Delhi Development Authority (DDA), a statutory agency headed by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, has been at stewardship of the various Master Plans drafted for the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
When the Delhi Government notified the Draft Master Plan - Delhi 2021 in 2005, DDA was entrusted with the responsibility of the drafting process yet again.
However, Romi Chopra, an adviser to the Delhi Urban Arts Commission believes that DDA lacks the constitutional authority to draft the Master Plan. She has points out under the 74th Amendment to the Constitution, "it is the local bodies, the municipalities that should draft the Master Plan after taking the necessary inputs from the people."
Indeed, Entry 1 of Twelfth Schedule to the Constitution, which lists the subjects within the jurisdiction of Municipal Bodies as per Article 243W of the Constitution, refers to "urban planning including town planning".
Sheila Dikshit, the Chief Minister of Delhi who opposes the transfer of this responsibility to municipal bodies, believes that the multiplicity of urban bodies in Delhi would impede the development of a comprehensive and integrated plan.
Chief Minister's apprehensions certainly cannot be dismissed lightly. Yet, one can argue that Article 243ZE seeks to address this exact concern by providing for the constitution of a Committee for Metropolitan Planning for preparing a 'draft development plan for the Metropolitan area as a whole' after having regard to plans prepared by the Municipalities in the Metropolitan area.
Dikshit's support for DDA's stewardship of the Delhi Master Plan 2021 also raises a more fundamental question about the value of decentralisation of administrative and political power. Is devolution of power to Panchayats and Municipalities only instrumentally valuable, thus expendable when confronted with substantial practical hurdles? Or does it have an intrinsic value of enhancing the representative character of public decision-making, regardless of the consequential gains?
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