In continuation of
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgplanner/message/36
of last night, here is some prose circulated ten
months ago.
Gita Dewan Verma / Planner / 12.08.03
--------------------
SINKING FEELING ABOUT PLANS FOR STATEHOOD
Gita Dewan Verma / Planner / 17.10.02
We have now a ?consensus? on a statehood plan for
Delhi, reached after an hour-long discussion between
Ms Dikshit and Mr Khurana. I do not understand
statehood and security and finance and suchlike, but I
get this sinking feeling about the portrait of
bonhomie the two make in the press photographs.
Perhaps stupidly, I believe this round of this debate
started with a squabble over our imported train when
our Delhi government, cut up about not being able to
introduce its own Metro Bill, kicked up a fuss about
some central government circulars that were getting in
the way, about which we do not quite know if they were
important or trivial. I have followed news reports and
failed to see the ?debate? on which a ?consensus? was
reached. I am not even sure why exactly we need
statehood or if now is a good time for anything but
inertia. I mean, I think Delhi?s biggest problem at
present is lack of political opposition. BJP and
Congress seem entirely agreed on everything that is
taking us at breakneck speed to urban disaster ?
control of everything profitable or fashionable,
privatisation of everything for which the private
sector is willing, abdication of every responsibility
that NGOs will take, regularisation of everything
illegal, governance on theka basis, politics of
favours, policy announcements and pilot projects at
the drop of a hat, etc. And now, a plan for statehood.
A deep, deep sigh is, I think, in order.
In her inimitable style Ms Dikshit is going to hold
?two seminars? to consult political parties and
citizens. I sincerely hope other political parties
will remember to ask her why she consulted Mr Khurana
before them, considering statehood is a matter way
above present electoral numbers (especially since
Assembly elections are looming and political vision
rather myopic at the moment) and an issue of political
ideology (if such a thing exists any more). And I
sincerely hope that at least some citizens invited to
her seminars will include those not already won over
by the very charming but very exclusionary and
unconstitutional model of patronage she cleverly calls
bhagidari and that a few of those might raise at least
some fundamental questions. Not myself belonging to
either marginal political party or privileged
citizens? group likely to be favoured with a
seminar-cum-lunch invitation from my CM, I can only
diary my sinking feeling.
Admittedly with a ?plannerly? bias, I think that for
the average Delhi?ite a central issue of governance in
the metropolis relates not to who ?controls?, say, law
and order (as that is unlikely to change anything at
the cutting edge) but what happens on the urban
development ? or, rather, politics of development ?
front. Delhi, after all, is a metropolis ? statehood
or no statehood. It is, furthermore, one with
constrained carrying capacity and so a need not only
for disciplined planned development but also for
urgent regional dispersal. The National Capital Region
is an inter-state region, not quite amenable to the
much touted but as yet untested Metropolitan Planning
Committee model. Master Plan preparation processes
envisaged in DDA?s enabling Act and the Master Plan
seem to me far safer bets at the moment, though they
are unfortunately being disregarded in the current
round of Plan revision and now being pooh-poohed by Ms
Dikshit (having already been pooh-poohed by Mr
Khurana) in the name of duly elected government and
the universally exhorted 74th panacea. What makes me
shudder is the thought of what dozens of duly elected
MLAs and Councilors will do once empowered with
?control? of DDA, considering things are pretty bleak
with just a few duly elected MPs in ?control?. I am
completely convinced that nearly all our duly elected
representatives think of DDA only as Delhi?s largest
landlord and have no clue at all that it is governed
by a statute that makes it only custodian of public
land and enjoins upon it the responsibility (not quite
power) to develop it strictly according to the Master
Plan. All the Congress and BJP stalwarts being
mentioned in the statehood ?debate? are agreed over
?control? over DDA and all of them have been trashing
the Master Plan, from which DDA derives its mandate
and Delh?ites derive (though most don?t know this)
statutory entitlements to benefits of planned
development. Ms Dikshit and Mr Khurana, who are poised
? or at least playing ? to go down in history as joint
authors of Delhi?s statehood, will also make it to
Delhi?s Hall of (in)fame as partners in spearheading
subversion of its planned development.
It may be recalled that it was Ms Dikshit who came up
with the ?idea? of regularising industrial units in
residential areas, with the unstated corollary benefit
of sparing land meant for industries in the city. And
now it is Mr Khurana who is scoring brownie points by
loudly supporting illegal commercial use in industrial
areas. Mr Khurana has emerged the unchallenged
perpetual president of the planning-for-the-past
school of thought, the old reliable for made-to-order
amnesty schemes for anything illegal. Ms Dikshit, in
the bonhomie of her bhagidari, is putting the land
spared through land-saving regularisation for
bhagidari dole of unplanned development to favoured
bhagidars. The Congress and BJP have complete
consensus on ?landless? options for the majority in
the city, such as through slum upgrading or
sub-standard resettlement instead of standard housing,
and on cornering public land for their cronies
(through ?control? over DDA), such as in case of
institutional plots. They also have exactly the same
approach towards ?multiplier benefits? of this
approach to (mis)use of urban land. The landless are
their vote-banks as well as source of employment and
more for favoured NGOs, contractors, etc. The landed
are their note-banks kept in good humor with land and
freedom to use it at will. They are also equally
unmindful and uncaring of the implications of all this
on equity and carrying capacity concerns of planned
development and the inevitable slumming of the city.
They also become equally ostrich when confronted with
questions about their lack of discipline about staying
within the four corners of statutory frameworks like
the Master Plan? The united colors of politics in
Delhi would be very appealing for their harmony if
they did not look so ghastly for having run over and
ruined Delhi?s planned development. And now they are
morphing into a Plan for statehood.
I always wonder why Congress and BJP publicly squabble
in Delhi (instead of just privately negotiating
?shares?) and why we watch their histrionics as they
do so. I guess I should appreciate, for their rare
honesty, the pictures of Ms Dikshit and Mr Khurana
together smiling at us about our Plan for statehood.
But I get just this sinking feeling.
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
http://search.yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgplanner/message/36
of last night, here is some prose circulated ten
months ago.
Gita Dewan Verma / Planner / 12.08.03
--------------------
SINKING FEELING ABOUT PLANS FOR STATEHOOD
Gita Dewan Verma / Planner / 17.10.02
We have now a ?consensus? on a statehood plan for
Delhi, reached after an hour-long discussion between
Ms Dikshit and Mr Khurana. I do not understand
statehood and security and finance and suchlike, but I
get this sinking feeling about the portrait of
bonhomie the two make in the press photographs.
Perhaps stupidly, I believe this round of this debate
started with a squabble over our imported train when
our Delhi government, cut up about not being able to
introduce its own Metro Bill, kicked up a fuss about
some central government circulars that were getting in
the way, about which we do not quite know if they were
important or trivial. I have followed news reports and
failed to see the ?debate? on which a ?consensus? was
reached. I am not even sure why exactly we need
statehood or if now is a good time for anything but
inertia. I mean, I think Delhi?s biggest problem at
present is lack of political opposition. BJP and
Congress seem entirely agreed on everything that is
taking us at breakneck speed to urban disaster ?
control of everything profitable or fashionable,
privatisation of everything for which the private
sector is willing, abdication of every responsibility
that NGOs will take, regularisation of everything
illegal, governance on theka basis, politics of
favours, policy announcements and pilot projects at
the drop of a hat, etc. And now, a plan for statehood.
A deep, deep sigh is, I think, in order.
In her inimitable style Ms Dikshit is going to hold
?two seminars? to consult political parties and
citizens. I sincerely hope other political parties
will remember to ask her why she consulted Mr Khurana
before them, considering statehood is a matter way
above present electoral numbers (especially since
Assembly elections are looming and political vision
rather myopic at the moment) and an issue of political
ideology (if such a thing exists any more). And I
sincerely hope that at least some citizens invited to
her seminars will include those not already won over
by the very charming but very exclusionary and
unconstitutional model of patronage she cleverly calls
bhagidari and that a few of those might raise at least
some fundamental questions. Not myself belonging to
either marginal political party or privileged
citizens? group likely to be favoured with a
seminar-cum-lunch invitation from my CM, I can only
diary my sinking feeling.
Admittedly with a ?plannerly? bias, I think that for
the average Delhi?ite a central issue of governance in
the metropolis relates not to who ?controls?, say, law
and order (as that is unlikely to change anything at
the cutting edge) but what happens on the urban
development ? or, rather, politics of development ?
front. Delhi, after all, is a metropolis ? statehood
or no statehood. It is, furthermore, one with
constrained carrying capacity and so a need not only
for disciplined planned development but also for
urgent regional dispersal. The National Capital Region
is an inter-state region, not quite amenable to the
much touted but as yet untested Metropolitan Planning
Committee model. Master Plan preparation processes
envisaged in DDA?s enabling Act and the Master Plan
seem to me far safer bets at the moment, though they
are unfortunately being disregarded in the current
round of Plan revision and now being pooh-poohed by Ms
Dikshit (having already been pooh-poohed by Mr
Khurana) in the name of duly elected government and
the universally exhorted 74th panacea. What makes me
shudder is the thought of what dozens of duly elected
MLAs and Councilors will do once empowered with
?control? of DDA, considering things are pretty bleak
with just a few duly elected MPs in ?control?. I am
completely convinced that nearly all our duly elected
representatives think of DDA only as Delhi?s largest
landlord and have no clue at all that it is governed
by a statute that makes it only custodian of public
land and enjoins upon it the responsibility (not quite
power) to develop it strictly according to the Master
Plan. All the Congress and BJP stalwarts being
mentioned in the statehood ?debate? are agreed over
?control? over DDA and all of them have been trashing
the Master Plan, from which DDA derives its mandate
and Delh?ites derive (though most don?t know this)
statutory entitlements to benefits of planned
development. Ms Dikshit and Mr Khurana, who are poised
? or at least playing ? to go down in history as joint
authors of Delhi?s statehood, will also make it to
Delhi?s Hall of (in)fame as partners in spearheading
subversion of its planned development.
It may be recalled that it was Ms Dikshit who came up
with the ?idea? of regularising industrial units in
residential areas, with the unstated corollary benefit
of sparing land meant for industries in the city. And
now it is Mr Khurana who is scoring brownie points by
loudly supporting illegal commercial use in industrial
areas. Mr Khurana has emerged the unchallenged
perpetual president of the planning-for-the-past
school of thought, the old reliable for made-to-order
amnesty schemes for anything illegal. Ms Dikshit, in
the bonhomie of her bhagidari, is putting the land
spared through land-saving regularisation for
bhagidari dole of unplanned development to favoured
bhagidars. The Congress and BJP have complete
consensus on ?landless? options for the majority in
the city, such as through slum upgrading or
sub-standard resettlement instead of standard housing,
and on cornering public land for their cronies
(through ?control? over DDA), such as in case of
institutional plots. They also have exactly the same
approach towards ?multiplier benefits? of this
approach to (mis)use of urban land. The landless are
their vote-banks as well as source of employment and
more for favoured NGOs, contractors, etc. The landed
are their note-banks kept in good humor with land and
freedom to use it at will. They are also equally
unmindful and uncaring of the implications of all this
on equity and carrying capacity concerns of planned
development and the inevitable slumming of the city.
They also become equally ostrich when confronted with
questions about their lack of discipline about staying
within the four corners of statutory frameworks like
the Master Plan? The united colors of politics in
Delhi would be very appealing for their harmony if
they did not look so ghastly for having run over and
ruined Delhi?s planned development. And now they are
morphing into a Plan for statehood.
I always wonder why Congress and BJP publicly squabble
in Delhi (instead of just privately negotiating
?shares?) and why we watch their histrionics as they
do so. I guess I should appreciate, for their rare
honesty, the pictures of Ms Dikshit and Mr Khurana
together smiling at us about our Plan for statehood.
But I get just this sinking feeling.
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
http://search.yahoo.com