "These are not based on any hard data. Also, there is a shortage of resources in the city. Instead of working towards better distribution among different areas, according to the plan, the norms will be changed ," said Mr. Roy.

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