The Kerala Town and Country Planning Ordinance, 2014, re-promulgated on July 20, allegedly seeks to usurp the powers of the State Planning Board and District Planning Committees (DPCs) and goes against the spirit of decentralised planning.
The ordinance was issued twice earlier on September, 23, 2013, and February 11, but the government could not pilot a Bill in the Assembly within the prescribed time and had to be reissued on July 20.
Official sources told The Hindu here that the ordinance would upset the bottom-up approach practised in decentralised planning and also deny due role for the Planning Board and the DPC, a constitutional body, which acts as the fulcrum of planning. Planning Board Vice Chairman K.M. Chandrasekhar is understood to have apprised Chief Minister Oommen Chandy of the serious ramifications in promulgating the ordinance in haste without taking the stakeholders into confidence.
ComplicationsThough town planning is just one of the segments of district planning, the ordinance has equated both.
A series of plans mooted in the ordinance is feared to complicate the planning procedures. It has been proposed to prepare a State perspective plan prepared at the top level to be followed at the district and local levels.
This approach ran contrary to the spirit of delegation of powers to the grassroots, sources said.
ProposalIt has been proposed to constitute a 31-member State Town and Country Planning Commission with the Chief Minister as chairman, the Minister for Town and Country Planning as vice chairperson and 29 other members.
The commission, instead of the DPCs, will evaluate the physical achievements of the investments made by the local bodies.
Development councilThe Planning Board vice chairman will only be a member on the commission and neither the member for decentralisation nor the member-secretary on planning will be included. The State Development Council, which at present interlinks the government and local bodies, will also become defunct.
The crucial 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution laid thrust on social justice. The guidelines prepared by the Planning Commission and the draft guidelines on district planning drawn up the Planning Board had also given due importance to the marginalised sections such as SC/ST and fisherfolk. But such core sectors which deserved special attention had not been given their due in the ordinance, sources said.
