As more information is being
received on the proposed Central Vista project of the Government of India, the
list of questions related to it is also getting longer.
The trial against this project
which gives a new appearance to Central Delhi is going on in the Supreme Court.
The issue of debate is the same - plans for the construction of many buildings
between Rashtrapati Bhavan and India Gate including a new Parliament House,
right or wrong?
The current Central Vista is a
historical area that people come from far and wide to see and the beauty as
well as the corridors of power have been here.
Bahral, Central Vista will give
a new strength to Parliament and the new building will cost about 971 crores.
However, the demand for
increasing the place in Parliament has been arising for more than 50 years and
it was also debated during the tenure of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar in the
previous UPA government.
However, little was heard about
the current project, so when the BJP government announced it only months after
the 2019 election victory, some were also surprised.
Actually, the central vista is
called the area on both sides of Rajpath which includes the area of Princes
Park near Rashtrapati Bhavan near India Gate.
Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament,
North Block, South Block, the home of the Vice President are also covered under
Central Vista.
The existing Central Vista also
includes the National Museum, the grand building of the National Archives, the
Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts (IGNCA), Udyog Bhawan, Bikaner
House, Hyderabad House, Nirman Bhawan and Jawahar Bhawan and all these
buildings are redesigned and strengthened. The total cost of the project is
being reported as Rs 14,000 crore.
A year after the announcement,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of a new building in
which more than 1200 MPs and their staff will be able to sit together.
The Prime Minister said,
"Beautiful, what will be more sacred than this, that when India celebrates
75 years of its independence, the inspiration of that festival should be the
new building of our Parliament ... It will change itself according to the time
and needs. Effort".
Raising questions
The date of completion of the
proposed Parliament House is 2024 but with a big question whether the Supreme
Court will allow it to be built? While the government has assured the Supreme
Court to include everyone's opinion and methods, the Supreme Court has
described the government's stand on the creation of Parliament as 'aggressive'.
Narayan Murthy, a petitioner and
senior architect who goes against Central Vista in the Supreme Court, believes,
"The way this project is going, it is neglecting all our processes and
institutions."
He told, "For me and you,
there is an FIR that tells how much we can build on a plot. It is not allowed
if we build even more than ten square meters and the team of MCD comes and
breaks it. But If the government is making one and a half times the height
allowed, one and a half times as much as is allowed in the FAR, then what is
this learning for the country. Does this mean that the one whose sticks, his
buffalo?
Opinions are divided on the need,
cost, government permissions or the design of the proposed Parliament building.
The question is bound to arise whether this has happened before in independent
India.
Modern historian and former
professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mridula Mukherjee believes,
"Most projects in modern India are built through competition, whether national
or international."
According to him, "IGNCA, be
it or anyone else, people, artists or architects, were all involved in the
process of their formation. Right now I think whoever is the government or the
bureaucracy, is very much dominating it. Now Just like there is a Parliament
building, the opinion of those who have spent time in Parliament or are still
there is not seen anywhere. At present, it seems that the government does what
it thinks is good for the people, tells them without discussion Made ".
What does the government say
At the same time, the central
government claims that the project is in the 'national interest' because the
need for modernizing the Central Vista will save hundreds of crores of rupees
and the new buildings will become more robust and earthquake resistant.
The question has been to build
more buildings in this green and open area, the government says that it is
going to bring more greenery in it. But more voices of protest have been raised
about the environment.
Kanchi Kohli, an environmental
expert at Delhi's Center for Policy Research, opined, "The proposed
buildings have been separated from the entire project by resorting to the law,
while it is clear in the government's own press release from the beginning that
it is part of the entire project." . "
He said, "The whole
environment approval process was done in a manner like plot by plot, building
by building. First of all you broke the whole project to get environmental
acceptance and said that because this is just an exception project So there is
no need for environmental assessment ".
Currently, the ball is in the
court of the Supreme Court, which allowed the government to lay the foundation
stone of the new Parliament, but has banned any sabotage or new work.
Foundation of existing central
vista
By the way, history is witness
that Delhi was the capital of many emperors and rulers, in which construction
work was done continuously. This trend continued before and after independence,
in which the shape of the city changed and the famous Buildings were built.
The foundation of the current
Central Vista was laid when King George-5 of Britain announced in 1911 that
Delhi would be shifted from Calcutta, the country's capital.
The Town Planning Committee
consisted of the British architects Edward Lattens and Herbert Baker who
overturned the committee's initial decision in which the capital was to be
built in Shahjahanabad area of Delhi. A hill named Raisina Hill was chosen
for a grand capital.
There were differences before,
but not between the government and ordinary citizens.
Friends Latens and Baker, who
designed Central Vista, had differing opinions on the height of the Rashtrapati
Bhavan, North and South blocks, and according to historians, it soured their
deep friendship.
This is not evident in the
current government, but many citizens groups and common citizens have reached
the court on the claim of government transparency.
But in response to what can be
likened to the British-ruled and now Central Vista, Mridula Mukherjee, a modern
historian and former professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, says, "His
consultation process was within his government and of course he took the Indian
nationalists. Did not consult with the citizens, not at all with ordinary
citizens because at that time there was no question. "
He said, "Indians did not
participate in the government in the first two decades of the 20th century and
only grew after 1930. But now there are no such situations, I think it was a
good opportunity and there were changes to be made, then the process was second
The second thing was to happen. I did not understand that if experts,
architects, citizens or some political groups have objected to this process
then what is wrong with it, why can't it be heard? "
Controversy did not happen in
National War Memorial
When this area was built, the
rule of the British government, which took the decision, came to an end in
1947. The decision to reconstruct these buildings, known as the identity of
India, is now being taken by the democratic government of the country.
Narayan Murthy, a petitioner and
senior architect who goes against the Central Vista in the Supreme Court,
feels, "In the initial master-plan, the planners thought that this place
between this city and this nation should be public only." . "
He further added, "In the
master-plan of the Latens, that was what is going to be built today - there
were ten big buildings for the office. While the master-planners of our country
stopped it and the four-five buildings which President Bhavana or Turns to
Vijay Chowk, where Shastri Bhavan or the building Bhavana is today, except for
them, in the roundabout around India Gate, all that land was in the name of the
public. "
However, if it is for the last
few years, then the National War Memorial of Delhi is an example to the
contrary.
The demand for making it has been
there since 1960 but the decision of construction came when BJP came to power
under the leadership of Narendra Modi in 2014. Global design tenders were
available for a year in which architects from India and abroad joined their
model.
There was a slight delay in its
preparation, but the controversy was neither equal to that of the existing
Central Vista project.
According to
environmental expert Kanchi Kohli, "The area of Central Vista is not
just the heritage of the whole country. So when we are deciding about the
country's heritage, why not make a mass amendment? Why not involve the public
First, tell us what is the plan, take public input on it, only then creative
ideas will come out and people will feel that we have created this place by
thinking together. "
