Delhi Master Plan runs into trouble

New Delhi: The Delhi Master Plan 2021, that was notified on Thursday, seems to have run into trouble with Capital’s Residents Welfare Associations.

Various RWAs on Friday approached the Supreme Court challenging the government notification for permitting commercial activities from residential areas in Delhi.

The Delhi Pradesh Citizen Council (DPCC) has petitioned the apex court alleging that the Master Plan has been introduced solely with the intention of upsetting the orders and directions of the Supreme Court which cannot be permitted.

According to DPCC, the Master Plan gives a “free hand to the traders and land mafia to hold the entire city to ransom.”

The notification, dated February 7, 2007, brought in by the government has also made a provision for the regularisation of over 1,400 illegal and unauthorised colonies spread all over the Capital besides permitting the construction of additional floor by raising the permissible height a building in the city from 11m to 15m.

The petitioner's counsel, Jasbir Singh Malik has also appealed that the Master Plan is a glaring example of vote bank politics as it is clear from the Master Plan that it has been prepared keeping in view the forthcoming Municipal Corporation elections in Delhi.

Delhi master plan 2021

• MPD 2021 allows liberal mixed land use in middle and lower middle class colonies, where commercial use of residential buildings is rampant.
• It seeks to legalise schools, nursing homes and pathology labs in residential zones. It allows schools and private healthcare centres in Delhi’s residential zones to operate from where they are for the next three years. Playway schools running on floors other than ground would have to go and big coaching and tuition centres operating on sprawling compounds will also have to shut down once the new master plan comes into force.
• It will encourage vertical development of Delhi, seeks to pave the way for development of the capital's historical quarters in the walled city.
• It incorporates mixed land use notifications of September last year, allowing businesses along more than 2,000 roads of Delhi.
• The ministry has also sent its request to the Cabinet to regularise over 1,400 unauthorised colonies of Delhi.
• It relaxes rules for private coaching centres in middle and lower-middle income colonies. But coaching centres on plots bigger 250-sq m plots would not be allowed.
• In posh A and B category colonies, 24 types of commercial activities have been allowed on 20-sq m areas, including groceries, hair saloons and tailor shops. Gyms, which of course cannot be run on 20 sqm will not be allowed in posh colonies.
• It has expanded the list of professionals who can work from homes across Delhi. Engineers, cost accountants, company secretaries, journalists and film and documentary makers have been placed beside architects, doctors, lawyers and chartered accountants who were earlier permitted to work in residential zones.