The draft was put in the public domain on June 9 for inviting suggestions and objections and a webinar was conducted on Thursday by DDA with the aim to facilitate the general public to understand the provisions and various policies that have been made part of it.
Speaking at the webinar, which was the first in a series of three more to be held on July 6, 17 and 20, Jain said it would be ideal if MPD-41 came into its final shape by December, but it would be definitely in place by January or at most February 2022.
He said DDA had ensured that unlike previous master plans, which used to get delayed by four to five years, MPD-41 was completed on time. “That, however, doesn’t mean there has been any quality compromise and I have myself attended 30 meetings in the last one year.”
Jain also said that unlike the five-yearly reviews for the previous master plans, MPD-41 would see annual reviews. “Earlier there was no monitoring framework and there were only five-year mid-term reviews. For MPD-21, it was done only once, in 2012.” He said another new and useful feature would be that people would be able to zoom into maps and find out MPD features at plot level.
For MPD-41, every year all government agencies would have a meeting in January. He said all master plan goals would be reviewed to see where all government bodies had reached and the public would also get to know. “Unless there is social interaction, there would be no pressure on us.” He said the master plan used to be a wish document but now consultation meetings with various bodies had been carried out and DDA was playing a facilitator’s role.
The major issues that were raised in the webinar were extension of last date for submitting objections and suggestions, lack of specific planning goals, periodic and regular engagement of stakeholders, regulatory framework for permissible activities in proposed zone O-1 near the Yamuna.
The open forum saw some participants mention that there should be special provisions for marginalised groups accessing public spaces, checking unauthorised construction and encroachment on public land, and clarification of status of Special Area mentioned in the draft.
In the first Webinar, issues related to introduction, vision, environment, economy, culture, heritage and public spaces chapters were presented. The next webinar will cover Shelter and Social Infrastructure and Transport and Mobility.