The Hindu : New Delhi News : All-party meet on Master Plan positive: Maken

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 01, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

All-party meet on Master Plan positive: Maken

Staff Reporter

Another meeting to be held on March 21

NEW DELHI: Describing the outcome of Tuesday's all-party meeting on the Master Plan for Delhi as very positive, Union Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken said all the political parties and representatives had been asked to submit their suggestions in writing over the next two weeks on what changes they would like to be incorporated into the Master Plan-2021.

At the meeting held in Nirman Bhavan and chaired by Union Minister for Urban Development Jaipal Reddy, political representatives gave a wide spectrum of suggestions for betterment and planned growth of the city. Mr. Maken said another meeting would be held on March 21where all the written suggestions would be taken up by the Ministry for detailed discussion. "This is the first time such a consultation process at the political level has been initiated and we hope to gain a lot of positives from this,'' he added.

It is learnt that a large number of leaders made a number of suggestions on various aspects of the Master Plan that need to be incorporated in view of the recent developments including demolitions.

CM attends

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who did not make any oral suggestions but is likely to give the same in writing, also attended the meeting.

At the outset of the meeting, various political leaders took up the matter of ongoing demolitions in the Capital and urged Mr. Reddy and Mr. Maken to resolve the issue amicably in the interest of all. However, Nationalist Congress Party MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri intervened and said the meeting had been called to discuss the Master Plan and not demolitions and therefore nobody should divert the issue.

Speaking out on behalf of the villagers of the Capital's rural belt, Mr. Bidhuri objected to the proposed definition of all the villages as "urban'' in the new document. He said the rural areas should be given a special status and the rural character of the villagers should be protected at any cost. He said the villagers had no ownership over land and so how could the building by-laws be applied there. Instead he suggested that the authorities fix the height of the buildings in the rural belt at 15 metres and anything beyond that should invite punitive action.

Mr. Bidhuri said when the rural village was turned into urban, the gram sabha land immediately got transferred in the name of the Delhi Development Authority and this was not the right thing. He also demanded abolition of Section 81A of the Delhi Land Reforms Act that vested gram sabha land into government hold.

Former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler said a provision should be made to ensure that a 3 km belt around the international and domestic airports should have provision for construction of hotels, motels for various categories of travellers.

Zonal plans

There was also a suggestion that the concept of zonal plans be revived and the MCD actively involved in the process of planning and development.

Prominent among those present in the meeting were Outer Delhi MP Sajjan Kumar; DPCC president Ram Babu Sharma; Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan; Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Jagdish Mukhi.

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