Did you ask your inside man (you said very involved in it) whether GOI in Dilli
forced GOA to seek the services of a Dilli-based planner? Or did GOA select
this ignorant clueless planner because GOA is clueless in such matters?
I haven't been to Gurgaon (the name itself reeks of Goo) but my observation
is that the best laid out plan goes awry in India because there is no adherence
to the plan after a few years of execution. To Indians, a plan is a piece of
paper that you throw away after you read it. Unplanned growth around a planned
area is the norm. Go to Bangalore, you'll see it.
The question will arise - how do you fix it? I believe staying with a plan
(short term or long term) takes a lot of discipline and discipline can be
taught.
=================================================================
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The model of development Medha Patkar refers to is that of the Dilli
satellites like Gurgaon and those other shiny new towns that are being built to
house India's new rich.
One needs to be aware of the context and the details before one rushes to
judgement. It certainly would have helped to know WHAT the new so-called
Guwahati Master Plan includes, what it is modelled after and why it was
overwhelmingly rejected.
The Dilli based Planners that Assam Govt ( or whoever it is) hired to do this
so called Master Plan are quite unfamiliar with Guwahatis and Assam's needs.
They did NOT even attempt to familiarize themselves with even the most basic of
the parameters that they were dealing with, before they delivered a plan
exactly like those Dilli satellites for Assam as well.
How do *I* know?
Because I spoke at length to one of the people from Guwahati who is very
involved in it, during my last trip to Assam. I was impressed by the fact that
he was knowledgeable and he cares. I asked him how the Guwahatians are viewing
it including himself. He said people were reviewing it, and he believed it was
a TERRIBLE plan. I agreed, on the basis of what he told me then, even though I
had not seen it myself.
At 7:16 AM -0700 6/19/07, Dilip/Dil Deka wrote:
The shallowness in the thought process of social activist critic Medha Patkar
is so apparent in the paragraph, "Referring to the proposed creation of three
more towns to expand the Guwahati metropolitan area, she said that shopping
malls and highways should not be the yardstick to measure development. The
development approach should also take into consideration the issues like how
many people are going to be displaced and how many people are getting their
livelihood affected by such projects." Anyone who visited Guwahati in
recent times knows how congested Guwahati has become. Spreading the population
to three more urban areas would surely improve the quality of life. Shopping
malls and highways are not the primary reasons for the new plan, Guwahatians
know well. As a part of the redistribution of people and enterprise, if such
facilities are needed, they will definitely emerge as the secondary need.
Does Ms. Patkar know how to make an omelette without breaking an
egg? Dilip Deka
================================================================== Past
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Corporate houses will own rivers: Patkar
By Ajit Patowary
GUWAHATI, June 18 Narmada Bachao Andolan-fame social activist Medha Patkar
today warned that if the proposed projects for linking the rivers were to be
materialized, ownership of the rivers would go to the corporate houses. She
also alleged that the planners of the country had been distorting peoples
priorities for development planning.
Patkar, also the convenor of the National Alliance of Peoples Movements
(NAPM), was speaking to The Assam Tribune on the sidelines of the two-day
national dialogue on environment and sustainable development organized by the
Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti in the city since yesterday.
Explaining her assertions, she said that while planning water resources
projects drinking water should be the first priority. Even in agricultural
sector, priority should be attached to one crop protection. Wherever there is
drought, we must provide water for one crop protection. But rules for such
distributive justice are not formulated.
Many states are changing their water policies to attach higher priority to
industrial use of water than the use of this resource in agriculture. This is
why, hydro power is getting the top most priority wherever water resources are
plenty, she said.
Similarly, though ground water recharge should get the top most priority so far
as ground water is concerned, we are allowing the water to run away. The
bottling of water by big capital is also given higher priority and the bottling
plants are given subsidies. Each of the bottling plants is drawing between 5
lakh and 25 lakh litres of water per day.
The rivers are also given to the corporate houses. If the interlinking of
rivers comes true, corporate houses will be given the right over our rivers as
they will invest for the projects that require an estimated amount of around Rs
5,60,000 crore, she said.
On the present development activities in the country, she said that much of
them were based on corruption and misuse of resources. However, she clarified
that resources should not exclusively mean financial resources and these should
include also the natural resources.
Natural resources are a kind of capital. This capital is misused in the sense
that instead of fulfilling the need of the people, it is used to satiate the
greed of the elite class, which includes the politicians, the bureaucrats, the
contractors and the corporate houses. Though there are alternative paths to use
these resources, priorities are distorted, she said.
Later, addressing a press conference at the Guwahati Press Club, she said that
Governments development plans in NE region had been adding to the sufferings
of the regions people. Not the Armed forces alone, the Governments plans are
also creating havoc for the people here, she claimed, even as she demanded
repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act.
The people here are opposing the mega dams proposed in the region, as, while
conceiving them they were not consulted and their informed consent was not
taken when some of them were implemented. But the projects are pushed ahead,
she said, adding, the regions own power demand would be around 7,000 MW at the
most.
She also suggested that going by the recommendations of the World Commission on
Dams, water from the catchments should be tapped before its reaching the major
rivers. This will make mega dams and the river interlinking projects redundant
if at all the Government has the resolve to save the people from floods, she
said.
She, however, observed that measures to control flood control and erosion in
the region had been getting less priority from the state Governments of the
region and also from the Union Government.
The latest move to conduct a seismic survey in the Brahmaputra riverbed for
mineral oil exploration betrays further the attitude of the Union Government
towards the people of the region.
This survey will affect the entire system of the Brahmaputra and also the
ecology and people of the valley, she said.
While dealing with the natural resources of the NE region there should be a
holistic approach and this approach should be sensitive to both ecology and the
human beings, she asserted.
Referring to the proposed creation of three more towns to expand the Guwahati
metropolitan area, she said that shopping malls and highways should not be the
yardstick to measure development. The development approach should also take
into consideration the issues like how many people are going to be displaced
and how many people are getting their livelihood affected by such projects.
But the draft master plan for the city has not taken into consideration all
these issues, she said, adding, displacement had increased by five to ten times
in the country during the past few years.
Flood and erosion expert Prof D K Mishra also spoke on the occasion.
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