[mpisgmedia] Attn Dr.AK Walia: RTI request re your Pushta clearance & re-housing plan

=====================
[For favour of urgently forwarding to Dr AK Walia]
To: PIOs/FAAs in Finance, Planning, P.W.D & Urban
Development departments whose e-mail ids are provided
on GNCTD website
=====================

Dr Ashok Kumar Walia
Minister for Finance, Planning, P.W.D & Urban
Development
Delhi Government

Dear Sir,

Kindly refer to news items dated 28.01.06 (Saturday)
in ToI titled "Joint action to clear riverbank of
slums" (p.5) and Hindu titled "Plan to relocate slum
units of Yamuna banks approved" at:
http://www.hindu.com/2006/01/28/stories/2006012811580400.htm
These are about your plan for clearance of jhuggis
from Pushta and their relocation to one-room tenements
(1.55 lakhs each) in multi-storeyed apartment
complexes in Savda Ghevra with 50% assistance from
Central Govt under JNNURM.

I am unable to locate on Delhi Govt website any
information about this and the news items quote only
you. As such, and because responsibilities for
suo-motu disclosure are not clearly defined in the
Right to Information Act, I am making this RTI request
to you.

I am unable to locate on Delhi Govt website your
e-mail id and your residence phone number that is
provided (24518989) does not exist. As such I am
sending this e-mail to e-mail id-s provided for PIOs /
FAAs of the departments under your ministerial charge.

I request the following information under s.4(1)(d)
r/w s.4(1)(c) of RTI Act. In view of imminent
demolition in a part of Pushta, I request the same
with utmost urgency, with reference to the 48-hours
proviso under s.7(1) of the RTI Act (which is for
requests under s.6(1) that I, and other affected
persons, have been prevented from making on account of
lapse on s.4(1)(c)).

(I also urge you take immediate steps to prevent the
imminent demolition in Pushta, informally announced on
19.01.06 and said to be scheduled on 31.01.06, without
Notices, re-housing, etc, as the same is not in
accordance even with the approved plan that you have
announced through press reports in the interim).


1. Particulars of "approval" to the Pushta clearance
plan announced by you through press reports on
28.01.06.

As far as I can make out, Pushta clearance "approvals"
have now to be accorded / whetted by the Committee
appointed by Hon'ble High court under a retired Judge
for implementing orders since 2003 for removal of all
unauthorised structures on the riverbed. For clearance
on east bank / Shastri Park "approvals" have also to
be accorded / whetted by LG in view of High Court
directions in November 2004 in a petition by DMRC. My
RTI request for information u/s.4(1)(d) about
compliance on the latter has been transferred by LG
Secretariat to DDA Vice Chairman, also one of the
official members of the court-appointed Committee,
vide communication dated 13.01.06 to me. I am affected
person apropos the clearance plan / approval announced
by you in view of pendency of my RTI matter as well as
my writ petition WP 6500/2005 pertaining, inter alia,
to unauthorised construction on the riverbed, in which
Delhi Government is Respondent No.2 and has not filed
reply since notice on 13.04.05.


2. Particulars of "approval" to Pushta re-housing plan
at Savda Ghevra announced by you through press reports
on 28.01.06.

As far as I can make out, this information is liable
to have already been provided to me under s.4(1)(d) of
RTI Act in response to my prior letters about that
scheme, starting with complaint against frivolous
disposal of duly filed objections to the land
acquisition in 2003 on grounds of disregard of court
order of 29.11.02 quashing the illegal slum
resettlement policy (passed in the same matters in
which order of 03.03.03 was later passed). The last in
this series was my letter of 29.07.05, pursuant to
your announcement in the press about Savda Ghevra and
Tekhand schemes, text of which is ENCLOSED for your
ready reference. In an affidavit filed in Supreme
Court in September 2005, Secretary MoUD, Sh Anil
Baijal, has reportedly undertaken Tehkhand scheme for
Pushta re-housing as part of a revival plan for the
Yamuna, pursuant to which MP Sh Sandeep Dikshit made a
presentation to Delhi Cabinet of his redevelopment
plan for the Yamuna. Later, in November 2005, Hon'ble
High Court has directed LG to take certain decisions
about the Tehkhand scheme, which will obviously have a
bearing on Pushta re-housing and Savda Ghevra schemes.
Information of compliance of order of November 2005 is
also sought in my RTI request transferred by LG Sectt
to DDA VC. I am affected person apropos the re-housing
plan / approval announced by you in view of pendency
of my RTI matter as well as of my duly filed responses
to related Public Notice issued by the Authority of
the DDA on which Delhi Govt is duly represented.


3. Particulars of JNNURM proposal made by Delhi Govt
and the manner in which Central Govt has communicated
the willingness announced by you through press reports
on 28.01.06.

As far as I can make out, JNNURM proposals pre-require
CDP and SLNA, about which (and the USAID-sponsored MCD
Amendment Bill to, inter alia, empower MCD / Delhi
Govt in respect of planning that your Cabinet lately
referred to Central Govt) I have made RTI requests &
suggestions, as also mentioned in my e-mail dated
10.01.06 to Chief Secretary, about which I Received
last week a phone call from your Urban Development
Department. In this I have referred (in para-3) to
press reports of 22.12.05 about Chief Secretary
calling for full action plan for the Yamuna /
Environment department of Delhi Govt and (in para-2)
to e-mails to MoUD and LG Secretariat, latter
referring also to my above-mentioned pending RTI
matter. I am obviously affected person apropos your
plan / approval / willingness announcement in pendency
of my RTI requests of which your government is seized
through my communications for its information.


4. Particulars of environmentalists referred to in the
opening line of the report in the Hindu (Facing strong
reprimand from courts and environmentalists for
failure to get things going, the Delhi Government's
Slum Department has acquired 252 acres of land in
Outer Delhi's Shabda Ghevra village for relocation of
15,000 slum units situated on the Yamuna banks along
National Highway 24 Pushta and Marginal Bund in East
Delhi).

As far as I can make out, High Court has not passed
any orders for removal of unauthorised structures from
particular stretches of riverbed or banks or for their
relocation to particular sites. Delhi Govt priorities
& preferences for compliance are, therefore, its own
and the press report quoting only you conveys the
impression that they are guided / supported by certain
environmentalists. Different suggestions for
compliance have been made to Delhi Govt since the
order of 03.03.03, including by me since the day the
order was reported by press on 07.03.03, in a letter
available for your ready reference at:
http://plan.architexturez.org/site/dmp2021/dmp/minder/A_Yamuna#L1
Numerous suggestions for lawful compliance have been
made since, including through due process of response
to Public Notices inviting suggestions. Pursuant to
High Court directions of 08.12.05 in respect of the
Committee for implementing orders since 03.03.03 and
of 18.01.06 about unauthorised constructions in
general and announcement on 19.01.06 of imminent
demolition in a part of Pushta, RTI requests for
information about status/outcome of consideration of
these suggestions / plan for dealing with all
unauthorised structures on the riverbed in a manner
consonant with all court orders and development and
environmental law have also been made by myself and
others. Pendency of these RTI matters makes me (and
others) affected persons apropos your announcement
vide press reports, outside ambit of RTI Act, of your
Pushta clearance & re-housing plan that is seemingly
guided / supported by certain environmentalists.
Moreover, while none of the Departments under your
ministerial charge refer, in their manuals
corresponding to s.4(1)(b)(viii), to the
court-appointed Committee, the Planning Department
mentions, without the details mandated, that "A
Planning Board which is advisory in nature is set up
from time to time to advice Government of Delhi on
Plan matters" and "A Joint Machinery for promotion of
the voluntary sector for development of Delhi was
constituted vide Planning Department's notification
dated 9.8.2004".


Yours truly,
Gita Dewan Verma, Planner


====Text of letter of 29/07/05, referred in #2
above======
DR A K WALIA
Urban Development Minister, GNCTD

Sub: MCD proposal for slum relocation to Savda, Ghevra
Ref: Previous letters about land acquisition / slum
policy announcements

Dear Sir,
The Hindustan Times has today (in last column on
page-5) a small item, as follows:
Slum relocation
New Delhi: Delhi urban development minister A.K.Walia
has asked DDA and the slum and JJ department to
expedite their efforts in giving shape to the slum
relocation programme.
The slum and JJ department has prepared a proposal to
construct 21,000 dwellings in Savda, Ghevra with the
assistance of private builders, while DDA has a
similar plan at Tehkhand for 3,500 units. TNN

I am writing to request that instead of asking MCD to
expedite this proposal you kindly restrain it from
pursuing the same, in view of the following:
* MCD's proposal is illegal in terms of Delhi Master
Plan (DMP-2001) and while the idea of slum housing by
private builders that GNCTD has been advocating since
2002 has been incorporated in draft DMP-2021, the
revised Plan has not been notified yet.
* MCD's proposal would also be illegal in terms of
DMP-2021 if the scheme set out in the draft is
notified since that, while incorporating GNCTD idea,
precludes implementation in form of concentration of
21,000 EWS dwellings in fringe location like Savda,
Ghevra.
* MCD's proposal is in contempt of Hon'ble High
Court's order of 29/11/02 (quashing illegal slum
policy and leaving it to government to come out with a
legal alternative) and of Hon'ble Supreme Court's
orders in SLPs filed against that order by GoI and
GNCTD
* Land acquisition for the project was also illegal in
terms of DMP and in contempt of court orders and
unmindful of objections filed in response to statutory
Public Notices, representations about which were made
to you in enclosed letters under reference

I seek, in context of the enclosed letters, details of
disposal of my objections to the land acquisition and
clarification about legal basis of MCD proposal and
would also appreciate a copy of directions, if any,
issued to MCD in view of the above.

The news item says that you have also asked DDA to
expedite its proposal, even though GNCTD's usual
refrain is that it has no control over DDA. What you
have asked is in conflict with what others have urged
by due processes and on robust techno-legal grounds
and I could send details, should they be of interest.

Thanking you,
Yours sincerely

Gita Dewan Verma, Planner

encl: (total 9p)
1.
Letter of 24/05/03 about Public Notice hearing,
enclosing letter of same date to LAC (NW), with
objections / letters of 10/03/03, 23/03/03, 30/03/03
and 08/05/03, 6p
2.
Letter of 08/09/03 requesting information of status,
etc, 1p
3.
Letter of 29/09/03 wrt news report of GNCTD slum
survey, 1p
4.
Copy of letter of 28/10/03 to Secretary MoUD (requests
re Public Notice process, including for placing all
responses in courts in related matters with reference
to owners' case against acquisition for slum
resettlement vide same notices of 2003), 1p


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