[mpisgmedia] Goenka School mail -- more requests re industries

Sudhir Vohra called to say that several people had
forwarded to him the mail about Goenka school at
http://mail.architexturez.net/pipermail/mpisgmedia/2004-October/000173.html.
(He wrote the Express Newsline piece on industries
mentioned in the PS in it). He said he will be writing
on the Goenka case and I hope a thorough reporter is
assigned to the story that his piece accompanies.

In hope for / from more such forwardings, etc:

ToI has today a report that says: "Urban planners,
however, blame faulty planning. "When rules are
flouted like this, the problem lies somewhere other
than implementation. There isn't enough space for
industries," said urban planner J H Ansari of the SPA"
(see:
http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/903175.cms).
Mr Ansari is no longer employed by SPA. One of the
last things he did while in it was a 4.20 lakh study
to reinvent provisions for hawkers that already exist
in DMP. Without systematically identifying
implementation failures it is not possibly to
accurately identify planning failures and, by
extension, how to rectify them. I have been
documenting this since 2000 and see only
implementation failure, rather sparing by government
of 2000-3000 Ha of public land earmarked for SSI
industry, and no serious planning flaw. Perhaps Ansari
would like to pin-point the faulty-planning.

NDTV had yesterday a You-Decide slot for industries.
The experts ? Alok Rai of IIT (what is he?) and Sunita
Narain of CSE/DTE (chairperson of expert group on
environment for DMP-2021) held forth on pollution.
Perhaps they, and also Vikram Chandra who kept saying
guidelines-byelaws-whatever instead of DMP provisions,
could clarify why they are referring to pollution in
the matter of non-conforming units (the order for
polluting units was a separate earlier one) and if
they know what non-conforming units are, what DMP
provisions for industries are, what statutory process
for DMP modification is, etc. I think this is
important since they are moulding public opinion and
this is something that could get way out of hand.

Left spokesperson on this has called the
regularisation move triggered by the Left rally a
fortnight ago half-hearted for falling short of
ordinance (See:
http://www.hindu.com/2004/10/29/stories/2004102910830400.htm
and
http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/903170.cms).
Perhaps he could clarify, in the context of statutory
s.11A process for DMP modification, the insistence on
ordinance that would in effect curtail s.11A rights of
citizens to participate in decisions about planned
development. (Incidentally, a usable s.11A Public
Notice was out at the time of the rally and if they
had used it to file 1.5 lakh responses to object to
unlawful closure and suggest a lawful solution rather
than to make speeches to reiterate BJP-Congress demand
since IA 1206 of 1999, they might not have been
walking away into a saffron-red sunset so soon after
their day in the sun).

Mr Maken, who trumped all, has raised one very
pertinent point, viz, that sealing was not required by
court order, on which Ms Dikshit seems to have said
she was not updated (see:
http://www.hindu.com/2004/10/27/stories/2004102708220400.htm).
The question that arises now is about sealing already
done, with trauma and deaths in apprehension of it. I
for one have written several letters to point out that
Delhi Government has no powers to identify or penalise
misuse. It can only disconnect power and water in
units identified by DDA. This raises, irrespective of
debate on industries, the question of misuse against
people of powers that an organ of the state does not
even have. One helluva frightening question, I think,
all the more scary when you consider that Delhi
Government that has been so sealing non-conforming
units is itself functioning from a non-conforming
Secretariat. Last call for comments on what is up
about this at:
http://plan.architexturez.net/site/profession/awards/ibc04
(Please forward to especially urban professionals, I
need at least one more view since there is one against
and one for my contention).




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