**"Report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel - Part I - 13.4. Proposed guidelines/summary recommendations for sector-wise activities

Opinion
    02/102018
               1439.

Sub :-
**"Report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel - Part I - 13.4.  Proposed guidelines/summary recommendations for sector-wise activities

Ref :-

Sector :Tourism :-

ESZ1 ESZ2 ESZ3 from WGEA, SEA and DECs

Roads possible/ permitted subject to EIAs, strict regulation and social audit Tourism Ecotourism policy of MoEF refined by the WGEA to promote minimal impact tourism in the region Strict regulation for waste management, traffic and water use Strict regulation on basis of a Tourism master plan and social audit.

Tourism Master Plan should be based on carrying capacity of area and after taking into account social and environmental costs.

Strict regulation and social audit Tourism Master Plan should be based on carrying capacity of area and after taking into account social and environmental costs Education Reconnect children and youth to local environment through education programmes focusing on local environmental issues, especially degradation of natural resources of land and water and air and water pollution.

Tailor Environmental Education projects to serve as an instrument of participatory environmental monitoring involving local community members; connect such exercises to preparation of ‚People’s Biodiversity Registers by the local Biodiversity Management Committees Students’ ‚ River Clubs should be encouraged in schools situated along the course of the respective river Teach agriculture in schools Science and Technology Cumulative impact assessment for all new projects such as dams, mines, tourism, and housing, that impact upon water resources should be conducted and permission given only if they fall within the carrying capacity Focus research on perfecting green technology and make it affordable for common people.

Environment flow assessments indicators should be worked out by Research institutions, NGOs along with local communities Information management Build on the Western Ghats database of WGEEP to create an open, transparent, participatory system of environmental monitoring involving all citizens, in particular the student community Update and upgrade a hydrological data base of rivers and consolidate the ecological data base and information at river basin level.

13.1 Regional Plans and ESZs

The overall planning and development of the extensive Western Ghats region would have to be placed within the framework of the proposed Ecologically Sensitive Zones. Box 11 suggests an approach as developed by Professor Edgar Ribeiro, Retd Chief Town Planner, GOI, New Delhi.

Box 11: Regional Plans and the WGEA

Note prepared by Professor Edgar Ribeiro

A. DPCs and MPCs under the Constitution :-

1. THE 73/74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, 92, introduced the concept of District Planning Committees (DPCs) and Metropolitan Planning Committees (DPCs). Thus within the Administrative Districts of India and which with the ushering in of 5 year plans in 1950 saw the emergence of Development Blocks in empathy with the administrative sub-districts of Talukas / Tehsils, a new dimension to districts has constitutionally been introduced. Uniquely DPC’s /MPC’s focus on down-top participatory growth based on electoral wards that define the Municipalities and Village Panchayats within Development Blocks /Tehsils that constitute the Districts of the State /UT’s of India. There are no governance overlaps in this three-tier hierarchy of Municipalities (Corporations, Councils, Nagar Panchayats) and of Village Panchayats and which settlements in turn constitute the regions of Districts with DPCs or MPCs.

2. The constitutional amendments have ensured that at least 2/3rds of MPC and 3/4th of DPC members would be from the electoral Constituencies with a minimum of one-third elected representatives being women apart from catering to other statutory reservations. The Constitution has also attempted to address the vexing question of inter-se sectoral development conflicts on the use of scarce land by mandating that DPCs /MPCs would prepare draft development plans for their jurisdiction by amalgamating sectoral projects in a programmed development format for the consideration of the State Government. However confusion persists on the sanctity of a draft plan.

3. Currently most states have DPCs in place but with limited functions. This is through 3-tier Panchayat Raj Institution (PRIs ) of village Panchayats (VPs) Development Blocks and Districts (Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat) or 2-item PRIs of VPs and Districts as in Goa.

4. However only Kolkata Urban .Area has a working MPC in place with the KMDA doubling up as its technical secretariat. The Constitution requires that these MPCs be established for all Metropolitan Areas (population exceeding one million) i.e., 35 in number in 2001. In fact in the 12th 5 year plan, promotional funds through JNNURM is likely to be withheld to states that do not constitute MPCs. A bottleneck in this regard is stated to be the jurisdictional overlaps in peri-metropolitan areas between DPCs with their Zilla Parishads (ZP) or equivalent institutions and MPCs outside full Municipal Corporation Districts.

5. An option that is under debate is, if all continuous districts with peri-metropolitan areas, could be placed in their entirety under the MPC. Thereby each state would have distinct Districts with DPCs serviced by ZPs and distinct MPCs serviced by Metropolitan Development Authorities with ZPs of such districts reporting to MPCs for draft development plan purposes apart from their other statutory functions.

B. The emerging role of spatial plans (regional and urban plans) :-

1. The Constitutional amendments that have established MPCs and DPCs attempt to address the issues of sectoral investment development planning but not necessarily the implications of such sectoral investment planning on the use of land and which increasingly are inter-se in conflict due to escalating land shortages and the need to cater to spatial development (the use of land and the emerging built environment) after ensuring the conservation of environmentally eco-sensitive land and areas /plots of identified heritage value.

2. This issue is currently being addressed by the Ministry of Urban Development through a model ‚spatial? Development Planning Law for the States of the Union to adopt. This draft law aims to ensure an integrative spatial canvas covering the entire state with Regional level broad brush plans for Districts, for settlement level plans for Municipalities /Panchayats, and for local area level electoral ward plans, each with 20-year perspectives and 5-yearly development programmes, complete with distinct land use zones, a chart of uses allowed in each land use zone and Development Control Regulations (DCRs) for each land use zone. More importantly, the draft law aims to ensure that this instrument is to be the only law in the state that determines the use of land. Thereby, under this law no project or scheme would be prepared and processed as such projects/schemes are prepared under several Acts, notably Municipality/PRI Acts, Development Authority Acts, Industrial Development Acts, Infrastructure Development Authority Acts, etc. The definition of project or scheme in the draft Regional and Urban Planning Law is as below.

NEXT : 14. Western Ghats Ecology Authority

To be continued ..

JAIHIND
VANDEMATHARAM