Putting people at the centre
The 74th amendment to the Constitution gives the local self-government institutions a major role in the process of planning and administration. The amendment has had far-reaching consequences on how local bodies are administered and funded.
Among the tasks entrusted to the urban local bodies under the amendment are urban planning, comprising town planning, regulation of land use and planning for social and economic development. The micro areas in which these prescriptions have an impact are comprehensive, putting people at the centre.
Two papers at a recent seminar in Kochi seeks to put people at the centre of planning, breaking away from the tradition of imposing development plans from the top.
P.V.K. Rameshwar, Chairman, Graduate School and Head of the Department of Urban Design, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, asked whether people were the victims or stakeholders in a given development plan.
The fundamental question he raised is can planners and designers improve people’s lives and fulfil their aspirations.
Dunu Roy, Hazard Centre, New Delhi, asked if the political dispensation and “professional arrogance” allow participatory planning.
According to Prof. Rameshwar, planners assume that by virtue of their training and specialised knowledge, they have special knowledge of the development requirements and they make design interventions.
He said that current planning was based on a “positivist attitude.”
He said these assumptions gave rise to “a belief in centralised and hierarchical decision-making, theory of probability, oversimplification, contention with an overview, segregation, abstraction, city as economic space.”
K.A. MARTIN
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