NCRPB failed to decongest Delhi
The Supreme Court on Tuesday indicted the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) for its failure to decongest Delhi. This has brought the spotlight back on the neglected body, which could never quite realise its mandate only because the region that it was supposed to cater to never took off because of lack of political will.
Thus after 22 years, Rs 800-odd crore and a handful of feasibility studies, NCRPB -- headless for the past two months with no signs of a member secretary being appointed -- is, for all practical purposes, an organisation consigned to convenient oblivion by its political masters -- the Union urban development ministry.
Planning in NCR has been virtually taken over by the private developers who are minting money, while the board has no role to play. The last incumbent, P B Sudhakaran, was transferred to the ministry of urban employment and
poverty alleviation around two months ago and the NCRPB has been functioning under its chief regional planner, Rajeev Malhotra, ever since.
Points out an insider: ``The organisation has not had a chief for close to two months and this is not talked about with even an iota of concern. Thispoints towards how the board does not figure at all in the government of India's scheme of things. It is the PMO which appoints the member secretary. There has been no movement whatsoever.''
Malhotra is loathe to comment about the SC's criticism, but he says: ``Read my Act, where does it say we were supposed to decongest Delhi? We have done what we were supposed to do. Our problems have been shared with the UD ministry. But the main issue here is that implementation is not in our hands and the states do not always pay heed to us.''
This, according to UD ministry sources, is the main hitch in NCRPB really taking off. NCR, as a concept, is almost forgotten -- it was supposed to be made up of Delhi, eight districts of Haryana, five of Uttar Pradesh and one of Rajasthan. To make all these diverse areas, under various state governments, to be answerable to one body in terms of urban planning -- similar to what DDA is for Delhi -- was a tall order that could never happen without a high level of political cooperation among the states.
Explained an official: ``1985 is when the board was formed and that was also a beginning of the end of the Congress hegemony in the area. With various political parties taking over in the constituent states, the moment planning is handed over to an overarching body, there are questions of `control' that remain unanswered. Who is in-charge of law and order? Who gets to keep the revenue? This understanding could never be realised.''
NCR, as a countermagnet for Delhi, has always sounded attractive and politicians have floated it whenever convenient -- often with questionable results. Ahead of the 2003 assembly elections,
chief minister Sheila Dikshit had expressed her support for the ``Indraprastha state'' -- euphemism steeped in history for NCR -- which caused fervent protests from chief ministers of all the states. ``If Delhi is not in a position to get water from UP and Haryana, where is the question of such deep-seated political cooperation happening?'' asks an urban planner who did not want to be named.
After 2003, when Dikshit became chief minister again and Vasundra Raje took over in Rajasthan, there were some meetings but it never went beyond that. Delhi's statehood complicated matters since, being the national capital, the central government could push for a project to decongest it. However, it could not do the same for a state which would, in effect, mean asking one state to take up the other's load, said a senior official. The only way forward could be to give the board the kind of political representation DDA has but, this is a far cry.
Thus after 22 years, Rs 800-odd crore and a handful of feasibility studies, NCRPB -- headless for the past two months with no signs of a member secretary being appointed -- is, for all practical purposes, an organisation consigned to convenient oblivion by its political masters -- the Union urban development ministry.
Planning in NCR has been virtually taken over by the private developers who are minting money, while the board has no role to play. The last incumbent, P B Sudhakaran, was transferred to the ministry of urban employment and
poverty alleviation around two months ago and the NCRPB has been functioning under its chief regional planner, Rajeev Malhotra, ever since.
Points out an insider: ``The organisation has not had a chief for close to two months and this is not talked about with even an iota of concern. Thispoints towards how the board does not figure at all in the government of India's scheme of things. It is the PMO which appoints the member secretary. There has been no movement whatsoever.''
Malhotra is loathe to comment about the SC's criticism, but he says: ``Read my Act, where does it say we were supposed to decongest Delhi? We have done what we were supposed to do. Our problems have been shared with the UD ministry. But the main issue here is that implementation is not in our hands and the states do not always pay heed to us.''
This, according to UD ministry sources, is the main hitch in NCRPB really taking off. NCR, as a concept, is almost forgotten -- it was supposed to be made up of Delhi, eight districts of Haryana, five of Uttar Pradesh and one of Rajasthan. To make all these diverse areas, under various state governments, to be answerable to one body in terms of urban planning -- similar to what DDA is for Delhi -- was a tall order that could never happen without a high level of political cooperation among the states.
Explained an official: ``1985 is when the board was formed and that was also a beginning of the end of the Congress hegemony in the area. With various political parties taking over in the constituent states, the moment planning is handed over to an overarching body, there are questions of `control' that remain unanswered. Who is in-charge of law and order? Who gets to keep the revenue? This understanding could never be realised.''
NCR, as a countermagnet for Delhi, has always sounded attractive and politicians have floated it whenever convenient -- often with questionable results. Ahead of the 2003 assembly elections,
chief minister Sheila Dikshit had expressed her support for the ``Indraprastha state'' -- euphemism steeped in history for NCR -- which caused fervent protests from chief ministers of all the states. ``If Delhi is not in a position to get water from UP and Haryana, where is the question of such deep-seated political cooperation happening?'' asks an urban planner who did not want to be named.
After 2003, when Dikshit became chief minister again and Vasundra Raje took over in Rajasthan, there were some meetings but it never went beyond that. Delhi's statehood complicated matters since, being the national capital, the central government could push for a project to decongest it. However, it could not do the same for a state which would, in effect, mean asking one state to take up the other's load, said a senior official. The only way forward could be to give the board the kind of political representation DDA has but, this is a far cry.