CBI has found corruption at the top in DDA. DDA has only one mandate – development according to Delhi Master Plan, the only law guaranteeing equitable use of city space to all.
This corruption is thus about benefiting land mafia at cost of citizens’ land use entitlements.
Its exposure is an opportunity to strengthen DDA to put city development back on course.
But the connection between the corruption and infringement of citizens’ entitlements has yet to be made. And some have begun to demand disbanding of DDA even as that will leave the city short of a custodian of these entitlements, its land open to mafia even without corrupt officials.
Master Plan Implementation Support Group
- appeals to all custodians of public interest to not fuel the demand for disbanding DDA and to all concerned with the investigations to carry them through to their logical end
- reiterates its support of DDA, the statutory custodian of the Master Plan from which the Group derives its purpose
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sd/- Convenor Villages |
sd/- Convenor Rangpuri Phari |
sd/- Convenor Vasant Kunj |
sd/- Convenor Service Providers |
sd/- MPISG Planner |
‘Let DDA rid itself of tainted officials’, Manan Kumar / Hindustan Times South Delhi Live, Thursday, April 17, 2003
Going through its worst phase, the DDA has found friends whom it thought were its foes. The Master Plan Implementation Support Group (MPISG), a synergy platform of citizens’ groups with legitimate stakes in benefits of planned development based in Vasant Kunj, has come forward in support of DDA when voices are being raised for its dismantling.
“We are not against the DDA, but corruption prevalent in the Authority whose sole aim is to be the custodian of the Master Plan. Dismantling it would not only be unconstitutional, as it was born through an Act of Parliament, but it would leave Delhi at the mercy of land sharks supported by politicians,” say residents of Rangpuri Pahadi basti (Vasant Kunj), a constituent of MPISG, who had to face DDA’s bulldozers twice.
The occasion they chose to make this point was April 14, the birth anniversary of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar. Several like-minded citizens from Vasant Kunj DDA flats, Mahipalpur, Ambedkar Colony (Andheria More), Delhi Science Forum and Arjun Basti were present at the Rangpuri Pahadi Basti to celebrate the Constitution and democracy and to endorse their solidarity for the implementation of Delhi Master Plan.
Well-known socialist thinker, writer and former Rajya Sabha MP Surendra Mohan was also present to lend his support to them. “We should strike at corruption and not the institution itself. For example, when a government does not perform, we do not dismantle the government but change its custodians through election. Similarly, we should get rid of corrupt officials working in the DDA, and not the DDA itself,” he said.
Similar views were expressed by MPISG convenor (Vasant Kunj flats) Prabha Chand, convenor (Village groups) Shiv Narayan, convenor (Basti groups) Samay Singh, convenor (service providers group) Badri Prasad and MPISG Planner Gita Dewan Verma