While Chandigarh administration has strongly advocated its case for heritage status at a recently held international conference in France, but what came out strongly in the conference was the losing character of city.
An eye-opener PowerPoint presentation by Madhu Sarin who is an eminent architect and development planner and has written a book on Chandigarh planning, brought out some startling facts about the city.
This not only surprised the Chandigarh Administration officials attending the conference but also other participants including the organizer UNESCO, which plays a key role in according heritage status to any city in the world. The “International Conference Le Havre: Brasilia – Chandigarh – Le Havre – Tel Aviv” was held on September 13 and 14 at French City Le Havre.
Madhu Sarin in her 39-slide presentation, including some pictures spoke on, “Chandigarh: Challenges of maintaining the less tangible heritage”. She surprised the UNESCO representatives by bringing out the anti-farmer activities of the administration like ‘forcible’ land acquisition.
In her presentation, Sarin started with objectives of founding the city which included, rehouse the state government, rehabilitate the displaced persons and provide strong foundations for architecture and planning suitable for a poor, newly independent and democratic nation.
Stating that the first two objectives had been achieved, the third objective included the less tangible commitment to social justice and equality, she added.
Sarin in her presentation questioned if Chandigarh’s disadvantaged receive the promised dignity of life?, How did Chandigarh treat the villagers whose land it took, and continues to take for its march into the 21st century?, What balance between maintenance of old and new heritage? And What space created for democratic decision making and governance?
Several challenges of balancing enhancement of old and new heritage were also listed out in the presentation. The growing slums and encroachments in city have also been brought out with pictures saying, “Those forgotten and left out”, adding that the city planned for 500,000 population was today over one million with highest number of per capita vehicles.
“Chandigarh today has two major faces – ‘planned’ and ‘non-planned’ it says comparing the posh city areas with those where encroachments go unchecked. “The non-planned face is the unwanted and hidden face, pushed outside the master plan area”, it says.
Comparing planned housing, Sarin also expressed her concern over no provision for the squatters, and skewed distribution of the population within the plan and concentration of the poor outside it. She also stated in her presentation that there was no systematic policy to increase supply of affordable housing for the city’s low income citizens.
The presentation says there is no consideration of family size, no space for self-employment and CHB has started charging market value with no cross subsidy.
Bringing out the new projects in the periphery, Sarin had stated there is no publicly discussed master plan for periphery, farmers are agitating against compulsory land acquisition and no planning for low income population. Slides also brought out the protests by the farmers against land acquisition, and poor state of villages.
Four urban sites Brasilia, Chandigarh, Le Havre and Tel Aviv, considered symbolic cities of the 20th century had come together at the conference. While Chandigarh happens to be on the tentative list, the other three cities are already on the UNESCO list of heritage cities.
Director Tourism, Vivek Atray and Prof Kiran Joshi who were participating in the conference on behalf of the Chandigarh
Administration had met UNESC0 officials to finalise the dossier, to be submitted to the World Heritage Center by October, for the list of heritage sites.
An eye-opener PowerPoint presentation by Madhu Sarin who is an eminent architect and development planner and has written a book on Chandigarh planning, brought out some startling facts about the city.
This not only surprised the Chandigarh Administration officials attending the conference but also other participants including the organizer UNESCO, which plays a key role in according heritage status to any city in the world. The “International Conference Le Havre: Brasilia – Chandigarh – Le Havre – Tel Aviv” was held on September 13 and 14 at French City Le Havre.
Madhu Sarin in her 39-slide presentation, including some pictures spoke on, “Chandigarh: Challenges of maintaining the less tangible heritage”. She surprised the UNESCO representatives by bringing out the anti-farmer activities of the administration like ‘forcible’ land acquisition.
In her presentation, Sarin started with objectives of founding the city which included, rehouse the state government, rehabilitate the displaced persons and provide strong foundations for architecture and planning suitable for a poor, newly independent and democratic nation.
Stating that the first two objectives had been achieved, the third objective included the less tangible commitment to social justice and equality, she added.
Sarin in her presentation questioned if Chandigarh’s disadvantaged receive the promised dignity of life?, How did Chandigarh treat the villagers whose land it took, and continues to take for its march into the 21st century?, What balance between maintenance of old and new heritage? And What space created for democratic decision making and governance?
Several challenges of balancing enhancement of old and new heritage were also listed out in the presentation. The growing slums and encroachments in city have also been brought out with pictures saying, “Those forgotten and left out”, adding that the city planned for 500,000 population was today over one million with highest number of per capita vehicles.
“Chandigarh today has two major faces – ‘planned’ and ‘non-planned’ it says comparing the posh city areas with those where encroachments go unchecked. “The non-planned face is the unwanted and hidden face, pushed outside the master plan area”, it says.
Comparing planned housing, Sarin also expressed her concern over no provision for the squatters, and skewed distribution of the population within the plan and concentration of the poor outside it. She also stated in her presentation that there was no systematic policy to increase supply of affordable housing for the city’s low income citizens.
The presentation says there is no consideration of family size, no space for self-employment and CHB has started charging market value with no cross subsidy.
Bringing out the new projects in the periphery, Sarin had stated there is no publicly discussed master plan for periphery, farmers are agitating against compulsory land acquisition and no planning for low income population. Slides also brought out the protests by the farmers against land acquisition, and poor state of villages.
Four urban sites Brasilia, Chandigarh, Le Havre and Tel Aviv, considered symbolic cities of the 20th century had come together at the conference. While Chandigarh happens to be on the tentative list, the other three cities are already on the UNESCO list of heritage cities.
Director Tourism, Vivek Atray and Prof Kiran Joshi who were participating in the conference on behalf of the Chandigarh
Administration had met UNESC0 officials to finalise the dossier, to be submitted to the World Heritage Center by October, for the list of heritage sites.
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