Thursday, 27 April 2023 | RP Nailwal | in Guest Column
GUEST COLUMN
RP NAILWAL
Yet another digital master plan blueprint for the burgeoning, haphazard Dehradun city is in the offing. This time the impending plan named Master Plan – 2041 is meant for 37,432.96 hectares of land in the Doon valley. This 311- page draft plan blueprint, written in English and released in early April, is supposed to be read by members of the general public to offer their comments, if any, to the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) before April 30, 2023. The question making the rounds now is how the common man will be able to go through all the pages written in English and give his or her opinion on the draft plan before April 30.
“It would have been much better if the plan was written concisely in Hindi enabling one and all to understand the proposals,” observes a senior architect of Dehradun Sunil Ghildiyal. According to him, so many loopholes in the plan implementation have violated the letter and spirit of the past plans. Doubts as to the implementation of master plans are being raised basically by knowledgeable architects and aware members of the public.
According to available information, prior to this proposed plan, a master plan was also released in 2013 and a city zonal plan for each of the nine zones of the city was supposed to have been put in place soon after. However, in the absence of the zonal plans the valley has witnessed unplanned and haphazard development activity in the city over the past few years. Rapid urbanisation and real estate boom was seen as one of the primary causes of this situation. The grim situation has been further aggravated by drying water bodies in the Doon valley as well as poor waste management. Clearly, there seems to be a lack of coordination between MDDA and Municipal Corporation of Dehradun and various other organisations concerned regarding civic amenities. In fact at one time Uttarakhand Engineers and Draftsmen’s Association had also raised its objections to the plan. Some worried residents of the city have expressed their concern time and again over the loss of green Basmati paddy fields and horticultural gardens due to unplanned urbanisation. The aromatic Dehradun Basmati was known worldwide at one time and largely exported abroad. “Tall buildings have replaced the paddy fields of Doon valley now,” says long time resident of Dehradun, Sunil Kumar Saxena, a retired professor of history of HNB Garhwal University.
Actually the city master plan concept evolved following the increase in population in the urban cities and the construction activity in the cities. In order to regulate the developmental plans of the cities in Uttar Pradesh, the Uttar Pradesh government enacted a law accordingly known as Uttar Pradesh Planning and Development Act, 1973. Subsequently, development authorities were established everywhere in the city areas of the state. Thereafter, in 1984, Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority was set up by the government. Thereafter on May 3, 1985 a master plan was formulated for Dehradun. Another master plan was floated in 1995 which continued till 2008 as after the formation of Uttarakhand state the then urban development secretary allowed the old plan to continue. It is said that under the 2005 plan the land use of 2,250 bigha land in the Doon valley was changed. This decision triggered construction activity and builders initiated housing schemes. Another master plan came into existence in 20013 under which, it is said that land use of some sixty-two roads of the city was also changed paving way for construction. Even as the construction activities under various bylaws increased, the state’s architects and others felt that the ground reality of the master plans was different.
A very senior architect of the state and chief town planner at one time, Satish Ghildiyal, challenged the implementation of master plans in the court of law. He got the 2005 and 20013 master plans quashed by the Supreme Court. The present proposed master plan for the next few years till 2041 is currently being debated among the architects and other knowledgeable people. Anoop Nautiyal, a prominent social activist has pointed out several shortcomings in the impending master plan and asked whether the public engagement with the salient features of the proposed master plan is feasible within the next few days. He has many questions to ask on the basis of available data.
Given the alarming seismicity and acute water problem of the Doon valley along with its ever depleting greenery, the question being raised by several city residents is- how this haphazard development of the city has taken place so far despite the master plans?
(The author is a veteran journalist based in Dehradun. Views expressed are personal)
