The Hindu : New Delhi News : Master plan flayed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 08, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Master plan flayed

Staff Reporter

`No thought given to welfare of majority'

NEW DELHI: The Draft Delhi Master Plan, which intends to transform the Capital into a "world class" city by 2021, was the target of a scathing attack by the civil society organisation, Hazard, on the penultimate day -- Wednesday -- available to the public to file objections to the Plan.

"The Master Plan devised by our `world class' Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is only for the `world class' elite. It has no room for, or relevance to, the majority of the people who live here," said Hazard Director Dunu Roy.

The Plan, released on April 8 and available on the Internet and in an English publication, gave the public 90 days to put forward their objections. "How many people have access to the Internet and can read English? Is this really consulting with the people of Delhi?" asked Mr. Roy.

The divide between the proposed audience for the Master Plan and the majority of Delhiites was the theme of "Blueprint For An Apartheid City", a document chronicling the range of questions and objections raised by Hazard.

At the end of its scrutiny of the Master Plan, Hazard questions its very foundations. "Nowhere is there any explanation of the various `studies' that are cited in the Master Plan as the basis of the proposal," said Mr. Roy. Another of Hazard's objections arises from lack of adequate explanations for the various proposals in the document. "A case in point," said Mr. Roy "is the Master Plan's allocation of 25 square metres as the minimum residential plot for the weaker sections of society. That's well and good. However there is very little explanation of what the 25 sq. metres will include." Mr. Roy was not certain whether the 25 sq. metres -- which will be allotted in flats -- will include toilets or whether the allotted area would be purely private or include common areas.

Locking into the repeated use of "world class" in the document, Hazard also questions whether the DDA planners have built the city for foreigners or the people of Delhi. "What about the labourer, the clerk or the fruit seller?" asked Mr. Roy.

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