[Urbanstudy] ‘The greed to grab public land is incessant’

[ESG India]

A note on the implications of a Bill before the Karnataka Legislature, which if passed, would drastically reduce open spaces in urban areas.  Excerpts of this note has been used by Deccan Chronicle to prepare this article:
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/120217/the-greed-to-grab-public-land-is-incessant.html


> The proposal to reduce minimum open space and civic amenity space in urban areas is not only preposterous, it is criminal.  Today's cities have very high densities of population, compared with the 1960s, when the Town and Country Planning norms and National Building Code were evolved in India.  At that time, planners and city managers were clear that life in the city would be punishment if there was not sufficient access to open and public spaces.  This also reflected the spirit of the Freedom Movement when such spaces were also reclaimed as intensely political spaces to assert our sovereignty.  To be fair to the British, we must say that they were extremely generous in allocating open spaces in the cities designed during the colonial period.  They also made efforts to interconnect open and public spaces with public transport.
> 
> The degeneration of our cities was precipitated during the Emergency period when Indira Gandhi usurped powers of planning and managing cities and allotted them to her cronies who administered urban planning bodies such as the Bangalore Development Authority.  Such was the intransparency built into this system that corrupt practices in land use planning and development was a natural corollary. In fact such praxis laid the foundation for the corruption systemic to politics in urban areas today; most MLAs and Corporators are those who have looted public resources as real estate agents. 
> 
> The greed to grab public land is incessant.  The Joint Legislature Committee headed by A T Ramaswamy in the late 2000s confirmed that 1000s of acres of public commons had been encroached.  This was subsequently built on by the Koliwad Committee, which is now finding it difficult to articulate a process for reclaiming encroached public spaces. It's a deeply vexatious political issue.
> 
> All this considered, the fact is today's cities are far more in need to open spaces, not less.  This is a public health need, not merely a question of local environmental and recreational aspects. Children today have not only less space to play, most actually have no space at all to play safely.  Streets which were multidimensional spaces, are today clogged with vehicles, mobile and parked.  We live in cities where communities need more local civic amenity areas for local markets and recreational facilities. More parks and playgrounds are a need for staying healthy, for cleaning up our mucked up air, spaces for solace and quietitude are essential to remain sane. Street vendors who make it possible for all to afford a living need more public spaces, not less. 
> 
> Taking all this into consideration, the Bill that proposes to reduce open space requirements of all is not only insane, but is also criminal as it attacks our very Right to Live, which includes rights to live in a holistic environment.  The Legislature has a constitutional obligation to make our life healthier, our living affordable, our mobility safer and our neighbourhoods more inclusive for all classes of society, not only those who have the money to afford a healthy living.
> 

Leo F. Saldanha
Environment Support Group
1572, Ring Road, Banashankari II Stage
Bangalore 560070. INDIA
WEB: www.esgindia.org
Tel:+91-80-26713559~61
Fax: +91-80-26713316


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