SRIVASTAVA 

COMMITTEE

REPORT

JANUARY - 2007

P. P. Shrivastav						                  NEC Secretariat        Member NEC 						              Shillong - 793 003 Tel.: 0364-2522642 					             Fax: 0364-2522666 

Chairman, Expert Committee on Lal Dora, Delhi

FOREWORD

	Decision of the Government of India in the Ministry of Urban Development to address the long-standing problems of the villages of Delhi that had been swept into the backwaters of progress by the torrent of urbanisation was not only timely but also imperative. Besides, it gave us, the Members of the Expert Committee on Lal Dora (ECLD), the opportunity to   get associated once again in the noble task of improving the living conditions and environment in the villages and bringing before the village-people unprecedented opportunities of enhancing their prosperity. All of us, Members of this Committee, have had long and pleasant experience of   serving the people of Delhi in one capacity or the other and have intimate knowledge of their problems. Discussions and interactions on this issue over the past few months were a stimulating and rewarding experience. Drawing   up of this Report has been for us a labour of love. 

The village-abadis of Delhi - 227 rural and 135 urbanised till date -  have been circumscribed by Lal Dora. Confined as it were by the Red Line, both in the literal and figurative sense, they have got reduced to cramped, unhealthy pockets, lacking largely even in the basic civic services.   Surrounding agricultural lands, fields and farms, the traditional and principal base for their livelihood over the ages, were taken away for a pittance and resold at huge profit. Yet very little, not even a reasonable proportion, was invested in introducing the basic-most civic services (water-supply,   sewerage, solid waste management systems etc) to them. 

Little attention was paid to facilitate and smoothen their transition to alternate means of livelihood. The choice before them for sheer survival was either to earn as best as they could from their land/property or to let their younger generation take to dubious get-rich-quick ways of life. The innate maturity and high value system of our rural folk, based as it is on our noble cultural and spiritual tradition and the teachings of our epics, they chose the former. Deprived of land for agriculture and facilities for keeping cattle,  they were driven to opening shops, starting small industries wherever they could; renting out their premises for godowns, offices and the like. Some  were tempted to sell off their lands at prices, seemingly high but just a fraction of their real intrinsic potential value.
 
The latest trend of strict segregation of the non-residential uses in residential areas in urban colonies, is thus neither relevant nor even fair and just to the villages that still retain their predominantly rural character. 

The Committee feels, strongly and unanimously, that the solution lies not in making futile attempts at resisting the wave of urbanisation in Delhi, but in taking the maximum advantage of the opportunities that urbanisation has to offer. Our national capital has to be the pride of our great country.  Its urbanisation with as intensive use of land as is possible to accommodate  its present population and the addition in future, is inevitable. At the same time it must be ensured that sub-standard pockets (villages, unauthorised colonies, slums, JJ-c1usters etc), as well as our heritage areas including the Old City be developed or redeveloped with wide street pattern and clean and decent living spaces, limited 24-point mixed land-use (as recently approved   by the Hon'ble Supreme Court) and ample commercial spaces adequate for  the present and up to 2021, are planned for and provided. All this must be done while retaining the green character of Delhi, improving the aesthetics and conserving, improving and beautifying our heritage sites and places of healthy recreation. 

With increase in population and limited space, one has to shed the reluctance in going vertical. If other world-class cities have sky-scrapers,  why must we limit our constructions to 4 or 8 storeys? If DDA can have a   23-storey tower and MCD plans to have 28-storey Civic Centre, why should a private enterprising citizen be denied the opportunity to go still higher - a tower that provides for most of the requirements of its residents in situ    and is a self-financing (and profitable) endeavour? Liberty and opportunity    to private sector has to be provided if our dream of making Delhi a world  class metropolis is to come true. 

The Committee has recommended a strategy of development/ redevelopment that aims at: 

•	Providing modern, decent living accommodation to all the present residents of villages and for natural increase in the future; 

•	Enabling painless and desirable, limited segregation of residential and non-residential activities; 

•	Renewal of decaying structures, markets and areas, including private properties;

•	Building up of proper urban infrastructure for better health & hygiene;

•	Integration of sub-standard decayed pockets (Lal Dora/urban villages etc) with the surroundings of planned proper residential colonies and commercial areas; 

•	Putting vacant and encroached public land to proper use; 

•	Promotion of trade and commerce for creation of job opportunities and economic prosperity; 

•	Conservation and promotion of traditional arts & crafts and recognition to artistes and artisans; 

•	Development/Beautification of Delhi befitting of our National Capital; 

•	Making development/redevelopment process largely self-financing and self    sustaining and in consultation with the people; 

•	Quick enrichment of the villagers through optimally intensive utilisation of their land - vacant and built up - that will enhance its value several-fold through: 

o	self-effort if they are prepared to invest in development OR
o	adopting PPP-route where land-owners are the main beneficiaries without making any investment.

•	Large-scale public satisfaction and enrichment and transformation of sub-standard areas into good modern localities with urban facilities and rural ambience. 

This strategy can easily be adopted/adapted to transform other        sub-standard areas of Delhi, viz., unauthorised and regularised colonies, JJ-clusters, slum areas etc on one hand and heritage areas like Old City and some villages, localities on the Ridge, in Reserved Forest Areas and such others. 

On behalf of the Members of the Committee and on my own behalf I express my heartful thanks to all those who contributed their wisdom and time in the making of this Report. 

Sd/- 
New Delhi 							     [P. P. Shrivastav]
12 Jan 07                          CHAIRMAN, EXPERT COMMITTEE ON LAL DORA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Committee expresses its thanks and gratitude to the wide cross-section of the village-society who gave it the benefit of their views, suggestions and opportunity for intensive interaction. Special thanks are due to the Hon'ble Union Ministers, MOS, Chief Minister (and former CM) of Delhi, Speaker of Delhi Assembly, Members of Parliament, Members of Delhi Assembly, Municipal Councilors, political leadership at various levels, professional experts in the urban planning and administration, Officers, academicians, Civil Society representatives, journalists and others. Special thanks are due to the Secretary (present and former) and Addl. Secretary in the Ministry of UD for their support to the Committee. 

I have no words to adequately express gratitude to my colleagues in the Committee without whose willing help and cooperation, it would have    been difficult to complete this task. The Committee was enriched by the erudition and breadth of outlook of Prof Jamal Ansari, the deep knowledge, wide experience of Shri R G Gupta and the exhaustive data-base that he  made available to us; the scholarly cOl1tribution of Shri D.D. Mathur as former Chief of Town Planning Dept of MCD for a quarter of century, the imaginative and inspiring plans of redevelopment of several sub-standard and potentially valuable pockets prepared by Shri Vijay Singh. All these have   gone into the making of this Report. The pressure of work on Divisional Commissioner (Revenue) in Delhi is tremendous. Yet Shri Narendra Kumar   and his Successor Ms Naini Jayaseelan gave us whatever time they could spare. ADMs, Shri A K Kaushal mainly and Shri Sanjay Kumar Jha on a few occasions, represented them in the Committee's meetings. As the Chief   Town Planner of MCD, Shri V K Bugga was a repository of knowledge and wisdom. He was involved in so many Committees and was needed in so many meetings at so many places. Yet as Member-cum-Convener of ECLD, his contribution was comprehensive and admirable. He was ably assisted by Shri Ajay Das Biswas, Dy. Town Planner, MCD who worked for this Committee day and night. I am extremely grateful to him.  

New Delhi 							      (P.P. Shrivastav)
12 Jan 07 		         CHAIRMAN, EXPERT COMMITTEE ON LAL DORA  

EXPERT COMMITTEE ON LAL DORA

Constituted by the Union Ministry of Urban Development
vide its order No. K-120161512006-DDIB dated 26.7.06

We, the Members of the Committee have the honour of presenting the Report of this Committee to you for consideration and acceptance of its recommendations. 

(Prof. Jamal Ansari)							(R.G. Gupta)
	Member							     Member

(Naini Jayaseelan)							(V.K. Bugga)
	Member							    Member

(D.D. Mathur)							(Vijay Singh) 
Co-opted Member 						    Co-opted Member 

(P.P. Shrivastav)
Chairman

 
CONTENTS

Chapter 1	:	Introduction 	9 	
Chapter 2	:	The Background	12 	
Chapter 3	:	Efforts of the Govt. of NCT Delhi to address the problem of the Villages 	18 	
Chapter 4	:	Problems of the villages and efforts of DDA and MCD at addressing them. 	20 	
Chapter 5	:	Aspirations of the village people and 
their assessment. 	30 	
Chapter 6	:	Terms of Reference: Committee's response with reference to the problems faced by villages. 	38 	
Chapter 7	:	Recommendations 	45 	

Annexures

REPORT OF THE EXPERT COMMITTEE ON LAL DORA

CHAPTER - l

INTRODUCTION

The Union Ministry of Urban Development vide its order No. K12016/5/2006-DDIB dated 26.7.06 (copy at Annexure-1a) set up a Committee of experts to look into the issues of application of building regulations and development control norms in Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora areas and their integration in the overall process of the planned development of Delhi. The Committee consists of the following experts: 

Chairman		Shri P.P. Shrivastav	Member, North-Eastern Council (the statutory Planning Body for the eight States of the North Eastern Region) 
	
Members 
	i	Prof Jamal Ansari	Formerly, Actg. Director, School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi 
	
	ii	Shri R G Gupta
	Policy Planner, Delhi 
	
	iii	Div. Commissioner Govt. of NCT of Delhi	Shri Narendra Kumar (upto Oct 06) 
Ms Naini Jayaseelan thereafter	
Member-Convener	iv	Chief Town Planner Mpl. Corpn. of Delhi 
	Shri V K Bugga	
		 
1.2	Subsequently, the Committee found it desirable to co-opt two other  eminent experts. One of them, Shri D.D. Mathur, has the unique experience of heading the Town Planning Department of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi     for quarter of a century (from 1965 to 1990) during which he remained    associated with formulation and implementation of the Master Plan of Delhi. Besides, he has teaching experience in the University of Roorkee and the    School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi. The second co-opted expert, Shri Vijay Singh, presently posted as Dy. Commissioner (City Zone and IT) in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has a doctorate degree from JNU in land development in Delhi. He also has long experience of planning and   administration of rural areas while heading the Panchayat Department of the   Govt. of NCT Delhi. Besides, he is presently engaged in holistic redevelopment    of Jama Masjid area and some other congested areas of Delhi including the  walled city. 

1.3 	Terms of Reference of this Expert Committee on Lal Dora (ECLD) are as follows: 
(i)	To examine the desirability and/or feasibility of integration of Lal Dora     and extended Lal Dora areas of Delhi in the overall process of Planned development of the city; 

(ii)	If so, to recommend broad principles and terms and conditions for  achieving the integration, as mentioned at (i) above; 

(iii)	To suggest planning and development control norms that should govern development activity in Lal Dora and extended Lal Dora areas of Delhi; 

(iv)	To consider the recommendations contained in the Tejendra Khanna Committee report in respect of Lal Dora and extended Lal Dora areas and to suggest modalities for implementation of the feasible    recommendations; and 

(v)	Any other matter related or incidental to any of the terms of references mentioned above. 

1.4	The Committee was to submit its recommendation in 3 months time but   the magnitude of the task was so large, involving as it did, intensive interaction with interested members of the village community, leaders of public opinion       and elected representatives of the people, that it was not possible for ECLD to complete its work within this deadline. Accordingly, ECLD requested extension    of time till 31 Dec 06 and this was given by the Ministry of Urban Development. (ANNEXURE -1b) 

1.5	In order to obtain views and suggestions on the various issues involved from the various sections of the Society including representative bodies,      interest groups, NGOs, Civil Society representations, experts, member of public and representative of the affected villagers etc, a Public Notice was issued     which appeared in the National Press on the 27th & 28th August, 2006. (English version of the Public Notice is at ANNEXURE 2). 

1.6 	Around 90 representations were received in response to the Public      Notice and all these were closely studied. All the persons/groups concerned    were invited for detailed face-to-face interaction to fully understand and  realistically appreciate their points of view and suggestions. Detailed     discussions were held with all those who came and these proved invaluable.     The Committee is grateful to them for the trouble taken by them and for their valuable ideas and suggestions. The points made in all these representations   and interactions have been summarised in ANNEXURE 3. 

1.7	It was also felt that in addition to the public hearings mentioned above, closer interaction with the elected representatives of the people, especially     those representing the rural areas and are fully conversant with the area and feelings of the public, would provide valuable input to the Committee. All the Hon'ble Members of Parliament from Delhi were addressed accordingly for seeking their convenience for meetings. Widespread discussions were held formally and informally and these included discussions with Hon'ble Union Minister of State in Ministry of UD, Hon'ble Lt Governor of Delhi, Hon'ble Chief Minister of Delhi, former Chief Minister, Hon'ble Speaker of Delhi Assembly, Hon'ble MPs. from Delhi, Hon'ble MLAs of Delhi Assembly, Chairman of the Standing Committee and Leader of the Opposition of MCD. VC DDA was also addressed and his reply was also received. The Committee also met concerned officers of Govt. of NCT of Delhi and Commissioner of MCD to elicit their views. A meeting organized by the Hon'ble Speaker of Delhi Assembly collectively with the Hon'ble Members representing rural areas had to be cancelled at the last moment on account of an unexpected last-minute local problem. The inputs received from these close and detailed interactions were most valuable. 
1.8	The Committee also visited some typical rural/urban villages based on their geographical location, character and predominant activities of the people. These villages included Azadpur and Badli (urbanized) and several other villages in different areas of Delhi. 
1.9 	The Committee met formally in a total of 23 sittings where the various aspects of the issues involved were discussed threadbare and unanimous consensus emerged in identification of the problems of the rural people and finding ways of addressing them in an effective, practical and time-bound manner. 
1.10 	The Committee was also keen to demonstrate implementation of two of its key recommendations (viz., firstly of making a beginning in introducing transparency in maintenance of village records and secondly of showing how with people's participation development in a village could be integrated with the surrounding areas) in the form of two small pilot projects. Under the first project, rural maps and records already available in South District were to be brought on to MCD's Website within a month's time. Under the other, model redevelopment plans of a few villages were to be prepared. Both these could be taken up with funds available under a sanctioned scheme of Delhi Government. Unfortunately, these could not be initiated due to certain reasons. These pilot projects could easily be taken up and completed in a period of 3 months or so. 
1.11 	The Committee would like to place on record its deep appreciation and gratitude to all those members of the public and their leaders who took keen interest in favouring us with their views and constructive suggestions. These proved to be of great help in bringing this initiative and endeavour of the Government to solve the problems of the rural areas in consultation with the people at this crucial point of time when the Master Plan of Delhi with 2021perspective is being finalized. 
	
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CHAPTER – 2

THE BACKGROUND

2.1.1	As per the 2005-06 edition of the Economic Survey of Delhi, the total population of Delhi (2001 census) stood at 138,50507 out of which the urban population was 129,05780 (93.18%). Out of Delhi's total area of 1483 sq km, the Urban area was 924.68 sq km. Thus the area of rural Delhi stood at 558.32 sq km and the population was 9,44,727 (say 9.5 lakh) in 2001. Draft Master Plan 2021 has projected Delhi's population in 2011 at 182.0 lakh and 230.0 lakh in 2021. 

2.1.2	While Appendix 1 of the Delhi Land Reforms Rules, 1954 lists 358 villages in the UT of Delhi, the Tejendra Khanna Committee Report has put the number of villages at 362. Possibly some Revenue Estates created subsequently by the Lt. Governor of Delhi have been included in the list of villages. 135 villages out of these have been declared as urbanized villages (ANNEXURE 4) and thus the remaining 227 remain as rural villages. 15 out of these 227 villages stand recommended by MCD (since the year 2000) to the Govt. of NCT of Delhi for being declared as urban u/s 507 of DMC Act. The notification to this effect is yet to be issued by Govt. of NCT of Delhi. 

2.1.3	The metropolitan town of Delhi has grown on agricultural lands acquired from the villagers. Initially, in building up of Lutyen's Delhi, the villages were relocated; later only their agricultural lands were acquired and the residential areas (abadi deh) were circumscribed by a red line and that is how the term Lal Dora came into use. The process of urbanisation over the years has been engulfing the villages. Urban Delhi grew fast around them while the villages remained within the confines of their Lal Doras. The close layouts and narrow lanes of old village abadis were conditioned by old (now outdated) historical compulsions of collective security, considerations of mutual interdependence and availability all-round of vast open agricultural fields. Now with agricultural fields (that provided the open environment) having been acquired by DDA or grabbed/colonised by market forces driven by skyrocketing land-values, on the one hand and with natural increase in village population on the other, the village abadis have become intolerably cramped. It has not been possible to extend even the basic-most civic services like water-supply and sewage-disposal in the narrow twisting streets and haphazard layouts within Lal Dora in all the 135 urbanized villages as on date. Most of the dwelling units are inaccessible to ambulances and fire-tenders to attend to emergencies. 

2.1.4	What is still worse is that the villagers have been deprived of their principal, if not the sole means of permanent sustenance - their agricultural fields and space to maintain cattle. A farmer's life is as inextricably linked with agricultural fields as a tribal's is to the forests that have sustained his past generations. One-time compensation at government rates for land acquired tends to go as fast as it comes. It is hardly an adequate recompense for land (with ever-escalating value in the urbanization process) that is a permanent and perennial source of sustenance. Deprived of agricultural land and facilities for keeping cattle, the villagers were driven to opening shops, start small industries wherever they could; renting out their premises for godowns, offices and the like. With urban Delhi hard-pressed for dwelling units to house the flood of in-migrants from elsewhere, and consequent sky-rocketing of value of vacant land, many villagers were tempted to sell off their lands to colonizers and builders. The areas covered by extension of Lal Dora and agricultural fields around the villages - both acquired and unacquired - became favourite hunting ground of the middle-class - lower and higher - to satisfy their need of cheap housing. Thanks to the alleged collusion between colonisers and enforcement agencies, highly sub-standard unauthorized colonies mushroomed in these areas. A big list of 1432 such colonies is slated for regularization as of date and reportedly, a proposal to add 88 more to this list is under consideration. 

2.1.5	In the shadow of these developments and with their age-old traditional means of sustenance taken away from them, can one blame the villagers for the shops and industries, godowns and show-rooms that have come up in violation, technically speaking, of the laws and bye-laws, rules and regulations? In the struggle for survival and sustenance, it was either this technical violation or taking to violence and crime. 

2.1.6	The solution to the problems of rural villages lies in finding ways that would inspire the villagers themselves, at least the younger generation, to demand that they be permitted to enhance the value of their property by making as intensive use of their lands as feasible through redevelopment. The Committee also feels, very broadly at the macro-level, that with our rural brethren (6.82% of Delhi's total population) living in 37.64% of the total land area of Delhi, it should not be difficult to adequately meet not only the present but also the future needs of our villages. Creation of good modern housing and commercial areas in multi-storey complexes would mean substantial enhancement in the value of their property. It would not be necessary for anyone to move away from their original area: all their non-residential activities could also be met in the vicinity itself. In fact, new markets could be created for fresh commercial and trading activity adding to the prosperity of the villages. That would also relieve the acute scarcity of commercial premises in Delhi which is causing so many problems for the traders. Further details of this strategy will be discussed elsewhere in this Report. 

2.2	Among the factors for deterioration of the situation in village abadis as seen today, are the following.  The first Master Plan of Delhi (1961-81) prescribed principles for development of rural areas in Delhi, but detailed planning remained partial especially in respect of rural villages. Even in the villages included (or proposed to be included) in the urbanisable limits of Delhi, implementation of detailed guidelines in respect of development of abadi areas remained partial and unsatisfactory. On 16 Feb 77 the Ministry of Urban Development issued orders regarding regularization of unauthorized colonies. It was further specifically clarified (vide Order No. J-13037/113/74/UDI/II-B dated 22 Mar 77) that "the unauthorized colonies/residential and commercial structures located within the 'Lal Dora'" would also be covered. In 1979 a Working Group was constituted to formulate a Perspective Plan for the Development of Sub-standard Areas of Delhi (1980-2000). This included villages as well, but was not followed up. A Mini-Master Plan giving details of physical and financial planning of all the essential services was formulated in 1984, but was not implemented. This was further revised during the period 1991 onwards and a few facilities were provided. Another ambitious project Sardar Patel Gramodaya Yojna was inaugurated in 1997 but remained largely unimplemented. 

2.3	The revised Master Plan - MPD-2001 - that was enforced in 1990, did lay emphasis on integrated development of rural areas. Unfortunately, the zonal plans, area development plans and redevelopment plans prepared by different authorities did not indicate abadi (Lal Dora and extended Lal Dora) on the maps and attempts, if any, to implement whatever had been planned or to integrate the development of abadis with the surrounding areas remained thoroughly inadequate. 

2.4 	Even in cases where decision had been taken to urbanise some villages, delay in issue of notification declaring them as urban and acquisition of land for meeting the needs of village communities resulted in unplanned growth around the villages. Also, instead of making allowance for natural increase in village population and reserving adjacent land for the same, new colonies were planned in such lands, e.g., East of Kailash, Dwarka, Rohini and Vasant Kunj. These were developed on acquired agricultural land of villages. Responsibility for preparation and implementation of various schemes under the program was never clearly defined. This responsibility as well as that of framing and enforcing development controls was transferred from one agency to another. Building control regulations were neither prescribed in the Master Plan nor made effective in urban villages (Lal Dora or Extended Lal Dora) under the erroneous but convenient assumption that since such regulations were not applicable in the village abadis, the same would also not apply to urbanized villages as well. 

2.5 	Large scale unauthorised construction that began on account of the  above and of lack of integration of urbanized village 'abadis' with the process     of planned development in the surrounding areas, soon spread to all parts of Delhi. In February 2006 the Ministry of Urban Development constituted a Committee under the Chairmanship of Shri Tejendra Khanna, former Lt. Governor of Delhi, to look into various aspects of unauthorized construction    and misuse of premises in Delhi. In its Report (May 2006) the Tejendra Khanna Committee highlighted the urgency of the need to look into problems of Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora areas, with specific reference to their non-integration with the overall planned development of Delhi. That perhaps prepared the ground for setting up of this Expert Committee on Lal Dora (ECLD). 

2.6 	At this stage, it would be desirable to clarify some terms that have come into common parlance. 

2.7 	The land earmarked for village abadi and the agricultural land of the village were duly demarcated in the land settlement of 1908-09 and the abadi site was circumscribed in the village map in red ink. That is how it came to be commonly known as Lal Dora. The land falling within Lal Dora is not assessed to land revenue. Those falling outside the village abadi (Lal Dora) are meant for purpose connected with agriculture and are subject to Land revenue. 

2.8 	Similarly the term Extended Lal Dora does not appear in any of the provisions of the revenue Laws. However, the East Punjab Holding (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948 as extended to Delhi did provide for extension of abadi for residential and common purposes and for common needs of the villagers. Consolidation operations (detailed in Chapter 3 ahead) began in Delhi in 1952 and orders extending Lal Dora were issued in Delhi from time to' time. The extended village abadi was enclosed within the new peripheral boundary known as 'phirni' (generally a road at the periphery) and the area between the original Lal Dora and the post consolidation 'phirni' was treated as Extended Lal Dora area. Plots in the Extended Lal Dora are given separate Khasra numbers in revenue records. These constitute free-hold residential land with ownership name recorded in Khatouni (Register of permanent Land Record). The Extended Lal Dora plots can be transacted authorisedly through registered sale deeds and the ownership is mutated accordingly in the revenue records. On the other hand, the ownership of land falling within Lal Dora is only held by way of possession and is not recorded in the revenue records. 

2.9 	The entire village abadi bears just one Khasra number and the competent authority to certify the boundary of village abadi is the Revenue Department of the Govt. of National Capital Territory of Delhi. 

2.10 	Rural villages that fall within the urbanisable limits as per Master Plan of Delhi are declared urban u/s 507 of the DMC Act through a notification issued by the Govt. of NCT Delhi. The legal consequences of urbanization of a village is that the provisions of Master Plan/Zonal Plan/relevant Area Development Plan/Building Bye-laws become applicable and the provisions of the Delhi Land Reforms Act ceases to operate as per the provision u/s 1 (2) of the said Act. The moment, a village is declared urban u/s 507 of DMC Act, Lal Dora ceases to exist. The clarification in this context was issued by the Union Ministry of Urban Development vide their letter dated 23.3.01 (ANNEXURE 5). Depending on the body having territorial jurisdiction, development plans of urban villages are prepared by DDA or MCD in accordance with the norms stipulated in Master Plan of Delhi. 

2.11	Villages falling in the Rural Use Zone that have NOT been notified u/s 507 of DMC Act nor any change of land-use declared under the DDA Act, 1957 are termed as Rural Villages. Here the traditional revenue records like Khasra Khatouni (Khasra is the unit number assigned to a specific plot of land and Khatouni is record of ownership and other details like area, record of mutations etc), Shijra (map of the Revenue Estate), Jamabandi (record of ownership and of possession under the East Punjab Act), etc are maintained by the Revenue Department of Govt. of NCT of Delhi. 

2.12	Applicability of Building Regulations 

Rural villages are exempt from the operation of certain sections of DMC Act pertaining to Building Regulations only in so far as the areas of village abadis as defined in the revenue records are concerned provided that the exemption is not applicable to Factories, Ware Houses, Cold Storages, and Slaughter Houses. The said exemption was authorized under MCD's Notification of August 1963 (ANNEXURE 6). This notification only exempted the residents of the abadi area from obtaining sanction of building plan for their residential units. It did not exempt buildings from the purview of Building Bye-laws. Residential Buildings within Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora are permitted two and a half floors. These stipulations have been made amply dear in the Office Order No. TP/G/683/04 dated 03.02.04 issued by Commissioner, MCD (ANNEXURE 7). Building activity in urban villages is governed by the relevant stipulations contained in the Master Plan/Zonal Plan/Development Plan of concerned village/Building Bye-laws. 

2.13 	The Hon'ble Supreme Court in its judgment dated 07.05.04 (M C Mehta Vs. UOI & Others) directed MCD to consider withdrawal of the notification dated 24.08.1963. The deliberative wing of MCD approved the withdrawal of the notification vide its Resolution No. 683 dated 21.02.05 as recommended by the Sub-Committee constituted for the purpose. Government of NCT of Delhi was accordingly requested to notify withdrawal of the notification of 1963. However, the matter came to be reconsidered by the Corporation after 10 months on the basis of the Standing Committee's Resolution of 27.02.06 approving a Private Member's proposal that the said 1963-notification should not be withdrawn. The Government of NCT of Delhi was thereupon informed accordingly. 

2.14 	Development Plans for Urbanised Villages are to be prepared by DDA/ MCD as per norms stipulated in the Master Plan of Delhi. In the process, vacant areas around the villages are reserved for such community facilities that are deficient in the villages. Unfortunately, the lands earmarked for the same get encroached/built upon and the local bodies are unable to remove them. DDA/ MCD has prepared development plans for about 70-75 villages but these were implemented only partially. Development plans of two urban villages are appended as ANNEXURE 8 as samples. 

2.15	Recently the Union Ministry of Urban Development has again directed that MCD and DDA should take up preparation of development plans of the villages for which no plans have been prepared so far. It remains to be seen if this would also end up as an exercise in futility for lack of effective enforcement. 

2.16	Provision of Draft Master Plan-2021: The urban limits of Delhi are proposed for extension up to interstate boundary leaving one revenue village at the periphery as buffer green. Hemmed as border villages in the north-east and the south of Delhi are between highly urbanized areas of Ghaziabad/NOIDA and Gurgaon, it is highly doubtful that these border villages would be able to escape the wave of urbanization. The chances are that they would also get urbanized. However, it must be very strictly ensured that the Ridge, water bodies and recreational green areas are preserved and deterrent punishment should follow attempts at their defilement and encroachment. In this context the proposal in Draft MPD-2021 to increase green/recreational use to 18-20% (and commercial from 3-4% to 5-6%) is a welcome step. 

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CHAPTER – 3

EFFORTS OF THE GOVT OF NCT DELHI
TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM OF THE VILLAGES

3.1 	Revenue Settlement was last carried out in Delhi in the years 1908-1909. The lands earmarked for village abadi and those meant basically for agricultural purposes were duly demarcated. The Village Abadi i.e., essentially the residential (Ghar Gitwar) component of the community was shown in the village map circumscribed in red ink. The Abadi deh thus came to be known as Lal Dora in common parlance. Lands falling within village abadi (Lal Dora) were not assessed to land revenue. The agricultural fields outside the village abadi were subject to land revenue. Villagers of Delhi, as villagers elsewhere, depended predominantly on agriculture. 

3.2 	Deluge of refugees as an aftermath of the partition coupled with natural increase in population and in-migration from the rest of the country, led to extensive fragmentation in these rural pockets, making the holdings uneconomical. Essentially to meet these fresh challenges, Punjab enacted a new law providing for compulsory consolidation of holdings of agricultural land. This Act was extended to the Union Territory of Delhi in 1951. Under the provisions of this Act, the work of consolidation of Holding was initiated in some of the villages from 1951 and completed in 102 villages by the year 1954. Thereafter, Delhi land Reforms Act 1954 was enacted and came into force in Delhi. The East Punjab Holding (Consolidation & Prevention of Fragmentation) Act 1948 which continued to remain extended to Delhi, was also amended to provide for extension of village abadi while undertaking Consolidation of Holdings. Among the objectives were to (a) Enable extension of village abadi, and (b) Provide a source of income for the Village Panchayat and for benefit of the village Community. 

3.3 	In the Rules framed under the Consolidation Act, common purposes were specified as follows:
 
"Pasture lands, cremation or burial grounds, Khalihan, land for keeping cattle, fisheries, tanks, skin flaying center, public latrines, fuel plantation, water channels, training places, well for drinking purpose, sewage tank, market, mela ground, rural dispensary, veterinary center, village theater, guardwara, temple, mosque or church, drains, community orchards, community center, young farmers club, etc." 

3.4 	Consolidation operations were taken up next in the year 1970 and 70 villages were covered. This programme was included in the Third Five Year Plan of Delhi and Plan funds were provided. The 102 villages covered during 1951-54 could not be benefited in this manner since the relevant legal enabling provision did not exist at that time. 

3.5 	It would thus be seen that Consolidation work was taken up sporadically, instead of being a continuing exercise to cover all the villages although phenomenal increase in population continued leading to rapid urbanization and generating tremendous pressure on land and squeezing of rural population within the Lal Dora. Timely relief by way of· extension of Lal Dora, while land was still available around the villages, could not be provided to the villagers of Delhi. It was only in a few villages that Phirni or Extended Lal Dora was provided. 

3.6 	Consolidation operations in 1970 led to extension of Lal Dora and provision for the needed community services (like additional house sites, pathways, Phirni, School, hospital, community services etc.) was made. As a result, the value of land in such villages rose considerably. However, situation has deteriorated even in these villages in the intervening over 3 decades. In other villages where Abadi was circumscribed almost a century back (in 1908-1909), the situation is pitiable. In small houses more than 15 to 20 people and the animals are living together leading to serious health hazards. The position is that on the one hand the space within Lal Dora has become grossly insufficient to meet the rising needs and aspirations of the increasing population and on the other, the land outside Lal Dora cannot (on pain of punishment under the Delhi land Reforms Act, 1954) be put to any use other than agriculture. 

3.7 	It is very heartening that the Government of India and the Government of NCT Delhi have taken congnizance of the increasingly serious problems faced by the villagers of Delhi for no fault of theirs, and initiated a study of the same so that appropriate measures could be taken at the earliest. 

CHAPTER - 4

PROBLEMS OF THE VILLAGES AND 
EFFORTS OF DDA AND MCD AT ADDRESSING THEM

THE PROBLEM 

4.1.1.	Our villagers had by and large been traditionally living on agriculture and agriculture-related activities. The situation changed with large-scale acquisition of their fields and farms by DDA for Planned Development of Delhi. With loss of their fields and farms and space for agriculture-related activities, the villages lost their traditional ambience. The villagers, restricted within the confines of Lal Dora, lost their age old traditional agricultural-cum-cattle based livelihood. Whatever little they got as one-time lump-sum monetary compensation for their acquired lands, did not last long. Lacking in experience/training in other marketable skills, they had l1ttle choice except to use the only asset that they were left with, viz., their properties within (and in some cases outside) the Lal Dora. Some opened shops, some set up small household industrial units and some rented them out to others (naturally, to outsiders). Offices, godowns and workshops also came up this way. Many properties were outright sold to non-villagers to get some cash. The speculative buyers of such properties exploited the situation and made huge profits. 

4.1.2. 	The Government and the local bodies have been taking a lenient and sympathetic view to these new activities of the villagers to earn a living. Mixed land-use was tolerated.· Running of household industries in Lal Dora with up to 1 KW of power and employing up to 5 workers was permitted. Later an order was issued permitting (with prior approval of the Administrator) electric connection for up to 20 HP to be given by the Electricity Supply Utility without insisting on a factory-licence. This created an impression among the Villagers who are more used to word of mouth than tortuous procedural paper formalities that they could go in for industries beyond the threshold of household industries.
 
4.1.3. 	Of late, the villagers have started feeling apprehensive over the likelihood of action (sealing/demolition or other penal action) being taken against such existing usage of their properties as are technically not permissible under the existing rules & regulations, laws & bye-laws. If penal action like sealing and demolition etc is started, that would deprive them of their means of sustenance for the second time. That would not at all be fair. This is the first problem of the villagers. 

4.2.1. 	The second problem of the villagers is that of utter lack of civic services in the villages and the inaction of the civic authorities in providing the same.        The grievance is that village lands were acquired at the official acquisition    rates, which are admittedly far lower than what the market is prepared to offer. (It is an open secret that a substantial proportion of payment in land deals remains unaccounted.) These lands fetched very high sale prices in auctions conducted by DDA. Despite the huge profits made, not enough was invested in providing basic civic amenities in the village abadi areas. By and large, villages lack even the most basic civic amenities (like treated drinking water supply, proper storm water drainage system, sewerage, proper street lighting and safe electric supply system, effective scavenging system etc). Women face problems since at many places the open fields around the villages that were used earlier for morning ablutions have been built upon after acquisition and are no longer available. The villagers see no prospects of any remedial action. They are told that proper civic services cannot be provided in the existing cramped, twisting layouts.
 
4.2.2.	Villagers have seen the fate of the villages - 135 of them - that have so far been declared as Urban Villages, consequent upon their inclusion in the expanding urban limits. Conditions there hardly improved. Habits and practices of pre-urbanisation days continued to persist - out of ignorance or by design. Building activity picked up furiously within Lal Dora in the time-gap between declaration of urbanization under the Master/Zonal Plan and issue of notification u/s 507 (a) of the DMC Act and continued even after that. Market forces generated by acute land-hunger of urban Delhi have been pushing up real estate value skywards and this has proved too strong to resist, especially by the enforcement agencies. This process continues in spite of observations of the Hon'ble Supreme Court (in the case of M.C. Mehta vs. UOI) that exemptions given to rural villages did not extend to villages notified as urban villages under Section 507 (a) of the DMC Act. God forbid, if a disaster like fire or earthquake occurs, the narrow roads and the twisting streets would seriously hamper fire-fighting, emergency rescue, relief and casualty evacuation operations. 

4.2.3. 	Urbanization has thus not brought about the desired and the expected improvements even in the villages that have been officially urbanized. As for the rural villages, with pastoral surroundings gone, most of them remain 'rural' and 'villages' in name only. 

4.2.4. 	A situation has been reached in the villages where it will be grossly unfair to swoop against existing mixed land use cases where Rules & Regulations or Building Bye-laws have been ignored in the past and to close them down. At the same time those who out of sentiment or other obvious reasons; press that villagers should be left alone and no existing exemptions be touched, are being equally myopic. Genuine and sincere well-wishers of the villagers may consider encouraging the village-elders to accept the inevitable and not deny the benefits of urban life that their children already yearn for, but to encash the rare opportunity of material prosperity and better quality of life that urbanization has to offer. 

4.3.1	The third problem of the villagers originates from the fact that the speed of acquisition of agricultural lands has outpaced utilisation of these lands for creating housing and other urban infrastructure. DDA could neither guard the acquired vacant lands effectively, nor did it permit the Private Sector to develop them or participate in their development. The result was extensive encroachments on them and mushrooming of unauthorised colonies - highly sub-standard and deficient in urban design and services. The tragedy is that villages have lost their charm and development remains stalled despite the very heavy price by the villagers for planned development of Delhi.
 
4.3.2.	The responsibility of counseling and advocacy among the unintended villager-victims of Delhi's urbanization phenomenon should legitimately fall on the local bodies, governmental agencies, Voluntary Organisations and most of all on the elected representatives of the people. The village youth should also be encouraged to let their elders know about their true feelings on their preference - life in cramped pockets deficient in civic services as against living in properly planned accommodation in multi-story complexes with all amenities in the vicinity. All must combine to see that rural villages of today do not suffer the same fate as befell such rural villages of yesteryears which got urbanized and are Urban Villages of today. 

4.4.1.	There is yet another problem relating mainly to Urban Villages, but the Committee feels that an easy solution to this fourth problem could be found very quickly and without waiting for a broad overall strategy to emerge. 

4.4.2.	It has been observed by MCD that people undertaking construction in urban villages do not come forward for getting their building plans sanctioned. But the fact is that if a villager who volunteers to seek sanction of his building plan, it is not entertained by the Building Dept of MCD on the ground of his inability to establish his ownership of the plot to the satisfaction of MCD. This is despite the well known ground reality that the entire old abadi bears a single Khasra number and the record of ownership of individual plots is generally not available (or updated) by the Revenue authorities. The exercise to get a certificate to this effect is time consuming and allegedly generally expensive. 

4.4.3.	Following a number of court cases on rejection of building plans on the above score, MCD has drafted a policy for urban villages which has been pending approval of the Standing Committee of MCD. Details of this proposed policy are given under para 4.7.2. 

4.5.	Both MCD and DDA have from time to time been making attempts at evolving appropriate policies, development control rules and building bylaws to suit special requirements of villages. 

Building control policy proposed by DDA 

4.6.1.	DDA sought comments of MCD sometime back (vide their letter to MCD No. F.3 (29)1994-MP.Pt.III/D-374-85 dated 26.09.05) on the norms/regulations proposed by them for building activity in villages (rural and urban). Relevant excerpts from the letter are reproduced below:

"Building plans to be considered only for plots which form part of Lal Dora/abadi area in case the following conditions are fulfilled:

(i)	The land use will be residential and construction shall confine to a maximum of 3 stories with maximum permissible FAR and height as per building bye laws. 
(ii)	Revenue Department of GNCTD to certify that the plot forms part of Lal Dora/abadi area. 
(iii)	No projection outside the plot line, except sunshade projection of 45 cm shall be allowed.
(iv)	The application shall provide proper documentary evidence or a certificate from the GNCTD (Revenue/L&B Department) that land is not under notification for acquisition. 
(v)	Plots located in the erstwhile villages/notified area committees of Mehrauli, Najafgarh and Narela etc. which now have the status of census towns would be considered on the same basis. 
(vi)	For all dead end roads or cul-de-sacs up to 150m in length, the ROW will be 4.5 m and for all other roads and dead end lanes above 150m, the ROW will be kept 9 m except in villages where redevelopment plans have been prepared. 
(vii)	Development charges will be recovered as decided by the competent authority from time to time. 
(viii)	Conformity will be maintained with Master Plan/Zonal Plan, with specific attention to ROW of master Plan roads and land use. 
(ix)	Amalgamation of plots may be permitted subject to condition that FAR shall be permissible on the basis of amalgamated plot (with height relaxation up to maximum of 15m). However, group housing shall not be permitted in the villages, including amalgamated plots. 
(x)	The following guidelines shall be followed - CFO (DFS) for fire safety; Rainwater harvesting; Structural safety 
(xi)	The building activity in all villages (including the villages in the development areas) will be controlled by MCD and NOC from DDA will not be needed for approval of building plans. 

4.6.2.	DDA has prepared a Redevelopment Proposal for Dhul Siras Village in Dwarka, Sector 24 in consultation with the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC). DDA wishes to use this effort as a model for the redevelopment of the villages in Delhi. The salient features of this proposal are: 

•	Exploiting the real estate potential of the village by increasing accessibility.

•	Enhance property values by provision of parking, increased residential accommodation, drainage, sewerage and public transport. 

•	Power sub-station on a site adjacent to the village 

•	Village ponds to be partly conserved as a water body and partly reclaimed for providing facilities. 

•	Freight complex, two hotel sites and a golf course. 

•	Export oriented activities. 

•	Other employment oriented activities. 

•	Flatted residential development. 

•	School and health facilities. 

4.6.3.	The important lesson to be drawn from the above is that to be effective, Urban Planning has to precede development. Unfortunately, in practice, it has been lagging far behind in Delhi. Had the MPD-2021 and its related Zonal Plans been finalized and published around the mid-90s, there would have been total clarity of the intentions and knowledge about the direction of planning over the coming two decades. In absence of advance planning unplanned and illegal developments on the ground have come up and caused untold misery to the people and created serious difficulties in planned development of the national capital. 

Efforts of MCD 

4.7.1. MCD has made no change in its policy governing building activity in rural villages. However, an insight into its thinking on this subject can be seen from a note submitted by Commissioner MCD to the Hon'ble Supreme Court around four years back. The note highlights the following issues:
A. 
(i)	Considering that urbanization is hallmark of the entire NCTD, practically speaking, there is no defined boundary between the urban rural areas. Almost every part of NCTD is either already urbanized in all respects or slated for urbanization in the near and intermediate future. The disparity among the villages, which are within and outside the urban limits, is fast disappearing. As such the exemptions given to rural areas need to be withdrawn and it needs to be examined whether entire Delhi be notified under Section 507 (a) of the DMC Act. 

(ii)	Since the pattern of development of village is typical in character due to the activities carried out by the residents of the villages and their style of living, urban laws cannot be imposed on such area. 

(iii)	Carrying out industrial activities in rural areas is against the orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, which has restricted it to conforming areas. Whether there is a need to enforce further restrictions of power from the existing order of allowing 1 kW power for units employing 5 workers needs to be reviewed further in the context of the Supreme Court Orders. 

B.	The official note further elaborates that the issues discussed above raise the following questions: 

(a)	Is there any real distinction between rural and urban Delhi in the context of the fast changing developments in Delhi? 

(b)	Once government declares by Notification under Section 507 of the DMC Act that a village or group of villages ceases to be rural area with effect from a particular date as published in the gazette, should not the development control and building permission procedures be made applicable immediately? 

(c)	Notification of 24th August 1963 has exempted 'abides' in the rural areas from the provisions of the MCD relating to building activity from Sections 322, 333, 334, 335, 336, 342 and 347. This is only in respect of ABADIS as defined in the revenue records. This exemption is not applicable to the non-residential categories of activities like warehouse, factories, cold storage and slaughterhouse. 

(d)	However for other industries like small-scale industries, electricity connections up to 20 HP are given without license by DVB. Sanction of building plan is not required for such industrial activity inside the Lal Dora, which is non-polluting nature. As per revised master Plan of 2001, this is restricted to 1 kW power and five workers. 

(e)	What happens during the period from the time a village is urbanized to the time its development plan is prepared? The result is that Lal Dora exemptions continue to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous elements and unauthorized colonies start mushrooming and factories start working. 

(f)	It needs to be clarified that industrial activity should only be permitted in industrial areas and not in residential areas as laid out in the Supreme Court case 'maili Yamuna. No industry in non-conforming areas should be allowed. The exemptions given to Lal Dora areas should be withdrawn by notification at the earliest possible. Time taken to notify a village under Section 507 of the DMC Act should be minimized. Or else much of the damage is done in the interim period when people know that the village is to be declared as urban area. Unauthorized colonies come up before the notification and continue after that due to lack of knowledge and application of laws. 

(g)	In urban villages, it is well recognized that the normal building bylaws can not apply due to historical factors. Rural activity intersperses with urban activity like rearing animals and dairies and opening shops and trading. There is a need for a separate set of laws governing urban villages since it is not possible to regulate their activity under normal building bylaws.

C.	In short the key issue relate to the following:

(i)	Applicability of provisions of Section 313 of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957 in extended 'Lal Dora'. 

(ii)	Nature of industries to be allowed in extended Lal Dora keeping in view the excessive pollution levels prevalent in Delhi. 

(iii)	Application of building regulations under Section 332-347 of DMC act in extended 'Lal Dora'. 

(iv)	Restrictions on transfer of land in extended Lal Dora. 

(v)	Grant of water and electricity connections to buildings constructed by persons who have purchased land from local residents under existing laws, which do not prohibit transfer of land. 

4.7.2. After a number of court cases on rejection of building plans on the point of ownership (Ref. para 4.4.1 to 4.4.3 above), MCD has drafted a policy for urban villages which has been pending approval of the Standing Committee of MCD. As per this draft, building plans in urban villages shall be considered by MCD if the following conditions are fulfilled: 

•	Revenue Department of the GNCTD certifies that the plot forms part of Lal Dora/ abadi area.
•	The applicant shall identify location of the plot on the basis of approved development plan of the village. 
•	The applicant shall submit an affidavit declaring ownership/possession of the plot vesting with him/her. Documentary evidence, if available, shall also be submitted with the affidavit. 
•	The applicant shall indemnify MCD in respect of all proceedings in Courts/other authorities in case of disputes on this score. 
•	The applicant shall also submit a certificate from Revenue Department of GNCTD that the plot under question is not under notification for acquisition.

4.7.3.	How far would it be fair to burden the villager, unaccustomed to all these procedural paper formalities that involve knocking at so many office doors? Instead, it should be the responsibility of the concerned authorities to bring about transparency in their functioning by putting all the information that they have and that they want the applicant to submit to them, in the public domain (website) for anyone to access at ease. Had individual ownership records been prepared at the time when Lal Dora/Extended Lal Dora areas were declared as urban villages, these difficulties would not have arisen. Unfortunately it was not done either by Revenue Authorities or the Development Authorities. 

4.7.4. 	The above would show that the no clear-cut policy has emerged so far to address the problems of the villages and the villagers (Lal Dora/ Extended Lal Dora) so far. 

4.8 	The Union Ministry of Urban Development is to be complimented for addressing the problems of urbanization in a holistic manner and setting up a number of expert committees to examine the different aspects of the issue and give their recommendations. 

4.9 	The Tejendra Khanna Committee on Unauthorized constructions and misuse of premises in Delhi has addressed the issues connected with Lal Dora and observed the following: 

"9.3	The farmers of Delhi whose agricultural lands were acquired have, in general, been put to a great disadvantage. Firstly, their lands were acquired for a pittance, at the rate of about of about Rs. 3,000 per acre in 1957. Subsequently in 1966-68, the acquisition rates were revised to between Rs. 25,000-Rs. 30,000 per acre. The rate was revised to Rs. 5 lacs per acre in 1981 to Rs. 8 lacs per acre in 1993, to Rs. 16 lacs in 1998 and Rs. 24 lacs in the year 2004. 

In the initial stages of acquisition of land, the farmers were given an alternative piece of land measuring 400sq.m by way of residential plot and one person from the farmer's family was offered government employment. With the passage of time, the size of the alternative residential plot was reduced to 250sq.m and the practice of giving employment to member of the farmer's family was done away with completely. Even though the villagers were assured that integrated development of the so-called 'urbanized village' will go hand in hand with the urbanization in their neighborhood, no such planned village development has actually taken place.

9.4 	It is a clear and unanimous view of the Committee that the interests of the Delhi villagers, which have suffered in the past, should be dealt with sympathetically. Three separate types of developments which have taken place in the Lal Dora or extended Lal Dora areas need to be carefully considered:
 
(1) 	Construction of additional story beyond two and a half stories normally permissible in the city under the MCD Building Bylaws or allowed in Lal Dora without MCD permission in rural areas.

(2) 	Some Lal Dora premises have been sold to commercial buyers who have established showrooms, eateries, etc. 

(3) 	Some Guest House/show rooms/Factory outlets have been established in the Lal Dora areas abutting on major highways, such as NH-8, viz. in the area of village Mahipalpur.
(4) 	Commercial activity of non-village origin, such as Fashion designer outlets are being conducted within the Lal Dora areas even along smaller streets. 
    9.5   (1) 	Future construction mid land use Dora areas have to be brought within an appropriate framework of regulations, to accord with public safety and convenience. However, special Building Bylaws will need to be framed for village abadis (Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora) keeping in view the peculiar nature of the abadis and absence of sufficient land for leaving setbacks etc. In addition, in order to accommodate the heavy population pressure and dearth of alternate residential sites, a height authorization up to 4 storeys or 15 m) on plots abutting on the 'phirni' and up to 3 storeys (11.5 m) on other interior plots may be permitted.

(2) 	Individual micro-plans (local area plans) for proper development of the villages should be carefully drawn up in consultation with the village community. Sufficiently wide access roads to enable' fire tenders and ambulances to reach premises, which may require such assistance, should be provided for, with the cooperation of the villagers and other current users. 
(3) 	Complete property ownership records should be developed and maintained on a digital base. All existing properties should be surveyed/evaluated/from the standpoint of structural safety. Any building generating safety concerns should be earmarked for remedial action by the owners/occupants within a time bound period, failing which they should be got vacated and marked for being dismantled, if no other structural remedy is available. 
(4) 	Commercial activity may be permitted on narrow streets below 9 m or 6 m width provided such streets are designated as pedestrian shopping streets. 
(5) 	All existing show rooms or guest houses abutting major public roads may be regularized, in view of the general policy recommendation to allow nonresidential activity such roads, subject to the availability of service road and some additional parking facilities. There is no reason why villagers who happen to have plots within the Lal Dora abutting on major road should be denied the opportunity of exploiting the favorable location to their advantage, in the same way as an owner of similar premises outside the Lal Dora area. 
(6) 	All the above facilities meant. for the Lal Dora area should be equally extended to land falling in the Extended Lal Dora i.e., between old Lal Dora and the new 'phirni' demarcated at the time of consolidation of land holdings by the land revenue authorities. 
(7) 	Plots in the extended Lal Dora area should also be allowed to be used for running educational and health care institutions, professional training institutes, etc., subject to availability of parking space and adequately wide access roads. 
    9.6 	Besides the above, institutions connected with education, health care, religious and cultural charitable organizations have been established in the surrounding agricultural belt around the village abadis. Representatives of Delhi's villagers have urged these institutions should be allowed to be run where they are presently located and necessary land use conversion should be allowed to them in the larger interests of the welfare of the villagers themselves. 
    9.7 	As and when a policy of permitting private colonizers/developers to develop housing/ commercial/institutional facilities in areas earmarked for further expansion of the urban area of Delhi is put into effect, farmers owning sufficient land may be permitted to participate in such a development process. However, they will be required to follow the norms that may be prescribed for the purpose."
"11.34 (10) Village Development Plans by way of Local Area Plans (Laps) should be prepared in consultation with the residents, for all Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora Areas in each village," 

4.9 	It is the legitimate right of the residents of villages - both rural and urban - to get the benefit of urban services (like water, sewerage, power) clean and healthy environment for themselves and their younger generations. Their transition from rural to urban living is inevitable, but there is no reason why it should not be smooth and profitable for them. In stead of letting the middle-men take away all the profits, the villagers have to be made aware of the opportunities and counseled to come together and join in developing their lands in a planned manner and get richer in the process. Their land has very high intrinsic potential value: only it has to be properly planned and environment improved to encash the value-addition. The land has to be utilized as intensively as needed and practicable to accommodate all of them in proper comfort by adequately satisfying all their needs (viz., physical and social infrastructure; trading & commerce, household, industries, offices and institutions etc.) as are consistent with area planning. The Committee is convinced that this is very much within reach today but will become increasingly difficult with passage of time. We must act now: there is little time to lose. 

4.10	This Expert Committee on Lal Dora has gone deep into the problems and carefully considered concrete suggestions aimed at: 

(a)	Providing relief to the villages by developing them in a manner that preserves their heritage to the extent possible, 

(b)	Enabling civic services to be extended to them, 

(c)	Permitting enhancement of land-value by improving the layout and environment in a manner that exemptions applicable to the village abadis are not withdrawn 

(d)	suggesting instead that official agencies should bring about transparency in regard to relevant village maps and village data by bringing them on to website so that all needed data could be downloaded without visiting offices; 

(e)	Liberalizing the norms and simplifying the procedures to make them hassle-free 

(f)	Making development norms for villages easy to understand and follow 

(g)	Upgrading the civic services and environment in villages in order to integrate them with the surrounding planned urban development and in a manner that the villagers are benefited by enhancement of value of their lands

4.11 In the chapters that follow the Committee has taken account of the aspirations of the people obtained first hand (Chapter-5) and thereafter (in Chapter-6) analysed the relevant issues with reference to its mandate (Terms of Reference) and finally made specific recommendations to address the problems of the villages and villagers on a short-term as well as long-term basis and permanent basis in Chapter-7.  

CHAPTER- 5

ASPIRATIONS OF THE VILLAGE PEOPLE 
AND THEIR ASSESSMENT

5.1	The Committee is grateful to all those persons from the villages, representatives of the interest groups, leaders of public opinion and all others who sent in their representations and offered suggestions in response to our public notice published in the national press. Face-to-face interaction with them gave the Committee the opportunity to properly understand and appreciate the genuine grievances and consider the solutions suggested by them. In fact, practically all the recommendations of the Committee are based on the suggestions received from the affected people and their representatives. Aspirations of the people as expressed by them in their representations and in the course of discussions that followed are summarised below and grouped under relevant heads for the sake of convenience. A fuller summary is appended as Annexure 3. 

5.2	Aspirations of the People as expressed by them: 

A.	Relating to Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora Boundaries 
(i)	Lal Dora/Extended Lal Dora should cover the entire area up to: 
•	Phirni where it does not define the boundary of Extended Lal Dora. 
•	One km from the Lal Dora. 
(ii)	Extended Lal Dora should be merged with Lal Dora . 

B.	Relating to Relaxation of Development Controls and Building Bye-laws 

(iii)	Merger of villages with the surrounding development should not be attempted since it would put numerous restrictions on the development of the villages.

(iv)	Exemptions under the Notification dated 24 August 1963 should continue.

(v)	Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora should be exempted from the provisions of DMC Act/DDA Act/Land Acquisition Act since such provisions create hurdles for the development of villages. 

(vi)	Ownership of plots should be treated as free-hold. 

(vii)	Residential buildings up to 6 storeys and commercial buildings up to 4 storeys should be allowed in the village abadi and building control norms should be related to plot sizes. 

(viii)	All types of constructions for personal use for residential and commercial purposes in Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora may be allowed and no building  bylaws  may  be  enforced  up  to  15 m height on phirni road and 
11.5 m in the interior plots and with no restrictions on ground coverage , FAR and setbacks. 

(ix)	No permission should be needed for construction of basement and G+3 floors. 

(x)	In case of plots over 1500 sq m in Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora, villagers may be allowed to construct multi-storey flats/apartments on the pattern of group housing on payment of development charges to MCD @ Rs. 200/ - per sq m. 

(xi)	Car parking should be allowed in the basement and the basement should be exempted from FAR. 

C. 	Relating to Strict Enforcement of Development Control Rules 

(xii)	Peripheral road/Lal Dora road (phirni road) should be kept free from encroachment. 

(xiii)	All encroachments should be removed. 

(xiv)	No industrial activity should be recommended by the Committee in Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora. 

(xv)	Only small shops like kirana (general merchandise) stores, medical stores, hair saloon, milk and butter shops should be permitted in Lal Dora. 

(xvi)	Development in Lal Dora should be strictly residential in character with only complimentary facilities allowed therein. 

(xvii)	Instead of uniform Building by-laws, area specific by-laws should be adopted and made applicable within Lal Dora. 

(xviii)	FAR should be rationalized. 

D. 	Maintenance of Ownership Records 

(xix)	Ownership records of Lal Dora should be maintained by patwari or else a government department should do it, since house tax receipts are not taken as proof of ownership. 

E. 	Development Proposals 

(xx)	Whenever Lal Dora is extended, new peripheral road should be constructed. 

(xxi)	25% of the Lal Dora areas be utilized for EWS housing in Group Housing Schemes. 
(xxii)	The recommendations of Tejendra Khanna Committee should be implemented. 

F. 	Liberal land-use Policy

(xxiii)	Lal Dora/Extended Lal Dora areas should be declared as mixed land use areas and conditional/ restricted commercial activities should be allowed facing roads not less than 8 m wide. This would allow flexibility for liberal provision of relatively cheap commercial retail and office use premises for the benefit of not only the villagers but also the middle and low income population residing in the vicinity. 

(xxiv)	Phirni road should be considered as commercial street and commercial activities should be allowed even along the roads that are less than 6 m wide. 

(xxv)	All 80' wide roads with 70% commercialization should be declared as commercial streets. Computer/vocational institutes on such streets should be allowed to operate including banks and government offices. 

(xxvi)	Commercial activity such as banquet halls, coaching centers, etc. should be permitted along roads, which are more than 3 m wide. 

(xxvii)	Commercial establishments such as offices of real estate, insurance, cargo agencies, small call centers, godowns, warehouses, service stations etc. should be allowed in Lal Dora as the villagers work in these offices. 

(xxviii)	Small-scale industries such as Dal mills and flourmills, shoe making units and cottage industries and agricultural produce processing units which do not generate pollution, nuisance or any other adverse impact on residents should be encouraged. 

(xxix)	In the villages that are located in the vicinity of major bus terminals, railway stations, and domestic and international airports, low budget small hotels and guesthouses should be permitted. 

(xxx)	Villagers should be allowed to keep cattle within the phirni.

(xxxi)	Commercial establishments that have been operating for more than 40 years, existing showrooms and guesthouses on major public roads, and commercial offices should be regularized. 

(xxxii)	Educational, health care units (including gymnasia and nursing homes), professional institl1tions and barat ghars; in fact, all those activities that are allowed in plotted colonies should be allowed in Lal Dora/Extended Lal Dora, subject to provision of adequate parking space. 

G. 	Other Policy Issues 

(xxxiii)	In case of acquisition of agricultural land, villagers should be allotted plots free of cost in the nearby areas. 

(xxxiv)	Seeking permission from DDA/ MCQ, for opening a college should not be necessary subject to the condition that construction is done as per rules and guidelines of Directorate of Higher Education. 

(xxxv)	Villagers were promised industrial plots measuring 300 sq. yd. to the farmers in the Lal Dora, but no action has been taken in this regard. This Committee should recommend immediate action in this regard. 

(xxxvi)	Gram Sabha land should be used for providing facilities within the villages and, where necessary, plotted land may be used for providing facilities and the owner of such land should be given Gram Sabha land in exchange. 

(xxxvii)	Gram Panchayat should be revived so that consultation with government can be done. 

H. 	Need for Planning and Regulation 

(xxxviii)	Construction in Lal Dora/Extended Lal Dora be brought within proper framework of regulations. 

(xxxix)	Urban Planning and land use policies should be enforced in village abadi. 

(xl)	Commercial activity should be allowed in Lal Dora along major roads after due permission and sanction of building plans.

(xli)	Village plans showing all roads and location of facilities such as hospitals, community halls and parks should be prepared after proper survey and development in the village should be regulated according to plan. 

5.3 	The committee was greatly benefited from its intensive and free and frank interaction with the Hon'ble Members of Parliament, elected representatives of the people and other dignitaries. Discussions with the Hon'ble Lt. Governor, Hon'ble Chief Minister and Hon'ble Speaker of Delhi Assembly proved to be extremely fruitful. Interactions with the Hon'ble Members of Parliament and of Delhi Assembly and Municipal Councilors were very educative since the elected representatives, leaders of various interest groups were aware of those aspects of the problems of the people that are generally not known or properly understood. The solutions that they suggested were generally just, fair and practical. The following issues emerged and these need to be addressed to enable a mutually acceptable development of the villages in the context of urbanization that is inevitable. 
(i)	The village plans already prepared by DDA/ MCD should be made available on the website of MCD as also available maps showing Lal Dora areas and their surroundings, (Gaon Sabha lands, open lands, colonies that had come up, etc). These should be superimposed on the aerial photographs that were now available. That would bring about transparency and the villagers would be saved of spending a lot of time and money in knocking on many doors to get the information. 
(Note: Deputy Commissioner/City Zone, MCD informed that a proposal is under consideration for computerization of Gaon Sabha land records under the scheme titled "Strengthening and modernization of Panchayat unit and its Functions". The Chairman of the Committee advised the Deputy Commissioner/City Zone to-take up the matter personally with Div. Commissioner, GNCTD for requisite funds and initiate the work on the project. No decision has yet been taken on this suggestion.) 

(ii)	These two points were discussed with the Divisional Commissioner in detail and it was requested that funds for these tasks may be released out a sanctioned scheme of the Delhi Government. Hon'ble CM Delhi to whom these ideas were mentioned liked them and convened a meeting to expedite the process, but the meeting had to be deferred on account of her indisposition. 

(iii)	Framing of specific Building Bye-laws to regulate the building activity in Lal Dora and extended Lal Dora. 

(iv)	Municipal Councilors suggested that all existing activities by the original villagers in Lal Dora might be allowed to continue except polluting industries and such godowns as generate high volume of traffic and cause congestion. Agro based industries and their storage space should be provided in the rural area considering the rural tradition and the present need of the villagers. 

(v)	The need for preparing redevelopment plans in consultation with the villagers was emphasized. Example of villages in Chandigarh where this was done with the active cooperation/suggestions of the villagers was cited. It was also explained how steep enhancement of land value resulting from planned redevelopment had encouraged villagers to go in for proper redevelopment of their village. 

(vi)	Hon'ble Members of Delhi Assembly also raised the issue of ownership title of land owned by the villagers within Lal Dora. It was insisted that proper ownership record should be maintained by the Revenue Department of Delhi Government. 

(vii)	Serious objections were raised over the recently published Zonal Development Plan of Zone-J prepared by DDA in which the status of Lal Dora had not been spelt out dearly, particularly  those that fall   
in the regional park. The Committee therefore included this point in its objection/suggestion sent to DDA on the Draft Development plan of Zones J (South Delhi-II i.e., south of Mehrauli-Badarpur and Mehrauli-Mahipalpur Roads) and L (West Delhi-III i.e., south of Rohtak Road and west of Najafgarh Drain) (ANNEXURE 9).

(viii)	The Committee discussed in detail the various aspects to be taken into consideration for categorising the villages based on pre-dominant activities prevailing in the village. Accordingly, it was decided to identify villages having pre-dominant industrial use, residential use, Commercial use, Religious Institution like Ashram, heritage value and villages falling in the ridge. 

(ix)	The representative of Div. Commissioner (Revenue) was requested to supply the list of villages for which consolidation (Chakbandi) has not been done yet. He was also requested to place before the Committee any relevant decisions of the court which shall be binding for the Committee. 

(x)	The villages for which the extension of abadi has not been done should be listed and their abadi area be extended based on suitable terms and conditions. A proper phirni road be provided along with a green belt wherever possible. 

(xi)	Most of the Gram Sabha lands have been encroached and attempts should be made to retrieve all the Gram Sabha land. In cases of gram Sabha land which are far away from the abadi, may be exchanged with the villagers and proper facilities be developed on these lands. In case of excess gram Sabha land available, this may be considered for disposal by the Govt. and using the funds for the development of the village. 

(xii)	In future, whenever, the lands of the villagers are acquired by DDA for planned development, the immediate area adjoining the village should be kept reserved for the facilities of the villages. These conditions should be made mandatory at the time of acquisition. 

(xiii)	Health, Education & Religions institutions, commercial, godowns; industries should be allowed in the Lal Dora/Extended Lal Dora. 

(xiv)	Presently, there is no ownership document available with the villagers residing in the Lal Dora. As a result, the villagers have to face problems in getting their building plans sanctioned or obtaining loans from banks. Suggestions have been made to formulate a suitable mechanism through which ownership right can be given to the individuals residing in Lal Dora. 

(xv)	A proper sewerage system is provided in the villages. Suggestion has been made regarding grouping of villages and providing proper sewerage and sewerage treatment plant.
(xvi)	The entire urban extension/urban development is taking place on the lands acquired from the villagers thereby depriving them of their livelihood. Therefore, in order to safeguard the future of the villagers and integrate the activities of the village with the urban areas, development plan should take into consideration the existing activities, attitude and social status of the villagers into consideration. 

(xvii)	Cattle are inseparable elements of the life of villagers and therefore space for one dairy colony close to every village should be left to allow the cattle oriented activities of the villagers. The present concept of developing dairy colonies away from the villages in one part of the city is not practical as villages residing in a village in South will not go for the dairies in the Northern end of the city. 

(xviii)	Suggestions were given by Hon'ble MLAs that every Patwari of the village should keep a detailed map of Abadi Deh clearly indicating the ownership by possession of all the residents of Lal Dora. This is an important record and should be utilized while confirming the ownership of the properties within Lal Dora after village has been urbanized. 

(xix)	When the villages are included in urban areas as urban villages, MCD Act and DDA Act are applicable in the villages and the 1963 notification ceases to operate as soon as the village is declared Urban Village. Thus, MCD is bound to apply building regulations to the entire urban village (old as well as extended abadi) and village residents have to get building plans approved from various authorities. The court has only asked for enforcement but this move has raised a furore amongst villagers which has taken' a political hue. The ground situation, too, is not immediately conducive to application of bye-laws as variants of existing building byelaws may have to be evolved for the villages whose morphology is of organic development. 

(xx)	Hon'ble MPs suggested that the extended abadi of the village due to natural growth of population should be treated as part of the village. Leaving aside any unauthorized colony which has been established adjacent or on four sides of the village and the plan (map) of which has been submitted to Delhi Govt. for regularization, the entire area should be declared as village. In this connection, the report of the Committee which was unanimously approved by Delhi Vidhan Sabha in terms of which recommendations have been made to the effect that the population due to natural growth spread over the area of 1000 sq.m. on four sides of the village and should be included in the Master Plan for implementation. Simultaneously, the recommendations made in the report of Tajendra Khanna Committee regarding mixed land use in the villages should be implemented.

(xxi)	Hon'ble MPs pointed out that, in the existing Master Plan the reference to "Parks" is generic and does not specifically mention "Amusement and Water Parks". He suggested that the request of the owners of Amusement parks to use Extended Lal Dora land for entertainment and amusement/water parks be specifically included in the proposed Master Plan of Delhi. 

(xxii)	The Committee was of the view that there is no reason why the villagers, who happen to have plots within the Lal Dora abutting on a major road, should be denied the opportunity of exploiting the favorable location to their advantage, in the same way, as an owner of similar premises outside the Lal Dora Area. 

CHAPTER - 6

TERMS OF REFERENCE: COMMITTEE'S RESPONSE
WITH REFERENCE TO THE PROBLEMS FACED BY THE VILLAGES

6.1	Chairman and Members of the Committee, together and individually, carefully considered their mandate with reference to the material provided in the written representations in response to the Public Notice issued, their views and suggestions during interaction, discussions (and site-visits), with the representationists and their leaders, special interest groups, village elders, elected representatives of the people at various levels, officers and others. The Committee carefully analysed each point made, related it to the Terms of Reference (TOR) and reached unanimous consensus on the various issues. Given below are the TORs (with sequence altered to make the narration logical and sequential) along with broad views and comments of the Committee. 

6.2 	The Committee has carefully considered the views and recommendations contained in the Tejendra Khanna Committee Report in respect of Lal Dora and extended Lal Dora areas (vide Para 4.11 ante) and fully agrees with them and feels that: 

(i)	With large scale acquisition for Planned Development of Delhi, the villagers of Delhi lost their agricultural lands around their villages. The compensation was given at the official rates but these were disposed off through auctions where they fetched very high price. Yet even the basic civic amenities were not provided in the villages. Some villages were urbanized, but even these Urban Villages continue to face serious problems of congestion, poor layout, lack of civic amenities, degraded environment etc. 

(ii)	The villagers were deprived of their traditional and permanent means of subsistence but little effort was made to upgrade their skills to enable them to take to alternate means of earning their livelihood. Driven to the edge, they had no choice except to make a living out of the only asset that they were left with, viz., their landed property (lands and houses). Some opened shops, some started small industrial units (which grew in course of time) or godowns, some rented them out and others went in for one-time income by sale (outright or in partnership) of their property. The buyers made a big profit by constructing houses, guesthouses, eateries, showrooms or industries. To deprive the villagers of their means of subsistence by terming them as irregular or illegal would mean depriving them of means of livelihood once again. That would be most unfair and unjust. It would be a bigger blow to them than the earlier one - of depriving them of their lands - where at least something was paid as compensation. 

(iii) 	The village limits were sharply circumscribed in red but little thought was given to the problem of finding space for the natural growth of population and to their needs for alternate means of livelihood (e.g., space for commerce, manufacturing, physical and social infrastructural needs like roads, streets, civic services; schools, hospitals, recreation facilities, playgrounds etc). Their dwelling units were restricted to 2½ storeys. 
(iv) 	This Committee (ECLD) is strongly of the view that these cases of mixed land-use were dictated by dire necessity of keeping body and soul together. These have to be treated not from a myopic technical viewpoint and subjected to sealing and demolition, but with sympathy and utmost consideration. Deprived of honest means of subsistence and without a viable practical alternative, such coercive measures will only have the effect of driving the villagers, especially the youth, to clandestine, dubious and perhaps criminal ways of earning money. Instead, they need be made fully aware of the fact that by making more intensive use of the available land and improving the environment, it would be possible for them to (a) accommodate all their needs - residential, commercial, infrastructural, social etc and (b) also considerably enhance the value of their property in the process. Only the old mindset has to be broadened and the inevitability of high rise constructions will have to be accepted, of course, with proper norms for safety, health, access, parking etc. This way it would also be possible to cater adequately to all their commercial and social needs, segregated from but within easy reach of the residences. Till that is done, these existing non-residential activities should be permitted to continue. 

(v) 	Instead of withdrawing the existing exemptions forcing the villagers to do tortuous paper-work (like obtaining permissions and NOCs from numerous offices), it is the Government Departments and Public bodies that should be directed to go in for transparency in their record-keeping and to bring all relevant and useful data on their website (in public domain) so that the villager-applicants are able to get authentic copies from their nearest cyber-cafe, if not from their children's computer at home. All maps (with Khasra boundaries and development plans superimposed), ownership records and other relevant data should be digitalized and put on web-site. It should be possible for the citizen of Delhi to apply for and get permissions over the internet. (One of the distinguished Members of this Committee has already taken the initiative in this direction and introduced a system under which around 1,30,000 applications along with requisite fees (as per Court directions to traders) were received and duly acknowledged over the internet within a few days - all properly classified and with all relevant details available at the push of a button- without anyone having to spend hours at municipal offices). 

(vi) 	Village Development Plans should be prepared with involvement of the village community. This may need sincere efforts at counseling and considerable extension work to make the village community realize and appreciate the need for proper planning and going high-rise to get maximum enhancement of value of their lands, which have very high potential value on account of locational advantages and short-supply-high-demand situation that exists in Delhi. They have to be convinced of the inevitability of the process of urbanisation in the national metropolitan capital of our country with fast growing economy and counselled to take full advantage of the process in value-addition of their assets to carve out 'a brighter future for themselves and their younger generations. 

6.3 	The Committee's view on the point in the TOR relating to examining     "the desirability and/or feasibility of integration of Lal Dora and extended           Lal Dora areas of Delhi in the overall process of Planned Development of         the city" is unambiguously and categorically in the affirmative. We strongly      feel that Delhi can no longer afford to have over 200 sub-standard, cramped pockets of insanitation that once had plenty of open spaces, farms and fields    full of greenery. The people (9.5 lakh as per 2001-census) were a happy, satisfied lot, full of faith and patience, bristling with health and earning their livelihood based on agriculture and cattle, through honest hard labour. Now, deprived of their farms and fields and cramped within the red-lines, they are feeling highly insecure about their future. Continuance of such a state of      affairs  is  highly  risky  and  not  at all desirable. The genuine problems of the Lal 

Dora/Extended Lal Dora areas have to be seen in the correct perspective, properly understood and appreciated from the human angle and addressed in a sympathetic manner. The best course and perhaps the only one with win-win prospect, is their comprehensive redevelopment so that villages get the benefit of civic services, improved environment and infrastructure with plenty of scope for commercial and other livelihood activities there itself, and thus get integrated with the rest of planned metropolitan Delhi while still retaining their rural flavour . 

6.4 	This has to be done fast in a short span of time preferably with the village community taking the initiative, with involvement of experts and in cooperation/association with the Private Sector. The Government has to facilitate the process by adopting the Task-Force approach with total focus on completion of the task within a specified time - say 3-4 years . 

6.5 	As regards the remaining TORs, viz., "broad principles and terms and conditions for achieving the integration" and "planning and development control norms that should govern development activity in Lal Dora and extended Lal Dora areas" and other "related or incidental" matters, one has to consider the existing planning framework that has legal validity and then think of the improvements or modifications that are needed. 

6.6 	The Draft Master Plan of Delhi -; 2021 as recently published suggests that the entire area within the NCTD, barring a string of fringe villages abutting the boundary of NCTD will be urbanized. '.Thus most of the villages in the NCTD will soon become part of urbanisable area. Even the few fringe villages, hemmed as' they are between highly developed and fast urbanizing neighbouring areas of Haryana (Faridabad and Gurgaon) and UP (NOIDA, Ghaziabad etc) and of metropolitan Delhi, will find it difficult to resist the pressures of market forces. They are bound to aspire for and acquire in course of time, all the social, economic and physical dimensions of urbanized villages. Thus the distinction between rural and urban villages may vanish in course of time . 

6.7 	The broad principles and terms Et conditions for achieving integration and evolving planning and development control norms that should govern development activity in Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora areas will therefore have to be aimed at comprehensive development of the villages in such a manner that their 

•	layout gets improved with proper access road and street pattern, 
•	essential civic services (like water-supply, sewage disposal, storm water drainage, electricity, etc) are brought it, 
•	social needs (schools, hospitals, playgrounds, parks etc) are provided for and most importantly 
•	means of livelihood are catered to. 

Having lost its 'agricultural base and with industries shifted, the main activity in Delhi now is  commercial  (trading,  wholesale  &  retail sale and services). These

need adequate shops, godowns, offices for the entire range including multinationals, corporate houses, Business houses, Call Centres and other ITrelated activities and such like. Planning norms have to be so designed as to permit of smooth transition of existing undesirable activities to properly planned locations in the vicinity and facilitate their shifting and growth there. 

6.8 	Among the other "related or incidental" matters mentioned in TOR, the most important point is to see that the present privileges and exemptions available to the rural areas are not withdrawn. On the other hand, the system should be so liberalized and modified by introducing transparency and easing of procedures taking advantage of available IT-solutions as to make exemptions unnecessary. Some examples are given in the following paragraphs., 

6.9 	Under the existing disposition, original inhabitants in villages that are not declared as urban are exempted from seeking planning permission for extensions and alternations to their residential premises provided the altered/ extended premises are to be used for residential purposes only and are limited to 2½ storeys with height restrictions. This exemption has been misconstrued and it is now the general impression amongst the village-folk, actively supported by their leaders that all kinds of development are allowed without the need for seeking any official permission. The legal position is quite clear that such concessions are deemed withdrawn once a village is notified as urban. This factor is generally ignored on the plea, right or wrong, that whatever has been already built upon under relaxed rules cannot be corrected retrospectively to comply with the new rules. The main reason is, however, the mindset of the people and their psychological resistance to withdrawal of a long standing facility. It has to be admitted that the process of obtaining sanctions is not only painfully slow and tortuous. It is also a painful open secret that the process is generally expensive involving compromise of moral principles if the sanction is to be obtained. Here again it would be far preferable to improve the system than withdraw the exemption. As said earlier also the remedy lies in simplifying the rules and planning norms, making them user-friendly and bringing about total transparency in the system. It should be made possible for applications to be sent and queries/sanctions received electronically within a time frame. Responsibility for certifying that the rules have been followed could be given to the qualified registered architect/expert hired for the job. 

6.10 	Another factor that must be taken into account is that many villages, whether urban or rural, have distinct characteristics of their own and need to be given a special treatment rather than painting all of them with the same brush. Development norms would have to be liberal enough to be able to cater to the special needs of individual villages and preserve its desirable social, cultural, economic and physical characteristics. 

6.10.1 The following shortcomings in the villages have also to be remedied in the Comprehensive Development Plans of the villages: 

•	Absence or proper access, narrow roads and twisting very narrow streets and a cramped layout with no access even for emergency vehicles (ambulances, Fire Tenders and Rescue Vehicles); 
•	Serious shortage of parking spaces; 
•	Non maintenance of light and air planes leading to very poor light and ventilation in buildings that are in unhealthy proximity of each other; 
•	Encroachments on Goan Sabha lands needed for social services and markets; jumbled and exposed Power-lines close to buildings posing danger of electric shocks, electrocution and fires; 
•	Need for commercial potential to be fully exploited for the benefit of the people, etc 

6.11	Property values in villages remain depressed on account of the aforementioned deficiencies and degraded environment and insanitation. Comprehensive Redevelopment can unleash the unrealized potential of real estate value and lead to a planned expansion of commercial usage, adequate parking facilities, wider streets, pedestrian-vehicular segregation and other amenities including hard and soft landscaping. In fact, it is now an imperative necessity to prevent the villages from degenerating into pockets of civic chaos with destruction of cultural and heritage assets and complete takeover by outsiders/unscrupulous builders/land Mafia and depriving the villagers of what is their legitimate due. 

6.12 	The mechanism for achieving renewal of villages through comprehensive redevelopment should have the following elements: 

•	Awareness campaigns, extension work and advocacy by motivated and trained social workers to mobilize the village community to explain how the villagers can easily enhance the value of their property several-folds through comprehensive redevelopment, and also meet all their residential, commercial and other needs within the village area and in the vicinity. 

•	Village residents may be encouraged to come together and seriously consider making more intensive use of land without which it would not be possible to improve the layout or the environment or even to lay proper drainage/sewerage systems. The value of their property would remain depressed. 

•	Residents may be encouraged to form Cooperatives or Village Group Housing Societies members of which should be allowed to amalgamate their plots, get a redevelopment plan prepared by a consultant hired by them and get the necessary permission from designated authorities to build as per the approved redevelopment plan. Individual micro-plans (Local Area Plans) for proper development of the villages should be carefully drawn up in consultation with the village community. 

•	In case the village community so desires (or if it has problems in coming together to form such Societies), the Government may get Redevelopment Schemes prepared by hiring qualified experts from the market to preparation of Redevelopment Schemes to achieve compact and energy efficient development and, if necessary, go in for high rise development to achieve intensive use of land. 

•	Those among the villagers who want to retain their existing houses would be free to do so provided that they limit their buildings to a maximum of 15 meters. The existing exemption   (doing   away   with   getting  building plan sanctioned) should continue. They 
would, however, have to make adjustments to accommodate essential civic services lines and road/street if that is necessary for the Redevelopment Scheme of the village. 

•	Comprehensive Redevelopment Plan should reflect village characteristics in the urban form and retain heritage and residential character of the village. Traditional crafts of the villagers should be promoted and if possible a site of the village should be reserved for the development of a village haat where the craftsmen display their skills and also own shops to sell their manufactured products. A food bazaar may also be incorporated in the complex to attract tourists and enhance business.

•	Multi-storey car parking facilities may need to be provided at the periphery so that volume of traffic on village roads can be reduced to a minimum. Wherever redevelopment proposals are implemented to generate additional commercial spaces to increase employment avenues for the villagers, one or two layer basement parking should be insisted depending upon the requirements (as per MPD-2021). 

•	Non-residential uses to service the 'contemporary living and work requirements of villagers may be permitted both as a stand-alone use on a plot or mixed with residential use provided such development does not vitiate the quality of residential and work environment in the village.

•	Building heights limitation may be raised to allow more floors depending on the ROW of the abutting street. 

•	A PPP or a tripartite arrangement between the community, the local government and the private entrepreneur should be relied upon to achieve comprehensive redevelopment of villages. 

6.13	In spite all the weaknesses in the civic-planning sense, it is heartening to note that the villages have retained a substantial proportion of original inhabitants who have strong and active associations of both residents and traders. The predominantly residential character has also been maintained and commercial uses are confined mainly to the periphery. These qualities will greatly help in the efforts to improve the living conditions in the villages. 

6.14	The Committee was not inspired by the past record of the concerned existing bodies/agencies in providing even the basic civic amenities in the villages or looking after their livelihood problems when their lands were getting acquired for Planned Development of Delhi. Their preoccupations leave them with little time to think of the present problems of the 9.5 lakh village population, or plan for their future well in time and in a realistic manner. 
6.15 	The Committee feels that a compact and totally dedicated Task Force  may be set up under a dynamic head and it should be mandated to prepare the villagers for the betterment of their villages on a long-term basis and plan comprehensive redevelopment projects of the Villages in a time-bound manner and get such plans implemented in consultation with the villagers preferably in cooperation with the Private Sector and complete its task within the prescribed span of time, say within the 11th Plan period. Its role should include advocacy and involving the village community meaningfully in their redevelopment in a manner that they are able to reap the benefits of escalation in the value of      their property, get accommodated in the village itself, practically in situ and   their commercial/social and other essential needs are met in the vicinity. Planning  and   Development   could   be  done  by   commissioning   known   professionals 

and associating Private Sector in an appropriate manner. Funds for this could perhaps be found from the Jawaharlal Nehru Gram Vikas Yojana. 
	
6.16	It is against this backdrop that the Committee has made its recommendations that are enumerated in Chapter-7. 

***      ***      ***

CHAPTER - 7

RECOMMENDATIONS

7. Based on the deliberations on the various issues pertaining to the rural villages, the Committee is happy to make recommendations - general and specific - for consideration of the Union Ministry of Urban Development. 

7.1 Transparency in Land Records and Permission Process 

(i)	Complete property ownership/possession in Lal Dora/Extended Lal Dora areas must be recorded, digitized and put on Website. Since the data is incomplete, a beginning may be made with whatever is available and public be invited to submit affidavits suggesting corrections. These may be displayed on the web and any claims/disputes arising therefrom may be resolved in the normal manner. In due course the ownership rights in Lal Dora areas should be settled. This will be of great help to villagers in proving the single entity status of their holdings while seeking building permissions, obtaining Bank loans etc. 

(ii)	Master Plan and Zonal Plans should be digitized and put on the Website.
 
(iii)	Individual Village Development/Redevelopment Plans and Revenue maps of villages (Shijra) should also be digitized, superimposed and brought on to Website in a manner that the citizens are able to relate the map to the ground. 

(iv)	Location of each urban and rural village with demarcation of Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora should be shown superimposed on the satellite image of NCT Delhi. Land use in the immediate surroundings should also be shown. 

(v)	Demarcation of 'Gaon Sabha' Lands and public spaces and encroachments, should be shown on Revenue map (Shijra), superimposed on satellite image and put on website. (Note: Statistics of Gaon Sabha lands and extent of encroachments on them, as furnished by Govt. of NCT Delhi are enclosed as ANNEXURE-12. However, the Deptt. has also said that these are provisional, incomplete and may not be treated as authentic.) 

(vi)	All available and relevant data in this context should be collected, brought on to the website (and updated periodically) and the people be invited to point out inaccuracies and give suggestions for improvement. 

(vii)	Land Use maps, Building Footprints and Floor-wise Building Use Maps of Lat Dora, and Extended Lal Dora areas (erstwhile or otherwise) should be prepared and put on the Website. 

(viii)	Satellite image of Delhi (except certain areas on security considerations) showing existing structures, infrastructure and amenities (especially within and around villages) should also be put on the website. 

(ix)	Basic information about socio-economic characteristics, physical features, historical background and heritage of villages and the nature of economic establishments and enterprises should also be collected and put on the website.  

7.2 	Strategy of awareness and incentive based Development 

A. 	Awareness Campaigns 

(i)	Awareness campaigns, extension work and advocacy by motivated and trained social workers should be organized to explain to the village community how they can easily enhance the value of their property several-folds through. comprehensive development/redevelopment, and this way also meet all their residential, commercial and other needs within the village area 

(ii)	The concerned authority should take up this task itself or through NGOs and make the village communities aware of the need to get out of existing insanitary cramped environment and made to realize that the process of ongoing urbanisation cannot be wished away. The counseling and extension effort should aim at motivating the village community, especially the youth, to go in for planned compact development (even if it entails construction of high-rise buildings) to meet all of their floor space requirements within the village and its vicinity. This will also yield monetary benefits through increased rental and property values.

(iii)	Residents of Villages should be encouraged to come together to make more intensive use of their land without which it would not be possible to improve the layout or the environment or even to lay proper drainage/sewerage systems. Unless this is done, the value of their property would remain depressed. They may be encouraged to take the initiative for these improvements themselves and form Cooperatives or Village Group Housing Societies, members of which should be allowed to amalgamate their plots, get layout Plans prepared by experts from the market and get the necessary permission from designated authorities and develop and build as per the approved local Area Plan. 

B. 	Planning for improvement 

(i)	For bringing about comprehensive development of villages, Local Area Plans (LAPs) for all the villages, rural and urban (Le., existing and erstwhile Lal Dora/Extended Lal Dora areas) should be got prepared by the Government/DDA/ MCD by commissioning suitable qualified experts from the open market for the purpose. These LAPs should aim at compact space and energy efficient development and, if necessary, go in for high rise structures to achieve intensive use of land. These experts should consult the village community and Associations etc. The Local Area Plans should address the common acute problems of villages, which include the following: 

(a)	Lack of (or terrible deficiency in) civic services like water supply, drainage, sewerage and solid waste management system; 

(b)	Absence of proper access, narrow roads and twisting streets and a cramped layout with no access even for emergency vehicles (ambulances, Fire Tenders and Rescue Vehicles); 

(c)	Serious shortage of parking spaces; 

(d)	Non maintenance of light and air planes leading to very poor light and ventilation in buildings that are in unhealthy proximity of each other; 

(e)	Encroachments on Gaon Sabha lands needed for social services and markets; jumbled and exposed Power-lines close to buildings posing danger of electric shocks, electrocution and fires; 

(f)	Need for commercial potential to be fully exploited for the benefit of the people and to relieve the acute shortage of planned commercial space. 
	
(ii)	Accordingly, the Local Area Plans should: 

(a)	ensure that ample space is created for relocating the existing and projected residential, commercial, institutional and other needs of the villagers for the next twenty years, in the village area itself or in the vicinity; 

(b)	aim at achieving a judicious mix of residential, commercial and institutional spaces to ensure sustainable development of the village. The planned commercial activity should be adequate and should aim at engaging the local community in the development process by providing them ample work opportunities and thus helping them to upgrade their income, status and quality of life; 

(c)	reflect village characteristics in the LAP and retain heritage and residential character of the village. To promote traditional crafts, a suitable site should be reserved for the development of the village haat where the craftsmen can display their skills and also own shops to sell their products. A food bazaar may also be incorporated in the complex to attract tourists and enhance business. 

(d)	Permit non-residential usages to service the contemporary living and work requirements of villagers both as a stand-alone use on a plot or mixed with residential use provided that such development does not vitiate the quality of residential and work environment in the village. 

(e)	Provide adequate car parking ,facilities (preferably multi-level underground parking and with 30% of FAR for commercial component to make it self-sustaining) at the periphery so that volume .of traffic on village roads can be reduced to a minimum. Wherever redevelopment proposals are implemented to generate additional commercial spaces to increase employment avenues for the villagers, multi-level parking should be .Insisted upon as per norms of requirement prescribed in the Govt. Notification of 22.9.06 or as per MPD-2021 when it comes into force. 

(f)	Encash the new opportunity provide by proximity of the village to the Metro lines and' stations in boosting its development and economy. From this viewpoint, extension of Metro-routes to new areas to cover villages with high potential, should also be recommended. 

(g)	An area to the extent of 20% of the village abadi should be earmarked in the vicinity for expansion and provision of facilities for the village. 

(h)	In case of large-scale acquisition of agricultural land for Planned Development of Delhi in future, should ensure that the development of Village abadi areas are integrated in the specific scheme of planned development. 
	
C. 	Development Control Norms/Regulations 

(i)	Area specific development regulations may be needed for villages that need special attention e.g., heritage villages or villages lying in the ridge area or forest zones. There should be provision in the Master Plan of Delhi to accommodate such area specific development regulations which should override the general regulations proposed in MPD- 2021 . 
(ii)	A PPP or a tripartite arrangement among the community, the local government and the private entrepreneur should be relied upon to achieve comprehensive development/redevelopment of villages on self-sustaining basis. 

(iii)	Those among the villagers who want to retain their existing houses should be free to do so provided that they limit the building-height to a maximum of 15 meters. The existing exemption (of doing away with getting building plan sanctioned) should continue provided that the construction is done under supervision of registered architect who should certify and take the responsibil1ty of adherence to safety norms and other prevailing building parameters. They would, however, have to make adjustments to accommodate essential civic service lines and road/street if that is necessary for the Redevelopment Scheme of the village. 

(iv)	The following concessions should be given in Lal Dora/Extended Lal Dora areas in view of limited availability of land, and to encourage village residents to come together and amalgamate their small plots, the minimum size of plot for high-rise buildings should be reduced to 2000 sq m . (from 3000 sq m elsewhere) for group-housing. FAR and maximum ground coverage applicable should be as follows: 

Plot size	Ground Coverage	FAR	Subject to conditions	
2000-3999 sq m	40%	400	given below. 	
4000 sq m and above 	40%  	500	-do- 	

Conditions: 

(a) 	Minimum of 12 m wide road will be provided. Where land for road-widening is surrendered (free of cost) from the plot area, the permissible FAR will be proportionately increased as TDR incentive. 
(b) 	Other infrastructure norms - as prescribed in the Master Plan for Delhi with the exception that minimum set-back of 3 m should be provided on all sides. 
(c) 	Car Parking norms as prescribed in the Master Plan for Delhi. Multi-level underground parking in basement up to the envelop-line. 

(v)	Left over requirement of parking of the village should be met by constructing multistoried parking lots on the periphery of the Lal Dora or Extended Lal Dora where land can be found for the purpose. One-third of the total space should be left for commercial component to make the facility self-sustaining. 

(vi)	In order that villages, in the course of development, take advantage of the prevailing acute shortage of and demand for commercial space in Delhi (that has resulted in traders' unrest and exorbitantly high costs) the LAPs of villages should plan for maximum possible commercial space and also consider planning Multi-storey commercial buildings for offices, markets and IT-education facilities. Norms as recommended for group-housing vide sub para (iv) above (especially in regard to Ground coverage, FAR and parking) would apply to commercial structures as well, subject to such special conditions as may be provided in LAP keeping in view local conditions that differ from village to village. 

(vii)	In Extended Lal Dora areas the list of permissible land-uses should include group housing, commercial centres, specialized institutions, non-polluting non-nuisance creating House-hold industries and recreational/amusement parks. These will have to abide by the prescribed standards of physical infrastructure and transportation/ parking requirements as per the Master Plan of Delhi-1011. FAR and Ground Coverage shall be governed by the con'9itions vide sub-para (iv) above. 

(viii)	If a residential Building Plan application submitted through a registered architect is certified by him to conform to the aforesaid parameters (vide sub paras (iv), (v) and (vi) above) and if the other infra-structural requirements prescribed by the Master Plan Notification dated 22 Sep 06 of the Govt. of India (ANNEXURE -11) will be followed and that he would be responsible for any violation of the above, the Building Plan would be deemed to be sanctioned for plot-size up to 500 sq m. For bigger size plots and for non residential use on plot of any size, the Building Plan would be deemed to have been sanctioned unless valid objections are sent by the sanctioning authority within 30 days of submission of Building Plan application. Also all the objections shall be pointed out by the sanctioning authority at one time. Similar conditions should apply for grant of Completion Certificate. 
	
7.3	Task Force mechanism to give focused attention to villages 

(i)	Looking to the pre-occupation of the local bodies that has been resulted in the villages getting neglected, the Committee strongly recommends that a compact and totally dedicated Task Force should be created for a limited period, say for the Eleventh Plan Period, and entrusted exclusively with the responsibility of development/redevelopment of villages as suggested in this Report. The mandate of this Village Development Task Force (VDTF) should include all the tasks given in the preceding paras and it should plan and implement comprehensive redevelopment projects of the Villages (including Census Towns) in a time-bound manner preferably through tripartite partnership arrangements involving the village community, the public agencies and the Private Sector.

(ii)	VDTF should involve the village community meaningfully in preparation of Local Area Plan for the village and in implementation of the same. The development/ redevelopment should be done in. a manner that the residents are able to reap the benefits of escalation in the value of their property, get accommodated 1n the village itself, practically in situ and their commercial/social and other essential needs are also met in the village itself or in the vicinity. 

(iii)	Funding of VDTF should not be left to bodies that face resource-constraints themselves. Its needs may be met out of Plan funds say under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). 

(iv)	For extension of civic services to the villages, the normal principles may be followed (Trunk services to be provided by MCD/Jal Board etc at their cost; peripheral services to be shared by the beneficiary-colonies/villages and the internal services to be met by the development under the LAP (Local Area Plan) for the village. 

(v)	With involvement of the Private Sector, Building Trade etc, it should be possible to make the project self-financing and self-sustaining. Banks should be willing to liberally extend loan facilities to the village-Community and others for construction of buildings, commercial structures and setting up enterprises. 

7.4	SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE VILLAGES 

7.4.1	Mixed Land Use and Permissible Activities in LD/ELD areas 

(i)	Though village abadi is primarily residential, traditionally many livelihood activities       (like keeping cattle, ghanis to extract oil, smithy, carpentry and various other such activities) had been going on in villages for ages. This issue of mixed land use has, therefore,  to  be  treated  more  liberally  than  in  a  normal urban residential colony. Soft 
commercial activity like retail, food, offices and in fact, all the 24 categories of activities that the Monitoring Committee of the Hon'ble Supreme Court has permitted in mixed land use areas of Delhi (ANNEXURE-10) should be allowed liberally in Lal Dora/Extended Lal Dora areas. Existing institutions (socio-cultural, educational, religious etc) should also be permitted to continue till they are relocated as per LAP. Activities that should be permitted in the Extended Lal Dora would include institutional, commercial, group housing, recreational, etc ensuring a minimum ROW of 24 m of the abutting road. 
	
(ii)	Many villages developed certain commercial activities of the type of wholesale, retail, warehousing and industry, which became their means of sustenance after the loss of their farms and fields. For example, Dal Mills, small hotels, warehousing and courier service establishments have come up near the Airport. Retail trade and offices have come up in villages in south Delhi. All these economic activities should be allowed to continue till they get reorganized in a planned manner under the LAP. Only the polluting or nuisance creating ones should not be permitted. Manufacture or bulk storage of hazardous and noxious materials/goods should not be permissible in either Lal Dora or Extended Lal Dora area. 

(iii)	Activities prohibited under GOI Notification dated 07 Sept 06 regarding Mixed Use Regulations shall not be permitted in Lal Dora/Extended Lal Dora till implementation of LAPs where the location for these activities would be specifically earmarked in the Commercial areas. 

(iv)	The entire range of offices - multinationals, corporate houses, Call Centres, IT-related activities etc and others, should be permitted to continue. In fact, LAP should be so designed as to facilitate their continuance and growth and their smooth transition from undesirable or untenable locations to properly planned areas within the villages or in the neighbourhood where adequate parking facility can made available either in the basements or multi-storey blocks. 

(v)	Besides the villages with pre-dominantly commercial, industrial, and warehousing activities, there are two other kinds of villages in Delhi, viz., villages with heritage structures and those in reserved forests or in the Ridge area. These need special planning and development. The villages with heritage structures or those near them (like Hauz Khas, Mehrauli etc.) should be re-developed to highlight their heritage character with local and international tourism as their pre-dominant economic activity. Villages in Reserved Forest area like Ayanagar, Dera, Mandi, Jaunapur etc which are located on the southern ridge, activities connected with eco-tourism or institutional activities in the field of education, art and culture should be preferred. Industrial and commercial warehousing activities shall not be permitted in the villages falling in the Southern Ridge and in Reserved Forest Areas. 

(vi)	All kinds of encroachments oil the Gaon Sabha land in the heritage and reserved forest villages should be removed and they should be converted to green. Some livelihood activities could perhaps be accommodated in the additional spaces (after adjusting relocations of mixed land-uses within the Lal Dora area) for the relevant types of activities in the LAP. 

7.4.2	Interim Arrangements

(i)	Till the LAPs are prepared, the existing non-residential activities should be frozen at their present level. Only residential alterations and extension may be permitted as per the existing relaxations extended to the rural villages. 
	
(ii)	For urban villages, for sanction of building plans in the erstwhile Lal Dora area, an affidavit from the applicant should be accepted as proof of ownership and single entity of the plot, in cases where revenue record is not available. 

(iii)	Land allotted in Extended Loa Dora under consolidation proceedings, should be allowed to be sold legally by the owners without any restriction (as laid down in the DLR Act) for healthy and beneficial growth of the village and the villagers as well. This will stimulate the development process-Of the village. Moreover, since most of the villages in Delhi are proposed to be urbanized during the next 20 year, the procedure for consolidation of landholding may not be needed any more and may be dispensed with. 

7.4.3	Gaon Sabha Lands 

Availability of original Gaon Sabha lands should be verified and recorded village wise with information about the extent of area available/ encroached/ utilized for specific socio-cultural facilities/physical infrastructure etc. Special drives should be organized to get encroachments vacated and to promptly utilize the encroached pockets for providing public utilities/facilities for the spillovers from the Village or for increasing the green cover in Delhi. 

7.4.4	Rehabilitation Measures 

Specific developmental projects/schemes should be chalked out for the villagers to provide alternative occupation in terms of industry/work-centre wherever the agricultural lands of the villagers are acquired for the planned development of the city and where relocation in situ or in the vicinity is just not"-possible in the LAP. 

7.4.5	Conservation Measures 

Special effort should be made to conserve and preserve the handicraft, the heritage and historical character of the village by giving incentives and relaxations in the process of redevelopment of the Lot Dora/Extended Lat Dora in terms of land/loan/permissibility of commercial land use or additional FAR. 

7.4.6	Compensation Measures 

The earlier practice of allotment of plots in developing colonies to villagers whose lands have been acquired for Planned Development of Delhi should be resumed and care should be taken that plots are given in the neighbourhood. 
	
7.5 	Pilot Projects to serve as demonstration models 

To demonstrate implementation of two of the key recommendations (viz., firstly of making a beginning in introducing transparency by bringing available village records on to Website; and secondly of showing how with people's participation development in a village could be integrated with the surrounding areas) two small pilot projects should be taken up. 

•	Under the first project, rural maps and records already available in South District should be brought on to MCD's Website within a month's time. 

•	Under the other, LAPs of a few villages should be prepared (e.g., Mehrauli Kishangarh, Mandi, Mandavli-Fazalpur and Sarai Kalekhan. Nizamudddin Basti may also be taken up as an example of extension of this strategy to urban substandard areas). 

These pilot projects could be taken up with funds available under a sanctioned scheme of Delhi Government (In fact, ECLD would have got it done during its tenure. Unfortunately, these could not be initiated due to certain reasons). It is possible to complete this pilot project in 3 months time and that should be done. 	
	
7.6 	Extension of this Development Strategy to other sub-standard areas (e.g., Unauthorised/Regularised Colonies, JJ-Clusters, Slum pockets and special areas as defined in the Master Plan) 

The mandate of this Committee is limited to Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora areas, but the Committee would humbly suggest that the strategy of development/redevelopment· recommended above for villages could gainfully be extended to other sub-standard areas of Delhi. The advantages in adopting such a course of action would include the following: 

•	It will be a people-centric strategy of development based on intensive preparation of the target groups through carefully drawn up awareness campaigns and incentives (of upgrading their standard of living and of their gaining prosperity through value addition of their property without having to make monetary investments), with no element of coercion, to be implemented in consultation with the residents and with their willing cooperation. 

•	With more intensive Use of land, it would be possible to accommodate practically all the residents in situ or at least in the vicinity. Thus it would avoid dislocation. 

•	It will also be possible to flood the market with adequate commercial space bringing down their cost (which is exorbitantly high at present) and that would provide livelihood opportunity to the needy besides easing the problem of traders who were misusing residential premises for commercial activity on account of dearth of planned commercial spaces in Delhi. 

•	With intensive utilization of land on the PPP principle, development will become largely self-financing and self-sustaining. 

•	With provision of civic services, sanitation and improvement of environment, there will be appreciable value addition to the property and their market value will go up. The owners will gain substantially from the sharp rise in the value of their property. 

•	This awareness-cum-incentive based strategy of development is likely to result in a win-win situation for all concerned. 

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