Southern States - Karnataka

Urban chaos continues despite RCDP

By Our Staff Correspondent

Mysore April 8. The indictment of Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) officials for their failure to enforce building bylaws reinforces apprehensions that apathetic town planners are marring the beauty of Mysore.

Six officials of the MUDA were held guilty by the Lokayukta that observed that there was a "malafide intention with ulterior motives" in regularising violations of the building bylaws, and sought disciplinary action against them.

Interestingly, the Revised Comprehensive Development Plan (RCDP) for Mysore, 2011, has a lofty preface, which notes: "RCDP includes policies for the overall development of the local planning area taking into consideration the short and long-term requirements". But ironically, the preface was penned by the then MUDA Town Planning member, Chikkananjaiah, who too was held guilty by the Lokayukta for willful regularisation of structures that violated the building regulations by more than 25 per cent.

It is an open secret that the RCDP guidelines for Mysore are observed more in its breach than compliance. The then Commissioner of the MUDA, N.Jayaram, said in a seminar sometime ago that more than 90 per cent of the structures in Mysore were constructed in violation of the building bylaws. He had expressed the helplessness of the authority in monitoring the construction with the existing manpower.

The regulations were prepared as a guideline for the development of Mysore in accordance with the available land and space. The land use plan was conceived to facilitate a healthy development based on the principle that as long as the RCDP was observed the future of the city was ensured.

But in the absence of committed officials in enforcing building bylaws and regulations, the urban decay and chaos are likely to continue unabated. The decay is most prominent in the commercial centres where the violation is flagrant as a result of which there is hardly any lung space. The population density has increased and this has a direct bearing on public health.

A few concerned citizens, who authored the "Mysore Vision 2020" document, took the issue.

The authors noted that violation of laws was affecting the orderly and planned growth of Mysore.

RCDP shortcomings

The document pointed out that the RCDP itself was with certain glaring shortcomings and only dealt with zoning details. It had failed to address the policy on which planning was to be done. The Vision 2020 document underlined the fact that RCDP should include such vital issues of policy and planning in tune with the present day requirements. But the RCDP failed to mention anything about the quality of roads needed for the city.

It did not project the future requirements of Mysore on the basis of anticipated population growth, to the vision document said.

It stated that the city planning should have been done in consultation with local NGOs, the Institution of Engineers, and the Indian Institute of Architects, and even conceived the idea of constituting Mysore Urban Arts Commission. But the authorities have not taken these suggestions.

The RCDP has mentioned in passing about the importance of following the land-use pattern in areas under Nehru Loka Project, which helped in protecting the eco system of Chamundi Hills. But now that the Government has disbanded the Nehru Loka Project and mooted a change in the land-use pattern, the existence of Chamundi Hills in its present form is in peril.

The future of Mysore, with its unique characteristic features of heritage buildings and Chamundi Hills, could have been preserved if the RCDP regulations were enforced in all sincerity. But the indictment of MUDA officials by the Lokayukta has put paid to any expectations people may have from the town planners.

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