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Journalism of Courage
A day after the BMC)presented the draft Development Plan (DP) 2014-34 to group leaders, activists in the city slammed the city’s blueprint for lack of a broader vision. While the BMC has set varying benchmarks for the provision of medical, educational and recreational facilities across wards and sectors, some of its own benchmarks have been scaled down in comparison to DP 1991. According to the draft, open space allocation per person has been reduced.
For instance, DP 1991 allocates two sq m per person (sqm pp) open space in the island city and six sqm pp in the suburbs. This has been lowered to a uniform two sqm pp across the city in the new draft. The current allocation of open space stands at 1.24 sqm pp. Pankaj Joshi, executive director, Urban Development Research Institute, said, “The standards have been drastically lowered in comparison to the UDPFI (urban development plans formulation implementation) norms. This will only worsen the quality of life perpetually in the city.”
The UDPFI, initiated by the Ministry of Housing, sets open space allocation at 10-12 sqm pp. In order to augment open space, draft DP has added existing mangroves, water bodies and natural areas like the Sanjay Gandhi National Park under the category of open spaces, which activists argue is a way to “distort facts” as these areas will not be “usable open spaces.” Aravind Unni, a YUVA activist, said, “The document is ambiguous and pro-market where the assumption is that increasing FSI can solve all the problems. The BMC has not even touched upon providing affordable housing to citizens, which is the biggest problem in Mumbai.”
The health and education amenities, though suggest a slight increase from DP 1991 standards, stand lower than those prescribed by UDPFI. For example, UDPFI sets 3.58 sqm pp educational amenities, and the draft DP projects it at 1.37 sqm pp. “Reduction in open spaces will have a direct impact on health facilities. There are many cities all over the world that have successfully managed to provide better recreational facilities to its citizens even with a huge density of population, we should try and implement those models.”
tanushree.venkatraman@expressindia.com
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