Revised CDP nudges city towards unrestrained chaos

Open sesame: Grey areas in green belt
How green is green belt? Environmentalists and citizens feel BDA’s draft Comprehensive Development Plan for 2005-2015 will turn the green area into brown. Divya Sreedharan asks BDA commissioner M.N.Vidyashankar why they are nibbling hungrily at the green space in the guise of urbanisation.
The Times of India

Critics, including a former environment secretary and a former BDA town planning member, have called the CDP skewed. When others, the Delhi government included, have been trying to increase the green belt area, Bangalore is going in the opposite direction. Comment.
For one thing, this is a ‘draft’ CDP, meaning, it is open to inputs from the public. And we have not yet decided on the extent of the green belt. In fact, one option is to increase it by expanding BDA jurisdiction. And tell me, is there any development body anywhere in the country that is being so transparent in its approach? We are putting in place multi-media presentations, kiosks and have also uploaded the CDP on our website (www.bdabangalore.org). We are
setting benchmarks in public participation.

There have been complaints that SCE — the French Consortium entrusted with the work — planned the CDP in utmost secrecy. That, apart from consulting other government departments, it did not interact with town planning associations or related bodies.
Yes, the preparation has been done in a circumspect manner. But then, we are only following a laid-down government procedure. That is something that the critics, especially the retired government officials, know very well. It is the done thing to keep the CDP under wraps till it is officially announced. And after we get the necessary clearances, we are as open as anyone else.

One of the most pointed attacks on your plan to modify the green belt area is that in the old CDP too, the green belt was not protected. Take Tippagondanahalli (T. G. Halli) reservoir. Despite a Government Order in 2003 declaring it ‘protected,’ there have been encroachments.
I am aware that in the past there have been encroachments in the T. G. Halli catchment. But after the 2003 GO, there has been a difference. The entire 1,463 km catchment is fully protected in the 2005 CDP. I am not saying that the entire area is protected, but BDA, for one, is fully complying with the GO and even the other government agencies are more aware of their responsibilities now and compliance has gone up.

But the encroachments in T. G. Halli catchment and elsewhere show that authorities, including BDA, have been lax. Besides, a 1997 court case made it clear that BDA then did not even know which villages came under the green belt. How will you then enforce ‘controlled development’ of the green belt?
We are not opening up the entire belt. Areas denoted ‘sensitive’ by agencies such as the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board will not be touched. Yes, in 1997, BDA did not know all the villages that came under the green belt. We do, now. And as I said before, ours is not the final proposal. This is not a ‘lakshman rekha,’ we welcome good suggestions and public participation.

In the DOCK
Name: M.N. Vidyashankar
Date of birth: Dec. 29, 1956.
Designation: Commissioner, BDA.
Educational Qualification:IAS
Address: Bangalore Development Authority, T. Chowdaiah Road, Kumara Park West, 560020.

This 1982 batch IAS officer has served in various capacities, most recently as chairman, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and prior to that, as Secretary, Power Reforms. He went to Harvard Business School between 1997 and 1999. Known as an articulate officer, it was under his watch that BWSSB started its KaverEcom kiosks. Touted as multi-utility bill-payment machines, these are now used mostly to pay water bills. Now, the government’s new project BangaloreOne does what KaverEcom was initially supposed to do. As BDA commissioner, Vidyashankar has put in place e-Pragati kiosks to help citizens with property tax payment and downloading of maps, among other things.


VERDICT: GUILTY

A. N. Yellappa Reddy.
Former Secretary, Environment, Ecology and Forests (1992-95).

Vidyashankar’s arguments show that he is only trying to justify what BDA has done. First, they roped in foreign consultants. How will they understand our situation — its social, economic, ecological ramifications? Now, BDA is trying to open up the green belt, change an ecological sub-system to an economic one. Bangalore is already swamped in polluted water, air, garbage and industrial effluents. Things are worse on the outskirts and the CMCs (city municipal councils) cannot cope at all. The authorities don’t realise that everything is linked. What we discard today — as sewage, garbage and solid waste — will come back to us eventually through the air we breathe, the water and milk we drink, the vegetables, fish and meat we eat. BDA has not applied its mind at all. It has not thought of the longterm chaos Bangalore is going to be in.