Friday, November 10, 2006

Campus Villages/faulty Urban Planning

R o b b y S h a r m a 865, Block-B,Panki Kanpur-208020
Uttar Pradesh. INDIA
Freelance Research Scholar Ph:09235844258; 09415438326
Town & Country Planning Problems Email.sharmarobby@hotmail.com
To :
The Honorable Member of Parliament 10th November-2006
Respected M.P. Ji
I had sent nearly similar letters to the letter reproduced below to more than 100 honorable parliamentarians on 19th September-2001 & 12th January 2001 but regret to say that only one M P bothered to acknowledge the letter which concerns the welfare of crores of poor peasants and requires immediate attention, I am sending it again and request your help.
Thanking you
Yours sincerely


[Robby sharma]
865, Block-B, Panki Kanpur-208020
Email:-sharmarobby@hotmail.com
SUB:- Rapid conversion of villages falling within Municipalities & Urban development
areas into filthy slums destruction of village culture & deprivation of the right to
life of crores of their inhabitants due to faulty urban planning.
I would like to draw your attention to the following important points which ought to have been kept in mind while going in for any kind of Urban planning in India however no planner has ever paid any heed to these problems with the result that crores of inhabitants of many thousands of villages have been uprooted from their traditional occupations, left to beg on the streets of cities or to wash utensils in urban households or to take up cleaning jobs, to toil as gardeners in bungalows or to act as coolies or to pull a rickshaw in short to take up the lowliest of lowly jobs in the cities, These are the same villagers who were once the proud farmers & village artisans till their villages were unfortunately included in some Municipality or other Urban area without any fault of their own.
[1] THAT the villagers have also been guaranteed the right to live with dignity by article 21
of the constitution.
[2] THAT the way of living of the villagers is quite different from that of the urban populace & continues to be so even after their villages are included into urban areas, the income of the villagers is quite low as compared to that of the urban populace.
[3] THAT the villager subsists on agriculture, animal husbandry , fishing, jungle produce, agricultural labor, horticulture & various traditional arts crafts & Occupations.
[4] THAT a very large proportion of village populace owns none or very little personal agricultural land & a very large part of their economic activities is carried out over VILLAGE COMMON UTILITY LANDS such as talabs, pasture or grazing land, usar(unfurtile) banjar( Barren) , beehad (uneven) land, Playgrounds, lands for celebrating of festivals, fuel wood growing jungles, land for haat & bazaar(Open air Village market) water channels, pathways, drains, nalas, abadi sites etc.
There is always provision for reservation of sites for future growth of abadi in which land for houses is allotted free to weaker sections of village populace land is allotted for making earthen utensils to kumhars(Potters), singhara & lotus is cultivated in certain ponds ,fisheries is also done by certain castes.
Every Village household owns one or two cows or buffaloes the milk of which serves as the major source of food & nourishment for the family & excess is bartered for other household needs, in short these milch cattle kept for personal needs play a very important part in the economic well being of the villagers, the small children of the house take them to the grazing grounds[pasturelands] as a result the cost of feeding these animals is very little.These animals kept for personal needs should never be confused with chatta animals.
[5] That by U.P.ZAMINDARI ABOLITION & LAND REFORMS ACT 1950, a separate chapter was included [chapter 7].for the management of these lands for the benefit of the inhabitants of the villages where these lands were situated as on 7th of JULY 1949. THE villages were equated to MINI REPUBLICS by this ACT & these REFORMS were protected by the first amendment of the Constitution in the 9th Schedule.
Similarly ACTS for AGRARIAN REFORMS were enacted by all the States of INDIA, provisions were made in them for protection of village common utility lands, PUNJAB even made a Village Common Lands Act of 1961 but even there these lands which came to be included in Towns & Cities were grabbed for urban purposes only. In short the common utility lands should have been treated as Abadi (Settlement) lands of villages for all practical purposes but this was not done.
Just as the common utilities like parks, roads, footpaths, public toilets, Bus stands, Markets, Railways and other Common utilities of urban inhabitants can not be denied to them in case of some rural development schemes in the same way the rural populace’s common utility lands have to be protected for their exclusive use.
Just as the urban common utilities cannot be sold off or otherwise utilized by the government although it owns them so also the common utilities of the rural populace can not be sold off or otherwise utilized by the governments although they may claim ownership.
It will not be out of context to mention here that when these villages are included in urban areas no scheme is ever made to offer them wholly urban occupations nor is it at all possible to do so.
In a poor country like INDIA, rural occupations have to co exist along with urban occupations that is why you come across thousands of stray cows on the town roads, they can not be done away with, what needs to be done is to plan properly and absorb the villages in towns in such a way that the villagers right to earn his bread from his traditional occupation is protected and at the same time steps are taken to protect urban facilities.
[6] That these gaonsabha lands (common lands) were to be managed for the living Gaon Samaj (consisting of all the inhabitants of the village) as per chapter- VII -of the U.P. Zamindari Abolition Act & Sections 28-a,28-bof U. P. Panchayat Raj Act 1947,rules115-a to 115-u,of U.P.Z.A.& L.R Act 1950. Similar provisions must have been made by other states also.
The statement of objects & reasons of U.P.Zamindari Abolition & Land Reforms Act-1950 as published in U. P. Gazette Extraordinary Dt.10th June 1949.very specifically reads about the common utility lands as hereunder:-
“All lands of common utility such as abadi sites, pathways, wastelands, Forests, Fisheries, public wells, tanks and water channels will be vested in the Village community or the Gaon Samaj consisting of all the residents of the village as well as the pahipasht cultivators. The Gaon panchayat acting on behalf of the village community has been entrusted with wide powers of land management. This measure which makes a Village a small Republic and a cooperative community is intended to facilitate economic and social development to encourage the growth of social responsibility and community spirit.” In other words the Rights of the Villagers as original Settlers on the Lands since times immemorial were recognized & the Villages were given permanence. No longer could the Villagers be allowed to become a Slum of some City when they were engulfed by the Urban Agglomerates as used to happen in the past that is why the U.P.Z.A. Act-1950 exempted only such Villages from the operation of the Act as were on 7th of July 1949 situated in the limits of some Municipality or Cantonment or Town area. To all other Villages this Act was to remain operative even if in future that is after 7th of July 1949, they were unlucky to come within limits of some Urban Agglomerate. None of the Urban Act / Municipal Act could have nor has repealed this Agrarian Reform Act. Only the private lands of such villages can be acquired by the Town Planning Authorities under the Land Acquisition Act & the Villagers are free to undertake alternative occupations on these common lands. As long as the Scheme of Land Acquisition is such that the Village settlements are not displaced, their common lands can not be taken away from them. In cases of emergency nature like irrigation Dams & related to Defense needs of the Country which by nature are such that existing settlements have to be shifted, in such cases the Villagers have to be provided common lands at the site where they are shifted.
[7] . THAT after these villages came to be included into Municipalities the Gaon-sabhas (Body Corporate for management of common lands for Village related matters like Agriculture including Horticulture, Poultry, animal Husbandry, Pissiculture & development & welfare of Village Artisans & Cottage Industries etc)of these villages became defunct but the living Gaon-samaj ( Consisting of all the Inhabitants of these Villages) continued to live & were entitled to the use of their common utility lands. No Rights of the villagers can ever be extinguished in their common utility lands nor were they ever extinguished by any land Acquisition notification for the private agricultural lands of the villagers for which they were paid compensation.
The Management of these lands were entrusted to the Nagar-Mahapalikas (Municipal Corporations) by various vesting notifications of the Revenue departments but the overall control & superintendence remained with the District Collectors. No Municipal or Urban Planning law has ever diluted the Zamindari Abolition benefits given to these villagers nor have these authorities ever been given the mandate of law to ignore the development of Villages nor have they been given any mandate of law to usurp these lands. Even after vesting of these lands in the Development authorities for Management only they have to be utilized for the benefit( as per provisions of the U. P. Zamindari Abolition & Land Reforms Acr-1950) of the Villagers of those Villages where they were situated. As such schemes for the benefit of these villagers should have been made on these keeping in view the special needs of these villagers for their economic upliftment.
This was never done nor were any rules made by the state Government to provide for the obligations placed on local authorities vide section 126 of U.P. Nagar-Mahapalika act 1959.with the result that the local & urban authorities took a biased view of the vesting notifications & started grabbing these common utility lands for their own vested interests other Politicians, Bureaucrats, land mafias and other rich & powerful people have grabbed these lands on a large scale.
The actual value of the grabbed lands can run into several lakh of Crores of rupees in Uttar Pradesh alone. The Senior bureaucrats of the revenue Department, the Awas department &the Nagar Vikas department are actively involved that is why in spite of 50 years of the passing of U.P.Z.A.& L.R. Act the various revenue officers have not allotted such Gaon sabha waste lands (other than un-allottable lands such as Pasture, Forests, Talabs etc as were prohibited by Section-132 of the U.P.Z.A Act-1950) as could be improved for agricultural purposes by their labor, to the weaker sections of these villages for whom they were meant as per the rules made & left them free to be grabbed by vested interests.
It is quite surprising that most of these allot able lands were not allotted even in Villages which came to be included in towns for the first time in the nineties it was a well thought of plan by the Bureaucrats to leave them so as they knew fully well that the value of these lands would increase greatly with the expansion of Cities at which time they could grab them through their agents by filing declaration cases under section 229-b of the U.P.Z.A.Act which does not put any limitation on these cases with the result that thousands of cases are being filed for claiming ownership Rights on the basis of forged documents, to these lands which have remained in revenue records as common purpose lands for decades.
Now suddenly new owners are coming up with forged pattas (leases/licence) allegedly given by now long dead Zamindars (erstwhile intermediaries) in back dates, the sons & daughters of these Zamindars are giving evidence that the signatures belong to their father, the lekhpals (Patwaris) are forging the entries in revenue records, the government lawyers the tehsildar, the S D O ,the S D M ,the Board of Revenue people are all assisting the grabbers for a price with the result that these lands are fast being converted from common utility lands into private lands & are then being sold even talabs(Ponds) have vanished in such a manner because during Zamindari times there was no bar on the Zamindar to grant pattas(leases) on Talabs(Ponds) or Pasturelands such pattas were banned after Zamindari Abolition.
Kanpur Development Authority claims to have been vested with Gaon Sabha lands of 228 villages vide Revenue Department of U. P. Gazette notification no.68/3-2(6)-1979 revenue 1 dated lucknow september-5-1986 surprisingly most of these villages have their own gram Panchayats a proper inquiry will bring to light the conspiracy to grab the common utility lands of these villages by corrupt bureaucrats.
The test case of Kanpur Development Authority will amply demonstrate this unholy nexus this Authority of a dead & decaying city has been vested with gaon sabha lands of around 400 villages running into approx 20000 hectares worth
around ten thousand crores (100 billion Rupees) @ minimum rate of Rs 500/=per sq meter at residential rates. The city is close to Lucknow as such the guilty bureaucrats & politicians headquartered in Lucknow can easily control the land grabbing through their agents. similarly in other states also politicians Bureaucrats & the rich & powerful mafia are grabbing these common utility lands.
[8] That the Town planning departments from the very beginning erred in thinking that all such villagers of the villages falling under Local authority or Urban authority had been converted into Necktie supporting town folk moving around in cars & had successfully taken to town vocations The planning Authorities planned accordingly with the result that the Villagers turned into Coolies, Laborers, Utensil washers, Gardeners or took to Crime.
They could easily have been rehabilitated on their common utility lands(which are only about 10 to 20 % of the Agricultural Lands) by making proper schemes (of Cottage Industries, Pissiculture, Poultry, Animal Husbandry, Horticulture etc)on them the only problem could have been that these common utility lands were spread far & wide as such the continuity of the town schemes could have been effected.
As a very easy solution to this problem the common utility lands could have been collected together and attached to the village abadi sites in proportion to their populace (Inhabitants & Cattle) by exchanging them with private acquired lands so that the continuity of other schemes could be maintained. Thus about 80 to 90 % of the Land of these Villages would have been available for Town Planning Schemes leaving 10 to 20 % to the Villagers for alternative occupations the produce of which like milk, fruits, vegetables, Poultry, Fish & handicrafts which are in any case essential for the needs of the Urban Populace.
The talabs(Ponds) could be dug on the alternate site & arrangement to fill them by tube wells could have been made the & the Land landscaped in such a way to provide for their filling by rainwater, the fuel wood growing jungles could also be planted on the new sites, alternate drainage & nalas could be arranged. The Villagers could have limited grazing Land for their Cattle & place at safe distance but not too far away from settlement to tether the Cattle, the waste products could be carried away daily(legislation provided for this purpose).
There would have been no problem in shifting the pastureland,
The Playground, the bazaar land, the land reserved for growth of Abadi,(presently they are expected to buy land for their needs at Thousands of Rs a square meters although their Common lands have been grabbed for free & these common lands were actually set aside for community needs by the villagers themselves or the original body of settlers from time to time from amongst the Land on which they settled), the other kinds of lands to the new sites around the village Abadi (settlement), here the villagers should have been encouraged to setup non polluting kutir- udyogs (Cottage Industries), earthen pot making , horticulture ,animal husbandry sustainable on the available Pastureland, the cattlesheds could be made on the lands adjacent to the pastures.
In short the villagers of effected villages could have been provided alternate lands for their traditional trades & occupations& thus even after loss of private agricultural lands they would have been able to live with dignity in somewhat restricted manner with the help of these Common utility lands.
Instead there is talk of shifting the entire milch cattle to outside the town limits which is nothing but an absurd proposal thought of by the elitist sections of society who although born in the poorest of the poor county like India have America & Europe in mind & they want to have the following pleasures of life.
[A] -They want that the towns should be planned keeping in view only the interests of the rich although more than 80%of the populace in cities also comprises of the poor yet no planning is made for them. Majority of land should be reserved for the poor but they are made to rot on the waysides. The land of the farmer is at the slightest pretext acquired for the rich ,now when there is need for housing the poor in the middle of the town near to their place of work does any Planner, Politician, Bureaucrat have the guts to acquire the bungalows of the rich & shift them outside the cities just like the humble farmer who has been booted around for ages.There is no bar to acquisition of bungalows in the Land Acquisition act in fact improvement of Village Sites has been accorded first priority in the definition of public purpose in the Land Acquisition act of 1894.
[B] they want that a poor woman should come everyday at least twice to wash their utensils for fifty rupees a month & then should vanish she should not pollute or give a bad look to the town by living in some slum by the roadside nor bathe under a public tap[the only place she has].
Similarly the Gardner should vanish after trimming their lawn so also the Rickshawala, the Coolie the Washer man the Kumhar, the Barber, the Vegetable Vendor the Sweeper, the carpenter who sells a chair for rupees thirty to a poor man & plies his trade besides the main road of the town from where he is shooed away by the Municipal Authorities who never made any plan for him ,he is an encroacher on the road because that is where his market is. He cannot buy a shop for ten lakh. Shoo him from there he will return, he has to.The only other alternative for him is to beg or die.
[C] they want that the milk-wala should come to their house with his cow & milk it in front of their eyes then he too should vanish there should be no filth on the road, the milk wala with his Cow or two should go 40 kilometer outside the town tie it up in the cattle colony there, come to his village in the city and repeat the process
in the evening(so that Mr Urbanite can have pure milk) & then vanish again for the night or he can sleep in the Cattle Colony with his Cow so can his Wife & so can his Child.
[9] That due to the horrific state of affairs Article 243 (ZD & ZE.) was inserted in THE CONSTITUTION maybe to strike a balance between urban needs & rural needs, to provide for matters of common interest between municipalities and the Panchayats in making of plans for Metropolitan areas by the Metropolitan planning committee & for making Plans for District by District Planning Committees which have to take in to account the plans of the Municipalities as also plans of the Panchayats.
All the Urban Development authorities of the States having more than ten lakhs population under their jurisdiction qualify as Metropolitan area as defined by article 243-P(c) of the constitution & the State Governments have only to issue the notification for this purpose.
(i)- Now there is no longer any scope for a purely Urban Authority
to the detriment of the Rural populations affected by Urban Conglomerates. As such all Urban Development Authorities have to be abolished.
(ii)- That Article-243 in its entirety & specially Articles 243-ZD & 243-ZE have to be followed in such areas.
(iii)- That now the Spatial Planning has to be done keeping in view the common interests of Municipalities & Village Panchayats (Town dwellers & villagers).
(iv)- Master Plans of Panchayats & Municipalities have to be prepared. There is no scope of any Master Plan of Urban Development Authorities.
(v)- That the Planning process has been given back to peoples representatives i.e. Municipal Councilors & Panchayat members & pradhans from whom it was usurped by the even then Illegal Purely Urban Acts. In case of District Planning Committees ,Four Fifths of members have to be from this category & in case of Metropolitan Areas (Development Areas having more than ten Lakh Population), minimum Two thirds have to be from this category.
(vi)- That the Urban Development Authorities (being temporary entities by their very Acts) have to be abolished.
(vii)- That can the Urban Development Authority, shift all the Cattle to the Villages, in order just to save the City from the so called filth, without the Villagers to whose villages they are shifted , having a say in this regard.
(viii)- That can the Urban Development Authority, shift all the Pigs to the Villages, to pollute them, in order just to save the City from the filth, without the Villagers to whose villages they are shifted, having a say in this regard.
(ix)- That can the Urban Development Authority, shift all the Slaughter Houses to the Villages, to pollute them, in order just to save the City from the Health hazard, without the Villagers to whose villages they are shifted, having a say in this regard.
(x)- That can the Urban Development Authority, throw all the Garbage in or near the Villages, to pollute them, to save the City from the so called filth, without the Villagers to whose villages they are shifted, having a say in this regard.
(xi)- That can the Urban Development Authority, shift all other Obnoxious trades to the Villages, to pollute them, in order just to save the City from the so called filth, without the Villagers to whose villages they are shifted, having a say in this regard.
(xii)- That can the Urban Development Authority deprive the Villagers from their common utility land, so necessary for their traditional trades & occupation, which become the only source of livelihood after the acquisition of agricultural lands & at the same time not offer them some alternative trade or occupation, which may not require these lands.
(xiii)- That can the urban Development Authority deprive such Villagers, who never had any private agricultural lands ever and as such are totally dependent upon these common utility lands for their livelihood, such as Kumhar, Shephard , fishermen, Barber, Cobbler, small shopkeepers who sell their ware on village Haat Bazar Lands, persons collecting honey in the village forests, there are many such trades & occupations of the villagers.
(xiv)- That the answer has to be naturally NO.
xv)- That the Lal Dora applicable in Delhi & other Cities regarding villages comprised in them should include all the common utility lands of these villages if the spirit of the constitutional amendment is to be honored.
[10] That in view of the above I request you to keep in mind the poverty of the country, the interests of the poor [who are the majority in cities] & plan accordingly & to throw out all Acts & laws of the country which cater only to the elite.
[11] That I request you not to sanction any legislation which ignores the interests of the villages that are by passage of time included in the local authority or a Municipality or a Nagar Nigam or a Urban Development Authority.
[12] That I call upon you to make future legislations regarding Urban planning of cities in such a way that the common utility lands of the villages falling into the trap of cities are collected together around the abadi (Settlement) sites of these villages in the manner as suggested above & utilized for the benefit of these village people.
To stop the cattle from straying onto the main roads suitable fencing can be done. in this way a green area can be developed around all the villages.
There are hundreds of mills ,many colleges, Govtt Offices, Universities, IIT, Research Establishments, Medical colleges , I. T.I s, Polytechnics, Directorates having Campuses of 50 acres or more some have even up to 500 acres & Defence Establishments & Townships of thousands of acres are there in Kanpur as well as in many other Towns why can we not have the two hundred Villages with their own 50 or 60 acres of common purpose lands around them in a Campus enclosed by a fence or moat or Boundary wall. The arterial roads, the sewage lines , the water Supply lines, the electric lines, the rail lines can pass through above or below or around these lands of the villages as they do through above or below or around other Urban establishments if money can be spent to give facilities to rich urbanites why can it be not spent to give some to these poor villagers?
[13] I call upon you to arrange for a survey of the villages included in the Cities & Urban Authorities of the states & see for yourself how they have turned into slums in the absence of their common utility lands & I further call upon you to plan for provision of land to them for common utility even if it means acquiring lands & buildings adjacent to them & presently being used for other purposes by the rich.
[14] I further call upon you to exert your influence on the Town Planning Authorities so that the major portion of land in cities is reserved for the poor who form the majority in them & ensure that they are provided commercial & living accommodation according to their genuine needs at the minimum possible cost which they can actually afford most importantly that they are provided accommodation near to their place of occupation so that they are not forced to live in unauthorized slums.
[15] I call upon all the Town Planners, Architects & Schools of Planning & Architecture to plan on the lines suggested above so that the dignity & self respect of the humble villager can be saved as also his Right to life protected in the event of his Village Coming within the limits of a Urban Agglomerate & his village is absorbed as a Campus Village in it.
thanking you
yours faithfully


[ROBBY SHARMA,865, Block-B, Panki Kanpur-208020]
E.MAIL:- sharmarobby@hotmail.com
Copy:- 1. The Prime Minister of India
2. The President of India.
3.THE CHIEF MINISTERS OF ALL THE STATES OF INDIA
4.THE REVENUE SECRETARY U.P.& OTHER REVENUE AUTHORITIES
5.SECRETARY Urban Planning Government of India
6.SECRETARY NAGAR VIKAS U.P.
7.SECRETARY RURAL DEVELOPMENT INDIA
8.THE URBAN DEVELOPMENT MINISTER OF INDIA.
9.THE RURAL DEVELOPMENT MINISTER OF INDIA.
10. Schools of Planning & Architecture.
11. Practicing Architects x

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Delhi Sealing Of Shops

R o b b y S h a r m a 865, Block-B,Panki Kanpur-208020
Uttar Pradesh. INDIA
Freelance Research Scholar Ph:0-9235844258; 0-9415438326
Town & Country Planning Problems Email.sharmarobby@hotmail.com

To-
The Shri S.Jaipal Reddy 19-09-2006
Minister of Urban Development
Government of India

Dear Sir Sub:-regarding Sealing orders by the Supreme Court of India
& your effort of MAKING A MASTER PLAN
AS PER ILLEGAL DEVELOPMENTS an act
Opposite to your mandate of ensuring
DEVELOPMENT AS PER PLAN
Please refer to my earlier letter reproduced below, to which no heed has been paid by your department & now the Result is that the Supreme Court has again questioned the Revised Master Plan/Land-User proposals sought to be notified by you. In fact I am surprised that till now the Honorable Supreme Court has not questioned all the Revisions in the Delhi Master Plan effected by you under the Delhi Development Authority Act-1957.There is no provision in the D.D.A. Act for REVISION OF THE MASTER PLAN, You can make only minor amendments not effecting the basic structure of the Master Plan & the population density. What you have tried to do by revising the Master Plan is preposterous, You wish to condemn the City to a state of CHAOS for perpetuity. True that the Traders are agitated but they have to bear with you for a year or two & you can act on the lines mentioned below & gradually bring in rebuilding Schemes after repealing the old Schemes ensuring enough Commercial space within the Residential Zones while at the same time maintain the separation of Residential & Commercial areas of the Zone.& for this you can seek permission of the Supreme Court by giving all the reasons below. Please note that the Town Planning Acts were brought in To provide for DEVELOPMENT AS PER PLAN while what you are trying to do by Revising the Master Plan is to legalize all the illegal developments i.e you are MAKING A PLAN AS PER ILLEGAL DEVELOPMENTS i.e Opposite to the very Objects & reasons of the enactment of the Town Planning Acts including Delhi Development Authority Act. Thus by your action you wish to legalize & confirm the horrible hell like condition of Delhi & condemn the future generations to live in this hell. Please remember the Cities are supposed to have a perpetual existence.
Thanks.


Letter dated 21-02-2006 reproduced below:-


Dear Sirs 21-02-2006
Sub: Demolition & Sealing orders by various Courts/High Courts &
Supreme Court of India passed against illegal buildings, mis-user of
Land etc in Contravention of the Master Plan & building
Byelaws. Why ? & now What?
1. The various demolition orders passed against illegal buildings, by the High Court & Supreme Court are on account of the failures of the Town Planning Authorities.
2. After the British left & then after the personnel in the Town Planning departments, trained under the British, retired from the service, an acute shortage of Town planners (in the real sense) was felt in the Country & slowly but surely this department is now managed by people having no idea of Town planning laws at all.
3. The Schools of Planning & Architecture do not teach anything about the Town Planning laws which have been in force from time to time, they do not teach anything about the Fundamental Rights of the Citizens Town Dwellers, nothing about the Municipal laws, nothing about the Rights of Villagers over whose Lands these Ill taught Town planners later on plan their towns & Cities, they are not taught the fine points of the Land Acquisition Law (the Blackest & most brutal law in the Country). In fact they are not aware that in making their plans for Cities they have to first Plan for the Rehabilitation of the Villagers displaced by their Town Planning schemes. They are not aware how to protect the benefits of agrarian reforms given to the villagers in the various agrarian reform laws enacted by various states shortly after independence, these landmark reforms were nullified by these ill trained Town Planners & greedy Bureaucrats to the detriment of crores of villagers whose only fault was that their villages had fallen in to the trap of these expanding cities &the executive as well as the judiciary failed miserably to uphold their fundamental rights & the Cities kept on expanding patterned on the Cities of the affluent western Countries without taking in to account the poverty, the special needs of the people in general who populate them. In short what these Town Planners only know is about buildings & structures, their strengths & weaknesses, about drawings about Landscaping & that is about all.
4. No proper surveys are ever done. You are most likely to come across Planned Industrial areas for Textile goods in the vicinity of Villages where the majority are Dairymen then there will be Dairy farms in an area where the majority of villagers are proficient in shoe making (belonging to certain such castes who have practiced the occupation since ages). This can go on & on for thousands of pages.
5. In the context of the present problem it may suffice to state here that the problem of illegal buildings has become acute after the enactment of “Delhi Development Authority Act-in the late fifties “wherein the declared purpose was for tackling the problems of Town Planning resolutely & it was stated that the other Town Planning Authorities had failed miserably to do so without explaining how”. In actual fact the main & hidden aim of the Bureaucrats, in to getting the D.D.A Act & thereafter other laws of other States patterned on it like “Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning & Development Act-1973”, was to bring the vast Land resources of the Nagar Mahapalikas as also Lakhs of Hectares of Village common utility lands( under Gaon Sabha/Gaon Panchayat)from under the control of the elected ,Peoples Representatives, to under the control of the Bureaucrats of the Centre/State, so that they could make thousands of crores by mis-utilizing these lands, for their own vested interests. In short the Town Planning activity which also contributed a major portion of earnings of Municipalities was snatched from them & thus from the elected representatives.
6. It is matter of common knowledge that after the establishment of Urban Authorities, the situation in the Cities took a turn for the worse & there was rapid deterioration of civic life. These Authorities acquired Lakhs of Hectares of Land without being in a position to develop them & they could never keep pace with the demand & in fact they, The Government Authorities indulged in hoarding of land on a large scale like Sukkhi lala of Mother India(who used to hoard grain & ask for the honor of needy women in return for it)& releasing land in small quantities of schemes of a few acres each thus creating a artificial shortage of land & jacking up the prices every now & then, the release price bears no resemblance to the cost of acquisition & the increase in rates are wholly unjustified. Thus being denied from much needed Housing Land, the poor clustered around & settled in to slums on these vast & surplus Government Lands from where they are uprooted time & again, with the help of the Police by the brave hearted men of these Authorities as well as the High Courts & Supreme Courts who have never gone in to the root of the problem & simply harp on such & such Law. & never suggested a solution.
7. It will be interesting to note the Observations of the Supreme Court in three cases to reach the conclusion as to how we have failed after independence to plan for our poor who were much better of under the British in any case under them there was no dearth of housing sites. It was observed in the case of State of west Bengal v/s Terra Firma Investment & Trading private Ltd, reported in 1995SCC(1)125 “during the British period the villages were self sufficient & thus there was very little urban growth” ………..direction-10:-“the development of city or urban area is to last for centuries as such authorities are expected to anticipate & foresee the problems that may arise due to future growth of the Population”.
8. Now compare this with the Observation of the Supreme Court in the case of Olga Tellis & Ors v/s Bombay Municipal Corporation & ors reported in 1986 AIR, SC,180 & 1985SCC(3)545 & thereafter in the case of K. Chandru etc etc V/s State of Tamil Nadu reported in 1986AIR,Sc204 & 1985 SCC(3) 536 wherein it is observed “the massive migration of rural population to big Cities is because of lack of livelihood in the villages. If he is evicted from the slums, pavement in city then his very right to life is in jeopardy in violation of Article 21 & 19(1)(e) & (g).
9. The Supreme Court clearly said that Slums are due to the failure of the Authorities in implementing the Master Plan provisions. All this was merely lip service, the Supreme Court has failed abjectly to see that no plans have in fact ever been made for the poor in the first place & the Master Plans are Patterned on the western pattern & cater mainly to the elite.
10. In the case at hand in Delhi the authority simply failed to foresee that Commercial activity will overshadow all walks of life & in the earlier Schemes, no provision was made for this & instead in the entire Master Plan only about 2 to 3 % of the area was kept aside for Commercial Use while the demand has now stretched to more than 50 %. When these old Schemes were implemented in the forties & fifties & Sixties, the commercial needs of the residents were mainly restricted to a Barber Shop or two in the Sector, a tailor Shop or two, a grocery Shop or two, A kirana shop or two, a few Paan & Cigarette shops, a Tea shop, a eatery or two, then there was the Cobbler sitting under some tree & a few vegetable vendors. Thus in a Residential Sector only a small commercial center with twenty to thirty shops was made & this commercial center could not cope with the hunger for commercial space with the result that in the absence of timely rebuilding Schemes by the Authorities, the Residential properties soon got converted to Commercial ones with the result that on the one hand residential accommodation has become much dearer due to Commercial demand, hurting very badly the needy & on the other hand half of the Citizens have become thieves due to MISUSER & Illegal Buildings & there is traffic congestion on the roads, lack of parking space & generally CHAOS all around, with no solution in sight & the High Court & Supreme Court have ordered for the demolition/sealing of these Illegal buildings.
11. There is talk of the Delhi Government doing this & the Central Government doing that & of giving immunity to those who have done these illegal acts & in future not to allow any further violations(now everybody knows that this promises will be never be kept).
12. So the only solution is massive rebuilding Time bound (completed in two years) Schemes in these areas, the Old Schemes have to be revoked & in every 1000 acres of these Residential areas/Sectors, two or three parcels of 40 to 50 acres have to be selected & acquired & developed as Commercial Sectors, separated from purely residential sections by means of a thick strip of green cover & broad roads. In these Commercial Sections, Residential property owners may be given a choice to be partners in the fresh developments & if they disagree then Lands be acquired under the Land Acquisition Act-1894 with the application of section-17(4) & thereafter Commercial buildings with adequate parking facilities can come up & the existing (ordered to be demolished) Shops/Commercial ventures should be shifted there. Till such time these illegal Misusers to be allowed with heavy fine.
13. The Rent Control Act will have to be suspended in these areas for the Scheme to be successful. Multi story parking sites should be set aside & handed over to the Ex Armymen Organization/Soldier board etc to give rewarding alternative occupation to them on the one hand & on the other to save the public from the PARKING MAFIA of goonda elements who generally operate these Parking lots.
14. In future planning the present practice of confining residential plots to
residential uses as practiced by Authorities should be discontinued in view of
the present conditions wherein Commercial activity has taken over almost 50 % of all
towns & City areas all over the Country. Instead only a few uses like wholesale mandis , factories & other hazardous uses should be prohibited in residential Zones & Plots & all other uses including Commercial should be permitted, with reduced F.A.R. Even in small states like Goa it is being done the only restriction should be regarding front Set Back which should be double than in residential buildings with minimum of 25 feet( exemption from provisions of building line) & this set back should not be infringed in any case(keeping roads & footpath free from parking)& there should be no permanent boundary wall in front so that vehicles of visitors are accommodated inside the plot only. The Authority if it wishes to sell plots at double the Residential plot’s rates can do so & allow double the F.A.R. on purely Commercial plots.
15. In future Schemes there should always be a fixed lifespan of various schemes implemented in the City & the sanction of maps (other than public utility buildings) in these schemes should be only till this date. Thus if the Scheme is launched say in 2010, it should preferably have a lifespan of maximum 50 to 70 years & should be implemented within 5 years & thus the sanctioned maps should automatically expire in 2060 to 2080 at which time the Town Planning Authority can review & if needed extend them for 5 to 20 years or make a new rebuilding scheme when required, they will have to then pay only the depreciated value of the buildings in case of Acquisition. Thus speculation in land will vanish as a person buying the property in 2050 will only be able to get a sanction up to 2080, even in case where he wishes to pull down the old building & build a new one this will ensure that the prices of properties remain in check & in future need the rebuilding schemes can be easily made & thus the Hearts(Core areas) of Cities which are presently rotting can be brought back in to good health.

Thanks



(Robby Sharma)
Copy:-To Sri Mahesh Chander Mehta
5, Anandlok, Khelgaon Marg, New Delhi-110049
Phone-011-26255214