The chance to turn scam expose into opportunity for
clean up seems to be going for SPA, like for DDA,
HSMI, HUDCO. Clean-up of course will happen ? in the
larger climate of privatization of academia and
imminence of GATS, the same in which SPA inquiry that
might have started when the famous 6" file in the
ministry was slim started only in June 2003 and
inquiry in research / training bits of DDA, HSMI and
HUDCO did not start at all. Techno sickness I hope
will lead eventually to healing on professional space.
But for now I am more inclined to vulture spotting.
The point is less about vultures than about SPA. So
much was caught in recent times, but none was captured
at SPA. SPA, through its eminences, appeared
redundant, except as echo chamber or rubber stamp.
Hardly surprising that it should have been seen as
sitting duck to make exemplary case of dealing with
techno-sickness to save losses to the public
exchequer.
The point is also that SPA ? distinct from its current
eminences ? is not redundant. The discourse,
increasingly driven by NGOs and donors, needs to be
informed, assessed, evaluated and, if needed, busted
by a professional watchdog. That such was not
happening from SPA is something that SPA eminences
must explain. I wish people would ask.
Vulture-spotting, November 2003
[1] USAID?s draft for our Municipal Model Law,
mentioned as imminent at AMDA conference of 20.09.03,
was circulated to states in October while issues
raised by Planners at said conference are gone with
the wind. USAID (which operates through private
American firms) is reportedly doing a 'project' to
implement the 74th in Delhi and MCD Commissioner has
asked it to review our byelaws for us. He has been
reported saying, with reference to Council of
Architecture demanding that Architects and not
Engineers should sanction building plans, there are
not enough Architects in Delhi. (Earlier this year he
invited bids for architectural projects in Wall Street
Journal). He has, however, announced intent to empanel
1500 architects to (for fee of Rs.150 to 1000) measure
buildings and deposit cheques for property tax
purposes. CoA will take action against any one found
misreporting areas, etc. This has been welcomed by an
Architect in a write-up in Express Newsline, while
reiterating the case for Architects to sanction plans.
It is not known if CoA has asked MCD why it approached
USAID for byelaw review. Nor is it known if AMDA has
taken up with MCD the issues raised at its annual
conference about municipal law in a metropolitan
context.
[2] MCD has again approached SPA for survey work in
Delhi, while it has 'facilitated' in disregard of an
SPA institutional study on hawkers Supreme Court
approval for an NGO?s architectural/developer
initiatives to make 'model hawker markets' in
contravention of the Master Plan. This has involved,
among other stunners, misleading our Councilors and
our Supreme Court. At SPA, at a student seminar on
hawkers on 13.11.03, invitees included MCD,
MCD-facilitated NGO, resource persons not working on
hawking in Delhi, etc. While all this is in the name
of citizens' involvement, it is in disregard of actual
citizens' initiatives ? jointly by hawkers and
customers, with detailed lawful proposals in a report
commissioned to a Planner and, later, joint PIL in
which implementation stands assured on affidavit. The
matter is also being pursued with Central Vigilance
Commission in context of DDA lying on its new-look
website that provisions that are law since 1990 are
only now being 'envisaged'. CVC, besides media, had
first privileged the NGO in 2001. SPA had abstained
from objecting, even after a leading columnist going
gung-ho about the NGO proposed all planners be sacked
and jailed for failing hawkers. Now it is being made
to look that it was indeed the NGO that enlightened us
all.
[3] The NGO that has been spearheading the network of
NGOs in Delhi that spearheaded in 2000 the anti-Plan
tirade in the misguided discourse about industries and
went on to spearhead the campaign for a people's Plan
and planning-without-Planners has brought out a book
on Delhi development. The book is to be released on
29.11.03 by Shabana Azmi in presence of other
celebrity activists. The closest to a development
professional in this will be Arundhati Roy, SPA
alumnus. Had I known she was interested in Delhi
development or anything on her ex-professional turf I
would have asked her to lend her name to the cause of
saving SPA rather than promoting NGOs that are
undermining the role (now rationale) of SPA. I am
prepared to bet there will be at the celebrity book
release at least a few SPA eminences. At least one (an
Architect) has been the NGO's official planner at some
point.
[4] An NGO consultation in July, purportedly on Night
Shelters, proposed NGO takeover of community buildings
and other city space. SPA students and a young faculty
member objected to the proposals. Their remarks were
misreported in the consultation report. They wrote to
the NGO about this and have not heard. Meanwhile, MCD
has invited bids for takeover of community halls. MCD
seems to have more or less abandoned its slum
re-housing / resettlement work in favour of NGO Night
Shelters on pretext of November 2002 court orders that
quashed its illegal slum policy. Much has happened
since, including unjustifiable winter time
demolitions, half-truths being placed in Supreme Court
by the state in appeal against, alongside land
acquisition and NGO pilot projects in contempt of, the
High Court order, objections to all this through due
processes and, in a Planner-informed case by slum
residents, a November 2003 order that does clear
matters, at least in court. SPA has no clue about all
this or that the bureaucrat-turned-activist heading
the NGO spearheading the Night Shelter racket and old
friend of some SPA eminences stands thoroughly exposed
for his lies and deceit.
[5] An Architect who teaches architecture in SPA was
at IHC on 10.11.03 posing as a planner on the dais to
lend credibility to some NGO/activist views on use of
prime land at Safdarjang Airport, duly rejected by
professional Planners on grounds of gross illegality
at a previous meeting on same subject in same series.
In utter disregard of the fact, mentioned not once but
twice, that the issues raised in the previous meeting
had been connected to engagements of nearly 2000
citizens by due processes of law, in the name of
'citizens participation' IHC members who had not
engaged on the issue since the previous matter beyond
putting together a power point presentation to
advocate their proposal, were openly condemning the
Master Plan and its lawful processes and declined to
comment on how a 'civil society' meeting that excluded
the state, professionals and citizens other than
friends was any less exclusionary than the purportedly
exclusionary lawful processes it was purportedly in
reaction to. They are having a follow-up meeting on
28.11.03.
[6] In PIL in Supreme Court some eminent citizens led
by a designer of repute have challenged what ASI has
done to Red Fort. I have no clue what ASI has done to
Red Fort, but it could hardly be worse than what the
every-hearing press releases the eminences have been
issuing are doing to erode the credibility of, besides
ASI, the conservation profession and its institutions
by conveying the impression that eminence rather than
expertise is needed for technical critique. The point
is not if the profession and its institutions are
currently not doing this or that. The point is that a
few eminences cannot substitute them or have their
views privileged by PIL. And these petitioners?
concern for heritage did not extend to recent less
savvy but heritage-unfriendly developments in Walled
City or Sultangarhi. Perhaps those who protested those
through democratic, legal and inclusive Public Notice
processes should, instead, approach eminences who can
afford senior counsel, since places like SPA are being
undermined rather than strengthened by those who teach
there but prefer to engage in the real world as or
with eminences outside it instead of through it.
There is plenty more, but either this will do or more
won?t matter.
PS.
The point about vultures is: if it moves they go away.
-----------
Previous posts
[list archives are only for members, join the list or
eml for particular posts if you like; if direct links
to the Minder parked on dsf site don?t work try from
http://www.delhiscienceforum.org/dmp2021/engage.htm or
another time]
[1]
Model Municipal law ? Role for architects
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgmedia/message/15>
[2]
Hawking Hawkers
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgmedia/message/12>
Hawking Hawkers ? rise of an NGO (and fall of the
welfare state)
<http://www.delhiscienceforum.org/dmp2021/documents/A_hawk.htm>
[3]
NGO book release, Arundhati Roy and I
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgplanner/message/57>
[4]
Night Shelters ? Homeless and NGOs in Delhi 2003
<http://www.delhiscienceforum.org/dmp2021/documents/A_NS.htm>
New improved November order!
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgmedia/message/16>
[5]
Safdarjang Airport
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgplanner/message/19>
Safdarjang Airport ? Round 2?
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgplanner/message/56>
Safdarjang Airport ? Take-off!
<http://www.delhiscienceforum.org/dmp2021/documents/A_SA.htm>
[6]
Eminences are unlikely to have engaged on proletarian
processes like Public Notice for:
Idgah
<http://www.delhiscienceforum.org/dmp2021/documents/A_Idgah.htm>
Sultangarhi
<http://www.delhiscienceforum.org/dmp2021/mpisg/Case_SG.htm
[In latter, check out audio clip ? one PIL eminence
seems to have been collaborator here]
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now
http://companion.yahoo.com/
clean up seems to be going for SPA, like for DDA,
HSMI, HUDCO. Clean-up of course will happen ? in the
larger climate of privatization of academia and
imminence of GATS, the same in which SPA inquiry that
might have started when the famous 6" file in the
ministry was slim started only in June 2003 and
inquiry in research / training bits of DDA, HSMI and
HUDCO did not start at all. Techno sickness I hope
will lead eventually to healing on professional space.
But for now I am more inclined to vulture spotting.
The point is less about vultures than about SPA. So
much was caught in recent times, but none was captured
at SPA. SPA, through its eminences, appeared
redundant, except as echo chamber or rubber stamp.
Hardly surprising that it should have been seen as
sitting duck to make exemplary case of dealing with
techno-sickness to save losses to the public
exchequer.
The point is also that SPA ? distinct from its current
eminences ? is not redundant. The discourse,
increasingly driven by NGOs and donors, needs to be
informed, assessed, evaluated and, if needed, busted
by a professional watchdog. That such was not
happening from SPA is something that SPA eminences
must explain. I wish people would ask.
Vulture-spotting, November 2003
[1] USAID?s draft for our Municipal Model Law,
mentioned as imminent at AMDA conference of 20.09.03,
was circulated to states in October while issues
raised by Planners at said conference are gone with
the wind. USAID (which operates through private
American firms) is reportedly doing a 'project' to
implement the 74th in Delhi and MCD Commissioner has
asked it to review our byelaws for us. He has been
reported saying, with reference to Council of
Architecture demanding that Architects and not
Engineers should sanction building plans, there are
not enough Architects in Delhi. (Earlier this year he
invited bids for architectural projects in Wall Street
Journal). He has, however, announced intent to empanel
1500 architects to (for fee of Rs.150 to 1000) measure
buildings and deposit cheques for property tax
purposes. CoA will take action against any one found
misreporting areas, etc. This has been welcomed by an
Architect in a write-up in Express Newsline, while
reiterating the case for Architects to sanction plans.
It is not known if CoA has asked MCD why it approached
USAID for byelaw review. Nor is it known if AMDA has
taken up with MCD the issues raised at its annual
conference about municipal law in a metropolitan
context.
[2] MCD has again approached SPA for survey work in
Delhi, while it has 'facilitated' in disregard of an
SPA institutional study on hawkers Supreme Court
approval for an NGO?s architectural/developer
initiatives to make 'model hawker markets' in
contravention of the Master Plan. This has involved,
among other stunners, misleading our Councilors and
our Supreme Court. At SPA, at a student seminar on
hawkers on 13.11.03, invitees included MCD,
MCD-facilitated NGO, resource persons not working on
hawking in Delhi, etc. While all this is in the name
of citizens' involvement, it is in disregard of actual
citizens' initiatives ? jointly by hawkers and
customers, with detailed lawful proposals in a report
commissioned to a Planner and, later, joint PIL in
which implementation stands assured on affidavit. The
matter is also being pursued with Central Vigilance
Commission in context of DDA lying on its new-look
website that provisions that are law since 1990 are
only now being 'envisaged'. CVC, besides media, had
first privileged the NGO in 2001. SPA had abstained
from objecting, even after a leading columnist going
gung-ho about the NGO proposed all planners be sacked
and jailed for failing hawkers. Now it is being made
to look that it was indeed the NGO that enlightened us
all.
[3] The NGO that has been spearheading the network of
NGOs in Delhi that spearheaded in 2000 the anti-Plan
tirade in the misguided discourse about industries and
went on to spearhead the campaign for a people's Plan
and planning-without-Planners has brought out a book
on Delhi development. The book is to be released on
29.11.03 by Shabana Azmi in presence of other
celebrity activists. The closest to a development
professional in this will be Arundhati Roy, SPA
alumnus. Had I known she was interested in Delhi
development or anything on her ex-professional turf I
would have asked her to lend her name to the cause of
saving SPA rather than promoting NGOs that are
undermining the role (now rationale) of SPA. I am
prepared to bet there will be at the celebrity book
release at least a few SPA eminences. At least one (an
Architect) has been the NGO's official planner at some
point.
[4] An NGO consultation in July, purportedly on Night
Shelters, proposed NGO takeover of community buildings
and other city space. SPA students and a young faculty
member objected to the proposals. Their remarks were
misreported in the consultation report. They wrote to
the NGO about this and have not heard. Meanwhile, MCD
has invited bids for takeover of community halls. MCD
seems to have more or less abandoned its slum
re-housing / resettlement work in favour of NGO Night
Shelters on pretext of November 2002 court orders that
quashed its illegal slum policy. Much has happened
since, including unjustifiable winter time
demolitions, half-truths being placed in Supreme Court
by the state in appeal against, alongside land
acquisition and NGO pilot projects in contempt of, the
High Court order, objections to all this through due
processes and, in a Planner-informed case by slum
residents, a November 2003 order that does clear
matters, at least in court. SPA has no clue about all
this or that the bureaucrat-turned-activist heading
the NGO spearheading the Night Shelter racket and old
friend of some SPA eminences stands thoroughly exposed
for his lies and deceit.
[5] An Architect who teaches architecture in SPA was
at IHC on 10.11.03 posing as a planner on the dais to
lend credibility to some NGO/activist views on use of
prime land at Safdarjang Airport, duly rejected by
professional Planners on grounds of gross illegality
at a previous meeting on same subject in same series.
In utter disregard of the fact, mentioned not once but
twice, that the issues raised in the previous meeting
had been connected to engagements of nearly 2000
citizens by due processes of law, in the name of
'citizens participation' IHC members who had not
engaged on the issue since the previous matter beyond
putting together a power point presentation to
advocate their proposal, were openly condemning the
Master Plan and its lawful processes and declined to
comment on how a 'civil society' meeting that excluded
the state, professionals and citizens other than
friends was any less exclusionary than the purportedly
exclusionary lawful processes it was purportedly in
reaction to. They are having a follow-up meeting on
28.11.03.
[6] In PIL in Supreme Court some eminent citizens led
by a designer of repute have challenged what ASI has
done to Red Fort. I have no clue what ASI has done to
Red Fort, but it could hardly be worse than what the
every-hearing press releases the eminences have been
issuing are doing to erode the credibility of, besides
ASI, the conservation profession and its institutions
by conveying the impression that eminence rather than
expertise is needed for technical critique. The point
is not if the profession and its institutions are
currently not doing this or that. The point is that a
few eminences cannot substitute them or have their
views privileged by PIL. And these petitioners?
concern for heritage did not extend to recent less
savvy but heritage-unfriendly developments in Walled
City or Sultangarhi. Perhaps those who protested those
through democratic, legal and inclusive Public Notice
processes should, instead, approach eminences who can
afford senior counsel, since places like SPA are being
undermined rather than strengthened by those who teach
there but prefer to engage in the real world as or
with eminences outside it instead of through it.
There is plenty more, but either this will do or more
won?t matter.
PS.
The point about vultures is: if it moves they go away.
-----------
Previous posts
[list archives are only for members, join the list or
eml for particular posts if you like; if direct links
to the Minder parked on dsf site don?t work try from
http://www.delhiscienceforum.org/dmp2021/engage.htm or
another time]
[1]
Model Municipal law ? Role for architects
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgmedia/message/15>
[2]
Hawking Hawkers
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgmedia/message/12>
Hawking Hawkers ? rise of an NGO (and fall of the
welfare state)
<http://www.delhiscienceforum.org/dmp2021/documents/A_hawk.htm>
[3]
NGO book release, Arundhati Roy and I
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgplanner/message/57>
[4]
Night Shelters ? Homeless and NGOs in Delhi 2003
<http://www.delhiscienceforum.org/dmp2021/documents/A_NS.htm>
New improved November order!
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgmedia/message/16>
[5]
Safdarjang Airport
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgplanner/message/19>
Safdarjang Airport ? Round 2?
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpisgplanner/message/56>
Safdarjang Airport ? Take-off!
<http://www.delhiscienceforum.org/dmp2021/documents/A_SA.htm>
[6]
Eminences are unlikely to have engaged on proletarian
processes like Public Notice for:
Idgah
<http://www.delhiscienceforum.org/dmp2021/documents/A_Idgah.htm>
Sultangarhi
<http://www.delhiscienceforum.org/dmp2021/mpisg/Case_SG.htm
[In latter, check out audio clip ? one PIL eminence
seems to have been collaborator here]
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now
http://companion.yahoo.com/