Delhi masterplan to be changes, non-polluting units will stay

Delhi masterplan to be changes, non-polluting units will stay
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 21: Union Urban Affairs Minister Jagmohan was finally persuaded to amend Delhi's masterplan to allow non-polluting industries to stay in residential areas of the capital. And it required joint efforts of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Home Minister LK Advani to convince him.

Jagmohan has agreed to keep the industries which had been using upto 5 kv power and less than ten workers in the residential areas of the Capital, BJP spokesman B.K. Malhotra announced today.

Vajpayee spoke to Jagmohan yesterday and then today again, Malhotra said. The PM assured the six BJP MPs who called on him last night, that a decision will be taken in a couple of days to amend the masterplan.

An agreement was reached that non-polluting units will not be dislocated and time will be sought from the court to relocate the polluting industries.

Malhotra held the Delhi Chief Secretary responsible for wide-spread across the city for past three days. ``He issued an erroneous order saying all 1.25 lakh industrial units would have to be shifted out of Delhi, causing confusion and panic both among industrialists and workers who indulged in violence,'' Malhotra said adding his party would demand action against the bureaucrat.

With today's agreement 80 per cent of the problem in regard to such industries would be solved. There were 4,000 to 5,000 polluting industries in the capital and the BJP had suggested they be relocated after acquiring green land.

The Delhi BJP MPs including Jagmohan, have now shifted their focus on the Congress Government in Delhi saying its plea to amend the Delhi masterplan to reclassify certain areas as industrial pocket was a ploy to cover up its inaction in implementing Supreme court orders.

In a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Jagmohan observed that the present situation had arisen due to the ``total failure'' of the Delhi government to develop even a single plot for relocation of industries in Narela, Bawana and other such areas.

``It also needs to be underlined that the Supreme Court started passing orders from February 2, 1996, and till December 9 last year no one talked of amending the masterplan. It was only when the apex court made adverse comments on Delhi Government for not implementing assurances and undertaking given in the court, that the proposal to amend the masterplan was mooted.

The minister further said that in the Delhi government's proposal it had not been indicated how all those industries which were found in 1996 by the high powered committee to be unfit for continuance in the residential premises would now be found fit to continue in the same premises and what would be the impact of such premises on the health and habitation of the law abiding citizens who have continued to use their residential premises in accordance with the provisions of the master plan.