found 07 - early minutes
from the first development plan meetings at UDRI in July 2007 by Pankaj Joshi and Kimiko Doherty broadly held under the theme of Principles First, Planning Follows and the Next Steps
04072007 #
Attendees: Pankaj Joshi, Shirish Patel, Kimiko Doherty, Prasad Shetty, Samir Mehta, Gautam Patel
Pankaj began by mentioning the purpose of this meeting is to discuss the different manners in which we can take forward Shirish Patel’s article “Principles First, Planning Follows.”
It was discussed and agreed that political backing at all levels of government (central, state and local) is necessary to push the idea further. The following is the list of names of those who we can consider to be included to push this through as a political agenda:
Supriya Sule – MP/ Uddhay Thakerray/ Priya Dutt – MP/ Ashish Shelvar – advocate and corporator/ Dr. Ravi Bapat and his contacts/ Kirit Somaiya (ex-MP) of NGO Yuvak Praishthan/ Milind Deopra – MP
In addition, Gautam Patel suggested involving a bureaucrat who knows all the politicians who have influence, suggesting TC Benjamin, UPS Madan or Sitaram Kunte. In order to promote the agenda, the planning concept needs the right packaging so politicians and bureaucrats will understand the issues and carry it through.
Also discussed was the “what’s in it for me” question when approaching a politician - what are the political gratifications involved for them? Pankaj Joshi responded that a politician could get votes if they push this agenda. Currently at the ward level, the political climate is split 50/50 between the parties –voters can go one way or another. This means now is a good time to push this agenda since there is no clear majority of the parties at the ward level.
The question of involving the courts was brought up if we are to show how chaotic the current process. Samir Mehta said that if the State is misusing the law or their power, it can be argued in court; otherwise the courts won’t be interested. Furthermore, he questioned if we went to court, the result will basically prove the point that the current planning and development plan does not work, but we will still be left with no planning process or planning department.
The need to increase capacity of planning skills is necessary since the current bureaucracy does not even have a planning department. Since planning is implemented at a local level and municipal services are provided at the ward level, similarly ward administrations should be responsible for generating and implementing any plan. Pankaj added that any development plan will have to consider the financial mechanisms for implementation so that wards will be able to finance projects and support a technical team.
Next mentioned was if we should have a strategy to work with the press to help promote the cause. The consensus was that the press won’t be interested for more than a few days and will not pursue the agenda very thoroughly. It was suggested to at least give the press a conceptual plan describing the broad issues and have a press conference to at least get the topic in the papers and generate public awareness.
Any development plan or strategic plan needs to be written carefully so that it is enforceable at the ward level. Also mentioned was that we need to look at how it will be corruptible; and at the different ways the strategy will be corrupted, not just corruption at the implementation level. The best way to prevent corruption is to have the technical capacity at the ward level, which should lead to some level integrity, thus keeping it from corruption, though all agreed that corruption will be inevitable.
Everyone all agreed that a legal opinion is needed – even if we don’t have a reason for one yet, will need one eventually so better to have one now. Gautam Patel will draft a working legal brief in the form of a one-page statement of principles. In addition, he and Samir Mehta will give a list of what should be included in the principals and will be internally circulated for review/revision. Samir Mehta is leaving town on the 9th so they will have this done before they leave.
A brief discussion on if we should include anyone else in the focus group/internal group, specifically from the corporate or banking fields. The reasoning is that corporations and banks always want a return on their investment, so they should be interested. Furthermore, it will make sense to have someone from a corporation or industry to give the issue more weight – so it won’t just be yet another cause that NGOs go on about.
13072007 #
Attendees: Pankaj, V.K. Phatak, Kimiko Doherty, Shirish Patel, Gautam Patel, Prasad Shetty, Anuj Bhagwati
General consensus was reached in that in order to identify principles for a development plan that is most applicable to the city, there must be an analysis rooted city looking at the various aspects of city life and function (housing, traffic, health, etc. done through surveys). This is necessary in order to identify problems and opportunities and to accommodate both. Only after this analysis is done will formulating proposals for the city’s development can be made. These proposals must also include provisions for a planning department, a mechanism for controlling private investments, include financing arrangements and technical guidelines.
It was noted that most cities do not complete a comprehensive plan (sec 33) primarily because of the wording and use of “may” in the law. On the other hand, Development Plans has been completed and are enforceable. However, the language in the law enacting the DP is too broad and now outdated. Furthermore, the consultative process is limited to certain nodes after a plan is already written, not before. This was seen in the Dharavi redevelopment where consultation with residents was done after the decisions were made, therefore public participation was really just public buy-in. It was suggested that a carefully written statement of principles describe the participatory process and how and when public participation should be made.
VK Phatak offered to circulate three articles he wrote regarding planning processes. The first article outlines the imperative need for a new development plan that includes a participatory process of stakeholders and does more than serve as a zoning document (“Revising Development Plan of Mumbai – An Imperative”). The second article is a terms of reference written for the Andhra Pradesh government as a model of what a participatory planning process can look like. The third article is a toolkit to formulate a city development plan.
It was decided that the statement of principles must be adopted by the BMC and this group’s statement of principles will be offered to the BMC as one they can adopt if they chose so. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the BMC to create and implement a DP, and if they do not have the capacity then they need to create it by contracting the work out. It was decided that the BMC commissioner must be the first person to convince the statement of principles is necessary and we must present it in a manner that fits with his priority list since publicly he consistently refers to it.
It was added that some sort of management structure needs to be incorporated into the statement of principles since the current processes lack a clear definition of who is responsible. This ultimately leads to corruption since the notion of who to hold accountable is lost. Also needs to be included is a way to measure progress, such as the Bangalore model where each government department presents to the public what was accomplished in the past year and projects what will be done in the coming year. Including these provisions will lead to transparency and accountability during implementation of a plan, not just expenditure monitoring.
Additional Note:
As we discuss what these principles and strategies should be for the Mumbai Planning Process, we also need to think about what the role of the UDRI will be. Currently the UDRI is fulfilling an administrative role by hosting these discussion meetings. As these discussions turn into actions, what role should UDRI take?
27072007 #
Attendees: Gautam Patel (GP), Shirish Patel (SP), Pankaj Joshi, Samir Mehta, Kimiko Doherty
Many papers that have circulated related to how Mumbai DP process should be assume that there is some sort of government entity that makes planning decisions. This is clearly not the case for the city of Mumbai. Therefore, the question was asked, how do we position ourselves to do an enforceable development plan for Mumbai?
Option 1: draft an amended act or amendment to the act, which is similar to what Lok Satta advocates. We should invite someone from Lok Satta in our discussions to coordinate efforts. If we advocate a new act, rather than working within the existing framework, the model municipal law documents circulated need to be reviewed by someone in Mumbai to assure that the model could be applied here in Mumbai. The model municipal law documents were written by someone in Calcutta. SP will discuss the issues with Surendra Srivastava from Loksatta.
Option 2: Host a half day or full day discussion/dialog on what the actual process should be (PJ). We can open the discussion to the public as a way to create momentum and educate the public on this issue or we can hold a discussion for a selected group of people who understand planning. If we have a public discussion with Loksatta, Citispace’ people, educate them and get them behind us, it will then put pressure on their ward officials. Shirish Patel’s article “Principles First, Planning Follows” is a good beginning to get the audience educated on the issue as long as we state that this is an example of principles can be, not what the actual principles for Mumbai are.
Option 3: A prepackaged plan can be presented to the public or government as another option, however it is a lot of work and will have no legal standing (GP).
Gautam Patel and Samir Mehta will draft the principles and strategy plan examples based on articles circulated by Shirish Patel and V.K. Phatak. They will also write a statement on now a new development plan will fit within the current legal framework.
Upon review and revision of these two documents, a public forum or discussion will be organized to generate support. GP will get retired supreme court judges involved at this phase.