| I guess SPA dean has no time left from ngos and
media
| to have noticed SPA studio on Arjun Camp judgment
| (for the mpd solution for housing the poor).
| posting in full
HT, 08-Sep-06, p.5
CIVIC CRISIS - Urban problem worst in 50 yrs METROMIND
K.T. Ravindran
THE BRITISH stormed Kashmiri Gate and took over Delhi
on September 11, 1803. That was Delhi's own 9/11 that
led to a sea change in the city morphology, adding the
new layers of British Delhi, culminating in the
building of New Delhi. That very Shahjahanabad was
declared a slum in 1956, in the Slum Areas Improvement
and Clearance Act.
Sadly, 50 years down the line Delhi is facing the
worst urban turmoil in it's planned history.
Forty-thousand households were demolished in Yamuna
Pustha, as over a hundred thousand homeless dare
Delhi's hostile weather on it's ill kept sidewalks.
Today The First Plan of the 21 st "Century", as the
Draft Master Plan describes it, is proposing a private
sector delivery of housing for the poor, in keeping
with the open economy that is touted as the panacea
for all the housing woes of the city. Up to 40% of
Delhi's citizens live in unauthorised colonies and the
imminent M.P. 2021 proposes to cerate 50,000 dwelling
units per annum in which 50 to 55% would be for the
urban poor. It further goes on to say that "the plan
policy regarding "shelter" is based on the National
Housing and Habitat Policy." While that very National
Housing Policy says that the Central and State Govern
ments shall strive to ensure that forced dislocation
of people does not take place, the bulldozers are
roaring down Yamuna Pustha, forcing the dislocation of
about 150,000 people, razing down hundreds of caringly
nurtured schools, thousands of shops, places of
worship and livelihood sources.
The 2021 Draft Master Plan projects a population of 23
crores for Delhi and says it will accommodate only 40%
of housing needs in the present urban limits and the
rest must find place in the Central NCR towns around.
As far as the livelihood issue is concerned, the 2021
Plan envisages that 63.4% of Delhi's Citizens must
work in Trade and 'Other services' in white-collar
jobs and that only 0.4% would be in manufacturing and
Household Industry! Today we know that 60-70% of the
mainstream economy is in what is called the Non-formal
sector that feeds the poor and provides them with
affordable produce, besides servicing the main stream
industry against all odds. What is this but wishful
thinking to plan that in the next 20 years a physical
landuse plan can change Delhi's economy upside down?
Of even more dangerous import is the fact that the
2021 plan proposes to remove the component of land
altogether from the low income housing and substitute
it with finished dwelling units, dully cross
subsidized by higher income housing. The plan says
that instead of the traditional provision of a certain
percentage of land being reserved for low income
housing " Community Modules of housing would set aside
30-35% of dwelling units for the urban poor at more
than three times the density as that of middle and
high income housing. The result could be a drastic
reduction in the number of houses produced for the
poor, soaring prices and ghettoisation of the poor in
the city peripheries. When the Prime Minister's Urban
Renewal Mission stipulates 20-25% of land for the
urban poor, 3035% of the housing units of M.P. 2021
can be built in high-rise apartments units one and two
room tenements and with little space for any social
amenities. This is but a Neo Colonial vision of
creating servants quarters for the rich. Coupled with
the present in human resettlement policy, this
bartering of poor peoples homes can lead to dangerous
urban tensions in the future. The new M.P. 2021 says
that "the core of NCT could be developed as a
sustainable World Class city" one cannot forget that
the peripheries of Paris were burning recently because
that World Class city was surrounded by ghettos of the
urban poor. The social cost of this policy of M.P.2021
needs to be assessed once again before it is approved.
The "development with human face" that the Prime
Minister promised could then become a reality for the
Nation's capital.
__________________________________________________
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media
| to have noticed SPA studio on Arjun Camp judgment
| (for the mpd solution for housing the poor).
| posting in full
HT, 08-Sep-06, p.5
CIVIC CRISIS - Urban problem worst in 50 yrs METROMIND
K.T. Ravindran
THE BRITISH stormed Kashmiri Gate and took over Delhi
on September 11, 1803. That was Delhi's own 9/11 that
led to a sea change in the city morphology, adding the
new layers of British Delhi, culminating in the
building of New Delhi. That very Shahjahanabad was
declared a slum in 1956, in the Slum Areas Improvement
and Clearance Act.
Sadly, 50 years down the line Delhi is facing the
worst urban turmoil in it's planned history.
Forty-thousand households were demolished in Yamuna
Pustha, as over a hundred thousand homeless dare
Delhi's hostile weather on it's ill kept sidewalks.
Today The First Plan of the 21 st "Century", as the
Draft Master Plan describes it, is proposing a private
sector delivery of housing for the poor, in keeping
with the open economy that is touted as the panacea
for all the housing woes of the city. Up to 40% of
Delhi's citizens live in unauthorised colonies and the
imminent M.P. 2021 proposes to cerate 50,000 dwelling
units per annum in which 50 to 55% would be for the
urban poor. It further goes on to say that "the plan
policy regarding "shelter" is based on the National
Housing and Habitat Policy." While that very National
Housing Policy says that the Central and State Govern
ments shall strive to ensure that forced dislocation
of people does not take place, the bulldozers are
roaring down Yamuna Pustha, forcing the dislocation of
about 150,000 people, razing down hundreds of caringly
nurtured schools, thousands of shops, places of
worship and livelihood sources.
The 2021 Draft Master Plan projects a population of 23
crores for Delhi and says it will accommodate only 40%
of housing needs in the present urban limits and the
rest must find place in the Central NCR towns around.
As far as the livelihood issue is concerned, the 2021
Plan envisages that 63.4% of Delhi's Citizens must
work in Trade and 'Other services' in white-collar
jobs and that only 0.4% would be in manufacturing and
Household Industry! Today we know that 60-70% of the
mainstream economy is in what is called the Non-formal
sector that feeds the poor and provides them with
affordable produce, besides servicing the main stream
industry against all odds. What is this but wishful
thinking to plan that in the next 20 years a physical
landuse plan can change Delhi's economy upside down?
Of even more dangerous import is the fact that the
2021 plan proposes to remove the component of land
altogether from the low income housing and substitute
it with finished dwelling units, dully cross
subsidized by higher income housing. The plan says
that instead of the traditional provision of a certain
percentage of land being reserved for low income
housing " Community Modules of housing would set aside
30-35% of dwelling units for the urban poor at more
than three times the density as that of middle and
high income housing. The result could be a drastic
reduction in the number of houses produced for the
poor, soaring prices and ghettoisation of the poor in
the city peripheries. When the Prime Minister's Urban
Renewal Mission stipulates 20-25% of land for the
urban poor, 3035% of the housing units of M.P. 2021
can be built in high-rise apartments units one and two
room tenements and with little space for any social
amenities. This is but a Neo Colonial vision of
creating servants quarters for the rich. Coupled with
the present in human resettlement policy, this
bartering of poor peoples homes can lead to dangerous
urban tensions in the future. The new M.P. 2021 says
that "the core of NCT could be developed as a
sustainable World Class city" one cannot forget that
the peripheries of Paris were burning recently because
that World Class city was surrounded by ghettos of the
urban poor. The social cost of this policy of M.P.2021
needs to be assessed once again before it is approved.
The "development with human face" that the Prime
Minister promised could then become a reality for the
Nation's capital.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com