11/19/13 NCRPB grapples with objections to revision of Regional Plan 2021 - The Hindu

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Published: November 19, 2013 00:00 IST | Updated: November 19, 2013 05:37 IST

NCRPB grapples with objections to revision of Regional Plan 2021

Chander Suta Dogra

There is an overwhelming sense of dismay among environmentalists and urban planners

As the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) reaches the final stage of an ambitious mid course revisionof its Regional Plan - 2021 (RP-21), in force since 2005, it is grappling with more than 400 objections from thegeneral public, State and Central government departments, vigorously opposing among other things the dilution ofmany environmental safeguards built into the previous plan.

There is an overwhelming sense of dismay among environmentalists and urban planners that instead of strengtheningthe existing structures for better development of the NCR, the revision is being used to open up so far protectedenvironmentally sensitive areas to urbanisation and regularising the existing violations of the current plan.

The process to revise the RP -21 for NCR began last year, following which the NCRPB, headed by the minister forUrban Development and chief ministers of Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, approved a revised draftplan in July. The revised plan was put up for public comment in August, and two planning committee meetings havebeen held since then to “evolve a consensus” on the objections. The RP -21 is meant to provide sustainabledevelopment in the three NCR states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and the capital Delhi and preventhaphazard development in the region.

Details are now coming out from documents procured through RTI by activists, that show how Haryana in particular,through its Town and Country Planning department introduced several “dilutions” in key environmental safeguards –holding up its projects in Gurgaon and Faridabad ) at a meeting of the NCR planning committee in June.

The most important of these is removal of 0.5% restriction on construction in the Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ),which in effect meant only half an acre can be built in a 100 acre piece of land. In the approved draft plan thisrestriction has been completely removed and there is no limit on construction in the Aravallis.

The NCZ includes the Aravalli hills, major rivers, land around lakes, water bodies and sanctuaries. These eco-sensitiveareas are critical in maintaining ground water recharge capacity, reducing air pollutants and for the long termregional environment security of the NCR that will eventually impact its carrying capacity.

But Haryana has envisaged a mega tourism and entertainment zone in some areas that fall in the NaturalConservation Zone (NCZ), and realtors have already bought up huge land chunks here.

Says Prof AK Maitra, former director of the School of Planning and Architecture, who headed the study group onenvironment “ I think this is a sure way to destroy the Aravallis which is not only a pristine natural resource andnatural barrier between arid Rajasthan and Delhi but an important ground water recharge zone. We were neverconsulted on these relaxations because our study group was abandoned midway after NCRPB stopped our meetings.”

Further, land suitability analysis (essential for balancing utilisation of land for development and conservation) whichwas mandatory for all master plans in the NCR, is now proposed to be restricted only to “new towns”. “ Theimplications of these relaxations in the draft RP-2021 are, that distorted planning that envisages construction in lowlying or riverine areas and hilly Aravalli forests in the existing towns as well as new extensions of these towns (seen asdeviations by the NCRPB) will be regularised,” says Lt Col SS Oberoi of Mission Gurgaon Development.

Alarm bells are also ringing at how the 10% target for forest cover has been replaced with‘green areas’ which opens upthe option of using golf courses, roadside greens belts to meet the target for increasing forest cover. Activists fear thatdropping‘forest’ and calling it ‘green areas’ instead will take these areas out of the provisions of the ForestConservation Act and a step closer to change of land use for colonization. Against the national average of 21.05%,forest cover in the NCR Delhi is 11.9% while Haryana has only 3.5%.

The revised draft RP has also done away with the requirement to get the master plans of urban townships approvedfrom the NCRPB. It has instead been replaced by the line “The respective state governments will carry outdevelopment as per Plans.”

11/19/13 NCRPB grapples with objections to revision of Regional Plan 2021 - The Hindu

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