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AAP, BJP spar over special area revamp plan for Old Delhi
New Delhi: The Special Area Redevelopment Plan, which was proposed in the Delhi Master Plan 2021 (prepared in 2007), has become a flashpoint between the Centre and
New Delhi: The Special Area Redevelopment Plan, which was proposed in the Delhi Master Plan 2021 (prepared in 2007), has become a flashpoint between the Centre and the Delhi government, days after a fire at an illegal factory in Anaj Mandi claimed 43 lives.
On Tuesday, Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri took to Twitter to put out documents substantiating his statement on Sunday that the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government has been sitting on the redevelopment plan for two years.
Delhi’s urban development minister Satyendar Jain hit back and said there are “glaring factual inaccuracies and prima facie errors” in Puri’s claim.
In a series of tweets, Puri said the file was sent to the Delhi government in September 2017.
“Nailing the lie. Here are some more facts that show how the decision regarding notification of Redevelopment/Scheme for Special Area Proposal has been kept hanging by UD Dept of Delhi which has been sending the case file back & forth to North DMC,” he tweeted, along with official correspondences between the Delhi government and the North Delhi Municipal Corporation.
“The resolution was sent to Delhi Govt on 12.09.2017 for notification in the official gazette. They wrote back after 8 months on 11.05.2018 wanting to know under what section of DMC Act was this proposal sent to them. Eight Months (sic),” he said in another tweet.
Later in the day, a statement was issued by Jain’s office saying the file in question was received by his office on August 26, 2019.
“Not only did the Delhi Urban Development Minister Mr Satyendar Jain receive this file on 26th August this year, he immediately cleared it within less than 24 hours,” the statement read.
The Delhi government claimed that they have prepared a detailed plan for redevelopment of Shahjahanabad area (which is only one part of the Special Area), for which it had sought assistance from the urban affairs ministry in 2017, but it is yet to receive a response from the ministry.
“The total estimation for redevelopment of Shahjahanabad is calculated to be ₹1,468.86 crore (approx.)… This request was the sent to the urban affairs ministry on September 1, 2017, and a reminder was sent on March 16, 2018, requesting them to consider the PPR (preliminary project report) for revitalisation of Shahjahanabad for early implementation under the Hriday (Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana) scheme. A reminder was again sent on May 10, 2018. There has been no response from the ministry till date,” Jain said.
Countering Jain’s claim Puri said, “The Delhi government seems to have no clue about Hriday scheme. It covered only 12 cities and Delhi was not included. We are here talking about issues of life and death and they are raising issue of beautification.”
He also tweeted, “If he (Jain) really believed in the veracity of claims made in his statement, he should have directly sent a letter to me. I would have gladly addressed any doubts.”
What is the Special Area Redevelopment Plan?
The plan, municipal officials say, provides norms for the redevelopment of the Special Area, which includes Shahjahanabad (Walled City), Walled City Extension (Sadar Paharganj) and Karol Bagh.
“The plan proposes redevelopment of the Special Area, including development of a commercial hub in Karol Bagh on the lines of Connaught Place. It also suggested development control norms for new structures coming up in the Special Area,” Shamsher Singh, former chief town planner, MCD, who had worked on the plan, said.
The Special Area localities were not included in the Master Plan 2021, as they had been in existence for a long time and needed different development control norms.
“These areas can’t conform to the development control norms which are applicable to rest of the city. They need special planning,” urban designer AGK Menon, who had worked on the local area plan for the Walled City, said.
Menon said he had objected to the plan prepared by the North corporation and had proposed a few changes. “We had recommended that the development control norms for Shahjahanabad be different from the remaining areas. We had also worked out a local area plan for Shahjahanabad. Neither the Special Area nor the local area plan saw the light of day,” Menon said.
The absence of a plan, urban planners say, has led to rampant commercialisation, construction of unsafe structures and illegal activities in the Special Area.
