‘Illegal colonies result of bad planning’
Union urban development minister Kamal Nath said on Monday that the regularisation of unauthorised colonies in the capital is a “tribute” to bad planning, which could not check the proliferation of such colonies.
“It is not necessarily bad enforcement, it is bad planning. I think, Delhi has had the problem of bad planning and bad enforcement. It is just not bad enforcement. What will you enforce? How can you enforce 1,600 irregular colonies? Tell me who is going to enforce it,” Mr Nath said at a DDA workshop here on “Review of the Master Plan of Delhi 2021”.
“Perhaps we are the only country in the world which had to bring in a legislation, the Delhi Special Laws, saying we are going to regularise it. What is this a tribute to? It is a tribute to bad planning,” he added.
Mr Nath said there was no scope for lateral expansion in Delhi, and that the concept of National Capital Region had also put a further load on the capital with people living here, working in NCR and vice-versa. He said highrises were needed as otherwise slums would keep coming up in the city.
He said everyone wanted large open spaces but the ground realities had to be factored in. “Good planning cannot be good poetry,” he said.
Lieutenant-governor Tejendra Khanna, who is also the DDA chairman, said a survey by Central Building Research Institute has found that 70 per cent of houses on the Yamuna flood plains were “unsafe structurally” and could face damage in the event of a severe earthquake.
“I have been telling DDA that we want to create a body for retrofitting and reconstruction of unsafe housing in east Delhi.”
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