It is so interesting - the following letter was published in today's Assam
Tribune when we were discussing the new towns and plan etc. The author is a
planner from Guwahati. Does his letter make sense to other planners?
LETTERS
---------------------------------
Draft master plan for Guwahati
Sir, Bhaba Chetia in his letter (AT, June 14) raised certain concerns about
Guwahati City Draft Master Plan which had been placed before the public for
comments, suggestions and objections. A few organisations like Save Guwahati
Build Guwahati, Senior Citizens Association etc., had also raised various
objections to the master plan. Someone even suggested that the plan should be
thrown into the waste paper basket. However, I being a planner myself would
like to boldly say and agree with the contention of PK Sarma (AT, June 13) that
the authority had at long last attempted to prepare a master plan for Guwahati
for the first time in the true sense of the term. All the concerns and
objections seem to be raised mainly due to the ignorance of the public about
the contents of the master plan. The Draft Master Plan for Guwahati 2025 is a
physical master plan and should not be compared with the engineering master
plan. The physical master plan provides only the guidelines for
future development and not engineering details. For example, one should not
expect to find out whether his property will be affected by the proposed road
in front of his house or whether the swampy areas by the side of his house will
be drained out and the locality will be free from flood/water logging or not,
or whether his residence will have adequate drinking water supply. These will
be known only when seperate engineering master plans on various sectors like
drainage, sewerage, water supply or traffic and transportation etc., are
prepared. Similarly, to ascertain the extent of green belt or zones etc., one
will have to consult different sectoral plans prepared along with the physical
master plan and the relevant cadastral maps.
Another important point to be noted is that no one conducts house to house
survey (except the Census Department) for estimating the population figures
required for preparation of any plan or scheme. The future population figures
are also an estimate only and projected on the basis of authentic data provided
by the Government agencies with the help of well known procedures. That is why
anyone can say that he does not agree to the figures. But before saying so, one
should have his own estimate. Similarly, to raise any objection to any plan or
scheme, one should have an alternative plan or proposal so that the concerned
authority can take it into account for finalising the plan. In short, the
criticism should always be constructive and not for the sake of criticising
only. Yours etc., NITIN JAISWAL, Zoo Narengi Road, Guwahati.
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
At 8:38 AM -0700 6/19/07, Dilip/Dil Deka wrote:
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?
*** I did not. But I did not have to. It was all too evident that those who
serve Dilli's interests, are funded by them and are sent to Dispur thru the
profoundly defective process of selecting, bandied around by desis as
'democracy' , are the ones who must have done that.
But the Planners being Dilliwallas is NOT the problem., as should be apparent
to all but the thoroughly inept or the disingenuous. It is their COMPETENCE,
which ought to have been evaluated by people who understand these issues.
*** I have been to Gurgaon, stayed there and in this past April hovered over
it on a holding pattern approaching the airport. It is the shining city on the
Hill demonstrating desi-prosperity, with its own well water and electrical
power plants. All the new rich have flats or houses there, with nice open green
areas, well stocked supermarkets, roaring multiplexes, towering glass encased
but un-insulated modern office complexes, kept cool by what must be some of
the most energy guzzling air-conditioning plants in the world. They have no
worry about too much rain to flood their streets, or farmers to uproot with no
place to go. They send their waste over to the Yamuna, like everybody else, so
the less fortunate can partake of their sewage downstream. There are no hills
that have been cut to let the rains erode tons of dirt downhill to clog their
miserable, garbage infested storm drainage system.
And most of all, the thousands upon thousand of those others from Haryana who
have to make a living serving the many needs of the chosen in their lofty and
lovely new abodes, don't need to be housed, don't need to be treated, don't
need to be fed by those who have made it or catered to by the planners who
planned for the deserving. They who could not pull themselves up by their
boot-strings ( oops I mean by their untrimmed toenails) , did not study hard
enough to succeed and partake of the bonanza, have their very own slums
surrounding the shiny city on the Hill, like always; as pointed out by Tavleen
Singh to the rocket-engineer of a President, to the loud chagrine of
assamnetters, annoyed by the unfairness of who must be an India-hating
columnist.
Need I say anything more?
>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.
*** WHAT? Are you kidding me? Are you sure you didn't mistakenly cite
Indians where you ought to have cited the Assamese :-) ?
But levity aside, GUESS why it is so? I bet you will never find the answer
:-).
> Go to Bangalore, you'll see it.
*** Never been there. Is it a good example or a bad one?
>The question will arise - how do you fix it?
*** Was afraid you will never ask , Medha Patkar having provided the
convenient outlet for the outrage :-). NO doubt it is a very complex problem.
But ignoring the issues ( more likely never having been aware of Guwahati's
NEEDS ) and replicating mini-Gurgaons and Noidas around Guwahati is NOT the
answer. Guwahati's problems are vastly different from Dilli's, in every
conceivable way .
>I believe staying with a plan (short term or long term) takes a lot of
discipline and discipline can be >taught.
**** Questions would be :
A: There is no point in finding faults with PLANS, thus sticking to
one, ANY one, would
be better than none, right?
B: And 'discipline could be taught, as in Gurgaon, or as in Noida or
as in Bangalore?
C; Finally, HOW would demonizing Medha for having the temerity to
bring out the needs
and rights of the great unwashed into the arena, help :-) ?
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
==================================================================
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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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