Policy recognises 89 villages as urban areas, opening them to infrastructure development by the authorities.
With Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal’s approval of the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) land pooling policy (LPP), developers and those linked to the infrastructure sector are happy, but environmentalists are crying foul as they say that the policy would “kill the villages” on the outer margins of the capital, as the policy bestows the urban tag on 89 villages. Baijal is also the chairman of the DDA.
Following the LG’s approval of the policy, the Urban Development Department of the Delhi government issued a notification declaring 89 villages as urban areas.
The notification has great impact on the demography of Delhi and, as per experts, it will help the authorities develop infrastructure projects in those localities. The LPP bestows the urban tag on 89 villages, including Salahpur Majra, Neelwal, Goela Khurd, Bakkarwala, Sultanpur Dabas, Bazidpur Takran, Mukhmelpur, Neb Sarai, and Baprola, among others.
After the policy’s approval, the Delhi government will not have to purchase land from the DDA for developing infrastructure. Under the policy, the Delhi government will pool the land from the owners in these villages and hand it over to the DDA. Further, the DDA will develop public infrastructure on the pooled land and will return a substantial portion of the plot to the owners.
Developing infrastructure is needed, but the bone of contention arises due to the DDA’s proposed plan of constructing 17 lakh houses for almost 76 lakh people on the pooled land.
According to sources close to the DDA, the DDA has already sent a proposal to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for building 17 lakh houses in these 89 villages. A source said: “A plan outlay for the construction of 17 lakh houses has been already made and sent to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for its nod. Once the DDA receives the green light of the Ministry, it will go ahead for implementation of the plan.”
However, environmentalists are unhappy with several provisions of the policy and they say that the government plans to create a new city within these villages that will be similar to Hyderabad in terms of population. As per the 2011 Census, the population of Hyderabad is 60 lakh.
Selvarajan, a Delhi-based environmentalist, said:“The recently adopted land pooling policy by the Delhi government might prove to be fatal for the villages situated on the outskirts of the capital. These villages are already facing extinction and would soon turn into concrete jungles.”
“I have been living in Delhi from 1993 onwards and I am witness to the population pressure in Delhi in the last two decades in particular. There are about 125 villages in Delhi-NCR with less than 1,000 people each. These villages are slowly losing their characteristics with the ever-changing preference for urban comforts among the village population,” he said.
After bestowing the urban tag on 89 villages, the number of villages in Delhi has reduced to 36. As per the Delhi demographic profile report 2012-13, till the 1980s, the capital had almost 350 villages.
Various studies indicate that the moisture level in air gets absorbed due to construction activities. The heat generated gets trapped in the air, thus raising the mercury level by 3-5 degrees .Increased heat raises the demand for more energy in the form of refrigeration and air conditioning and the increased energy demands pumps more pollution in the air.
According to the demographic profile report of Delhi, the breakup of the land use of 1,483 sq km of the Delhi-NCT area reveals that in 1991, the urban versus rural share of land area was 46% and 54%, whereas in 2011, it stood at 75% and 25% respectively.