A speaker at the workshop on town planning. Picture by Manik Bose

Ranchi, Oct. 21: Town planners today pointed out the drawbacks in the layout of the cities in the country and suggested measures for improvement during a meet here.

They advised holistic approach against the present piecemeal development, inclusion of remote sensing and geographic intelligence system and estimation of future requirements of the city in the planning process.

The meet was organised by the state urban development department in which the chief town planners of different states, town and country planning departments and directors of schools of planning participated.

The statistics churned out by the speakers presented a grim picture of India in general, and Jharkhand in particular. The experts said that while countries like UK had 60 planners per 10 lakh citizens, Australia had 40, Canada had 35, India had only 2.5 town planners per 10 lakh citizens.

Gajanand Ram, associate town planner, government of Jharkhand, said: “Although several agencies have been formed for the purpose, there are gaps in vision, policy making, implementation, and infrastructure.”

“The town-planning act in India is largely based on the old British model of the Raj days. While the British have revised their model time and again, we in India do not have any system of revision of the model. Also we have to tackle the problem of piecemeal planning instead of a holistic approach towards the entire process,” Ram said.

“The awareness level and expectations of people have raised many folds in the last few years making it imperative to ensure their participation in preparing the master plan of a city. It is difficult to accommodate expectations of every person,” he said demanding more authority to local civic bodies under the 74th amendment act.

These bodies should be strong enough to take decision on issues related with town planning, he said. “At some point we will have to compromise our present privileges to plan for a better future,”he added

The official also said the state government needs to clarify the reforms being undertaken under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), including implementation of provisions of rainwater harvesting, waste water recycling solar assisted water heating systems and many such provisions. Ajay Khare from the Department of Architecture, Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra, said that BIT was the only institute in the state offering courses in planning. “Even those students who take up the course later switch over to other streams as the state government fails to provide them employment opportunities,” Ajay said.

The speakers also said that land acquisition in entire Jharkhand was very difficult due to the Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act. Even widening of roads in the state had become difficult due to these acts, they said.