Residents combat land-use panel

Ghaziabad: Aggrieved residents of Vasundhara on Monday met members of a high-level committee looking into the objections raised by them in regard to change of land use from institutional to mixed of 3,40,459 square metres of land in sectors 7 and 8.
The seven-member committee heard 16 objections raised by residents in a meeting that turned stormy when residents warned the committee that if the land use was changed they would oppose it tooth and nail.They also threatened to move court if authorities persisted in their plan to alter land use.
"The land in question, which belongs to the housing board, has been earmarked in the original layout plan for community or facility centres," said resident U B Garg of the Vasundhara Vikas Samiti. "But even after more than two and a half decades, the housing board failed to build any community centres though 1,68,010 sqm of land in Sector 7 and another 1,72,449 sqm of land in Sector 8 was set aside for community centres like government hospitals, playgrounds, parks, etc," Garg said.
"But now when the time has come for providing community centres on the piece of land, they are changing land use ostensibly to benefit private builders which we will not allow at any cost," Garg said. The residents, under the aegis of the Vasundhara Vikas Samiti, has already held two rallies and 20 public meetings against the housing board's proposed move to change the land use.
Veerpal Singh, another resident, said the Vasundhara scheme was launched in 1989 and today the area, which has 19 sectors, has a population of about six lakh but there is no park, government hospital or playground even though they were promised to residents in the layout plan. "The area will choke if highrises are built on the said piece of land as there will be no place left for community centres," Singh said.
In the original layout plan, of the total 1,68,010 sqm of land in Sector 7, 5,007 sqm was allotted for a degree college, 38,017 sqm for a hospital, 16,675 sqm for a hotel, 1,645 sqm for a petrol pump, 3,671 sqm for a fire station, 16,854 sqm for a park and 24,123 sqm for a playground.
The residents are of the view that the authorities cannot change the land use but GDA's Chief Town Planner say "under section 13 of UP Urban Development Act GDA can recommend change of land use to the state government for them to take a final call" says Istiaq Ahmed, Chief Town Planner, GDA.
Speaking on the contentious issue Vijay Kumar Yadav,Vice Chairman of GDA says "this was first of the meeting of the committee with the residents and in days to come we will be holding many such meetings till a consensus is arriveds and the only we will send the our report to the state government." But given the toughening of stand by residents an amicable solution looks unlikely at the moment.