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A new J&K business law allows commercial high-rises on agricultural land, sparking fierce safety warnings from urban planners over extreme seismic and liquefaction risks.
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00:00Chief Minister Umar Abdullah recently passed a bill.
00:03That bill is ease of doing business or ease of living.
00:06It was passed in the Jomun Kashmir Legislative Assembly during its autumn session in Sri
00:11Nagar.
00:12Now the bill has become controversial because some of the provisions have allowed conversion
00:17of land use in Jomun Kashmir.
00:20Jomun as well as Kashmir have different topography because it falls in the highly seismic zone.
00:27So these objections have been raised by civil society in Jomun Kashmir in the face of environment,
00:33topography, geography and flats.
00:39For this reason we have with us an expert, an urban town planner and former town planner
00:46of Kashmir, Iftikar Hakim.
00:49Thank you for joining us sir.
00:50Assalamu alaikum.
00:51Thank you for giving me this opportunity.
00:55Let me tell you that this bill came recently, the GCC which is the civil society form led by
01:07former bureaucrates.
01:08You are part of that form.
01:11So you have also raised objections.
01:13What are the reasons that there are objections?
01:15And what is the bill that you think that you can get from Kashmir or Kashmir.
01:24The GCC has been reiterating that we are not per se against the bill.
01:32Businesses have to thrive in the state.
01:34And for that you have to have EODB, ease of doing business.
01:38And government of J&K has been doing a lot of work on EODB through BRAB, Business Reform
01:44Action Plan.
01:45A lot of work has been done and we are amongst I think top five in the country with ease
01:50of
01:50doing business.
01:51So we are ranked at the top level.
01:53But there are serious issues with the bill.
01:57We are per se not against the ease of doing business.
01:59We are against bringing in the provisions whereby the most important statutory laws of
02:07the state will be compromised through this bill.
02:09That is the major concern of the group of concerned citizens.
02:12So what are these laws which you object to?
02:16It has given exemption to some of the laws such as Water Act, Forest Act, Wildlife Protection
02:22Act.
02:23Four or five laws have been given exemption.
02:25But one of the serious concerns is that the Urban Development Acts which include the
02:32Town Planning Act, the J&K Development Act, Metropolitan Region Development Act, Municipal Act,
02:38Municipal Corporation Act.
02:39They are not exempted from the operation of this EODB.
02:44So they will not be excluded from the operation of the EODB.
02:47So that itself brings into question the integrity of the, will the integrity of the master plans
02:56continue to be there or the master plans will be compromised.
02:59But don't you think that these like permissions are also creating problems for people to do business
03:08in Juman Kashmir?
03:09Because there have been a lot of efforts by the government, both by the Latin Governor Manoj
03:13Sina as well as the Chief Minister Umar Abdullah for having investors in Juman Kashmir.
03:17But there are objections, like you have to get a series of certificates which they are doing away with.
03:23Isn't it fine?
03:24No, no.
03:25It's fine to decrease the friction in the procedures.
03:30But it's not fine to compromise on the special planning laws.
03:33There are n number of states in the country which have actually promulgated this act.
03:37But no state has actually compromised on the special planning acts.
03:41This, I think, is unprecedented.
03:44This is the only act which is actually compromising on the urban development acts.
03:49That is the serious concern.
03:50So how will it affect Jumbo and Kashmir?
03:53I'll also explain another thing that housing and urban development for the last, I think,
03:57one or two years has been bringing a number of amendments to the unified building bylaws.
04:02And a series of amendments, almost three amendments in a period of nine months.
04:07So that's again a serious concern.
04:10But one of the things which HUDD has brought in is the auto DCRs.
04:15And auto DCRs and many other things.
04:18Why didn't the official timelines have been fixed?
04:23And yesterday, I think yesterday or the day before there was a government order,
04:26where under Public Services Guarantee Act,
04:30the timelines for building permissions have been fixed.
04:32Nobody is against the fixing of timelines for the building or single window system.
04:38But the concern is regarding some of the provisions of the act,
04:41especially the provisions like section 22, the schedules of the act.
04:47They will actually be, there will be a lot of,
04:50they will be, these provisions are actually for bypassing the master plans.
04:54That's the concern.
04:55Before we come to that section 22,
04:57what is this master plan and why are they being framed?
05:00Master plan is a special planning vision for any city, for any region or for a local area.
05:09So master plans are conceived under, in JNK, under either town plan,
05:14mostly under JNK Development Act.
05:16And there's a process for conceiving the master plan.
05:18You actually, there are two major things which happen in the master plan.
05:21You try to work out what for the economy and the population of the state or, sorry,
05:27of the region or the city.
05:28What is the requirement of different lands?
05:31Land for residential areas, land for commercial areas,
05:34land for public and public health education, land for industrial estates.
05:38This is all worked under a structure, which is well defined in the JNK Development Act.
05:45So after working out all these details, you arrive at the land uses.
05:49And then the intensity and density of different land uses in the master plan.
05:55For density, for different zones have to be determined in the master plan.
05:58So these kind of things are done after a process which takes almost one and a half years or two
06:04years to complete.
06:05So master plan is a vision document.
06:08And this master plan cannot be notified unless you invite objections for different provisions of the master plan.
06:15So there's huge public participation in the process of the master plan.
06:19So the master plans are prepared after due public participation and notified by the government.
06:23So these master plans act as vision documents for the development of a city or a town or a region.
06:31Under the EODB, what happens, your question was only on the master plan.
06:35No, but I want to say, when was our master plan framed for Jumu and Kashmir?
06:38I think there's no master plan for Jumu and Kashmir.
06:41There should have been regional plans for Jumu and Kashmir because Jumu metropolitan region has been notified.
06:48Kashmir metropolitan region has been notified.
06:50But no regional plans have been prepared as yet.
06:52But the master plan for Sirinagar, master plan for Jumu have been notified and many other towns have been notified.
06:58For Sirinagar, I think it is in 2019 the master plans were notified and the horizon is 2035.
07:05So it's valid up to 2035.
07:06So it gives a vision of like the population bulge and the land use in Sirinagar or in Jumu during
07:15this period.
07:16For 20 years.
07:18And master plan can be revised after 10 years.
07:22Okay.
07:22After 10 years you can even reframe the policies of the master plan.
07:27So master plan can be revised after every 10 years.
07:29So how does it actually contradict the master plan, the ease of doing business?
07:35Since I've explained that master plan is a document which is prepared after due public participation.
07:40Ease of doing business is an act.
07:42Okay.
07:43Where there was no participation of the public.
07:45Okay.
07:45People were, we came to know of the ease of doing business only through papers.
07:49And there were people who were not consulted.
07:51Maybe industries were consulted.
07:54But in a city what has to be the denominator for any kind of development has to be the citizen.
08:00If the citizen does not participate in the preparation of any act which affects actually their growth,
08:07the living conditions, how can you see that that should be there to compromise on the master plan
08:13which is prepared after the, after due participation of the public.
08:16So this, this bill which was passed by the assembly and is, and has got the, not from the lectern
08:22governor also.
08:24So it's going to be a law now.
08:26It was not, there was no consultation with the public over this important act.
08:32As far as I know I don't think there was any participation of the public.
08:35Nobody was invited to say anything on the, I don't think whether the department, departments will, the stakeholder departments,
08:43like housing and urban development and many other departments, forest department, and other agriculture department,
08:50have they been consulted?
08:51I don't know.
08:52I don't even know that, whether they have been consulted or not.
08:54Because it is directly affecting housing and urban development department, agriculture department, forest department,
09:01many other departments.
09:02So that has to be seen whether that, even the stakeholder departments were consulted or not.
09:08But the, I think the public participation was not there at all.
09:10So, there is one, like I was going through this document.
09:14So, there is like a, commercial, that the, land, land change can be done now.
09:21Like the commercial, the commercial structures can come up on agriculture or horticulture land.
09:27Is, madame, how will it affect Jomalayan Kashmir?
09:29What, what was the policy till now?
09:31The good thing about master plans is that you determine the infrastructure requirements.
09:36for whatever proposals you have about density, population distribution.
09:40So, you work out infrastructure requirements.
09:43The roads, the water supply, the sewerage, all infrastructure requirements are worked out,
09:50based on your proposals of the distribution of the population, industries, and all other activities.
09:57How, what happens if you, if you randomly allow, if you randomly allow the conversion of land use?
10:04Where will the infrastructure come?
10:07And then another thing which has to be seen in perspective is the fact that,
10:12it's not one enterprise which will ask for the change of land use.
10:17Or for the, for the, approval of his proposal.
10:22There will be cumulative proposals which will come to the department.
10:26What will cumulatively happen to this city, that should be the area of concern.
10:30Not that one enterprise comes and gets a, gets a deemed permission or whatever.
10:34It is n number of enterprises that will come.
10:38And you are going to create serious urban development crisis in the city.
10:43Which has not been conceived at all.
10:46Conversion of land, we were talking about conversion of land.
10:48That commercial land, that these agriculture or horticulture land can be converted.
10:52Now there can be construction, whether you can construct residential or commercial,
10:56whether, whether, whether a businessman can construct an industrial area,
11:01industrial estate, or set up a factory there.
11:04Is it provision?
11:05Under the, is it provision?
11:19So in the local area, that's not a CSU because it's already been done.
11:23Because the JNK development act says, there's the master plan given in the,
11:27the land use given in the master plan is the master plan,
11:30is the land use which will prevail.
11:32So that is, that is gone.
11:33But what happens in the areas which fall within,
11:36which are on the periphery of a local area or between local areas?
11:39They will see huge conversions of land use which will actually lead to a lot of infrastructure deficit,
11:48chaos, traffic congestion and other things.
11:51So you mean to say that a master plan will be there,
11:54so that will be the guiding document for the, for ease of doing business also?
11:58No.
11:59Under section 22, you can actually relax the conditions of a master plan in EODB,
12:05ease of doing business.
12:06There are, under section 22, I think there are many contradictions,
12:10under section subclass 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
12:13Each class contradicts the other class.
12:15So yeah, government will have to seriously think about internal contradictions
12:18and can, should a government relax the land use which is given in the master plan
12:26through a committee?
12:27Is that sustainable?
12:29And under, what are the standards or guidelines under which they will change the land use?
12:33There are no standards set in the, in the, in these EODB, in the EODB Act.
12:39For example, if we take the case of these two cities, Jomu as well as Srinagar,
12:45both the topography and the geography are, of the region is completely different.
12:49So, but the laws are same for both cities.
12:54How do, how do you justify this?
12:57Actually, the, you have to nuance the master plan as per the requirements of a city.
13:03Srinagar has its own master plan, Jomu has its own master plan.
13:06Unified building bylaws, there was a requirement under BRAB, Business Reform Action Plan,
13:13to have a uniform kind of building bylaws for states.
13:18That was a, that was a requirement under the Business Reform Action Plan.
13:21But what we did in the state, what we did was that we actually said that these are the,
13:28this is the set of unified building bylaws.
13:30It was not notified by Housing and Urban Development Department.
13:33All the local authorities and local bodies were asked, asked to adopt these with, with all
13:42necessary revisions or changes which they deemed fit.
13:45So, these low, these building bylaws could have been modified by the individual authorities
13:50or the local bodies to suit the requirements.
13:53Because hilly towns will have different requirements than plain towns.
13:57So, these had to be nuanced as per the, as per the topography of a town or a state.
14:04We are already seeing a kind of a, like in 2014, that we saw a massive flood in Srinagar.
14:12It was unbelled for a long time.
14:15Right.
14:15And it caused massive, like, losses.
14:19So, do you see that whatever the chains are being made in the, in the building laws or
14:25in the master plans or the, or this, the recent, fresh, this piece of doing business.
14:31Will it affect Srinagar or the, or the, or this region in the future?
14:40Absolutely.
14:41There was a World Bank project which is called Jalim the Euphoric Recovery Project.
14:45In the project, lot of work was done on disaster risk database.
14:48They have literally created the disaster risk database at tahsil level.
14:56And they have also multi-hazard risk assessment has been done.
14:58So, you have disaster risk maps at tahsil level available with the Jalim the Euphoric Recovery Project.
15:05So, those maps should be used for the preparation of the master plan.
15:09So, that you actually built in the master plan process.
15:13The hazard, the exposure, and the vulnerability of the towns and cities.
15:18So, that could have been done.
15:20That has not been done till date.
15:22Because, I think the master plans for Juma and Srinagar were both notified before the JTFRP,
15:28these disaster risk databases have come into existence.
15:31So, now, in the master plan which are to be formulated, they should literally use all the data which is
15:37available with Jalim the Euphoric Recovery Project,
15:40so that you have risk-informed planning in the cities and the regions in Juma and Kashmir, which is now
15:47possible.
15:48So, but another thing is that while you are doing the master plan, in the master plan preparation process,
15:53you have land suitability analysis.
15:55You exclude the areas which are hazard prone.
15:58You exclude the areas which are wetlands and which have real value for the sustenance of a city.
16:06So, for example, the flood absorption basin in the Naugam area had to be excluded.
16:12And wetlands in the whole city of Srinagar had to be excluded from any kind of urban development.
16:18And buffers were created for the preservation of these wetlands and the flood absorption basin.
16:25So, the master plan process, it sort of takes into account all the hazards and other things.
16:29Srinagar has faced 2005 serious earthquake and then 2014 floods.
16:36Yes.
16:36So, these EODB, the act has to be seen, keeping that in background.
16:41I think that should be kept in foreground to analyse the EODB and then see what are the serious consequences
16:49which can actually come out of this act.
16:51So, you mean to say that this region can't be compared with the other state in terms of these vulnerabilities?
16:59JNK cannot be compared to any other state.
17:02Even Srinagar cannot be compared to Jomu.
17:04Andhanda cannot be compared to Srinagar or Andhanda cannot be compared to Barambulla.
17:08So, every city has its own nuances, it has its own system of sustenance and development.
17:15So, that has to be taken, it has its own topography.
17:17Srinagar has different topography, Sopor has different topography, Jomu has different topography.
17:22You cannot compare Kashtuwar with Srinagar or Srinagar with Jomu.
17:25That cannot be done.
17:26Not to talk of comparing Srinagar or Jomu with any town in the country.
17:30So, you cannot do that.
17:32And you can check EODB of other states.
17:35Karnataka has EODB.
17:37Gujarat has EODB.
17:38Telangana has EODB.
17:40Puduchiri has EODB.
17:41Arunachal Pradesh has EODB.
17:43What they have done, they have actually reduced the friction in the procedures.
17:47Okay.
17:48So that the permissions are granted as per the master plan.
17:51Okay.
17:51Not that you are actually departing from the master plan.
17:54Okay.
17:55These are doing business which actually helps in departure from the master plan will have serious and disastrous consequences for
18:02any city.
18:02That is what the Jomu and Kashmi government has done here.
18:05That is what I foresee that this will have serious implications.
18:10I again reiterate, no dispute about EODB.
18:14Make the permissions available to the businesses in 15 days.
18:18Okay.
18:18It doesn't matter.
18:19But don't compromise on the integrity of the master plans and urban development acts.
18:24That should be the bottom line.
18:26See, we have not also changed the, like, there are also relaxations given in the new law about the size
18:32of the buildings or the number of floors you are going to raise from the ground.
18:38Absolutely.
18:38So, this was earlier, there used to be law used to be like 2 plus 1.
18:42Absolutely.
18:43Yeah.
18:43So, how is it going to make a difference now?
18:46See, two, three things have to be understood.
18:49One, the land use.
18:51Yeah.
18:52Master plan gives the land use now because the development controls are given by the building bylaws.
18:56Okay.
18:57So, what has happened in the schedules?
19:01One is the, in principle, disagreement with provision 22 and other provisions of that.
19:06Okay.
19:07Another is the schedules.
19:08The schedules, second, third, fourth and fifth, all the schedules will have, I cannot even imagine what kind of disaster
19:18they are going to create.
19:19For example, you can create 8 story building in a parcel.
19:25Okay.
19:26With no setbacks.
19:28100% ground coverage.
19:29Okay.
19:30So, you can fully cover the plot side.
19:33For example, you have a canal of land.
19:35You can create 5,440 SFT building in your plot with 8 stories.
19:45And imagine if this happens to 100 plots adjacent to each other.
19:50Okay.
19:50What will be the result?
19:52It will create conditions.
19:53It will be, there will be serious consequences in terms of public safety, infrastructure.
19:58What happens to when, if these buildings are created in waterlogged areas.
20:03If you create these buildings in waterlogged areas, waterlogged areas in a, in a seismic condition,
20:09in an earthquake, behave like water.
20:12Waterlogged areas behave like water.
20:14So, 8 story buildings will be floating in water.
20:18Okay.
20:18You can see what will be the thrust of the horizontal forces, everything will be gone.
20:22So, these, this act has serious consequences in terms of the development controls, in terms of the change of land
20:32use,
20:32in terms of whatever you can conceive in an urban area.
20:35And, you will actually be multiplying the kind of vulnerability to this team.
20:41Okay.
20:42And, so how are you dealing with it?
20:44What's the GCC's plan, because you are part of that?
20:47The first, first, first step was to make public aware that what are the possible consequences of that.
20:55Again reiterating that we are not against the, in principle we are not against EODB.
20:59But, EODB has to be EODB.
21:01It can, it cannot be a departure from the statutory master plans, statutory acts.
21:07So, statutory acts will remain.
21:09You can still foresee a situation where the permissions for business are given in 15 days.
21:15But again, if you want to give permissions in very short periods of time, then you have to strengthen the
21:21institutions which give permissions.
21:23How many town planners do you have in the municipality, Senegal Municipal Corporation?
21:28How many qualified town planners do you have anywhere in the country?
21:31How many town planners do you have in the towns?
21:34Do towns or districts have town planners?
21:37If you don't have town planners, you are actually putting a card before the house.
21:41You don't have the institutional strength to deal with the permissions.
21:45What you are trying to do or you are trying to bypass the institutions and your permissions without considering the
21:51vulnerability and other things which are critical to this state.
21:55You are referring to third party, like third party, these consultants or the technicians, these experts who will be like
22:05certifying whether you agree to this norm or not.
22:11For the proposals which are low risk, there can be third party approvals and third party approvals will have to
22:21be verified by somebody in the system.
22:23So, there have to be town planners in the system which will actually verify the permissions given by the third
22:29party or self-certified permissions.
22:31And then another is that since we are in the zone 5, in the national building code, in the seismic
22:40map of the country.
22:42If you are in the zone 5, who will take care of the high rise buildings and tall buildings?
22:47Structural safety of high rise buildings and tall buildings.
22:50What happens to fire safety?
22:52What happens to electoral safety?
22:54There are so many concerns which actually come out of these EODBs.
22:59So, you are actually creating a new regime of permissions besides the normal regime of permissions in the housing and
23:08urban development.
23:09So, new regime is that you can create 8-storey building with 100% ground coverage with no limit on
23:15FAR.
23:16Whether your firefighting system is adequate in the towns to handle this kind of 8-storey building.
23:24So, that has to be seen by the government.
23:28And what is your next step over on this?
23:32The first step was to sort of make people aware that this act has serious consequences.
23:37So, the government must review and reconsider it and bring it in a different form or revise the portions which
23:44have serious consequences for the sustenance and long term sustainability of the city.
23:50Srinagar is one of the oldest cities in North India.
23:53I don't think any city is older than you.
23:55You can see the layers of Srinagar even in 325 BC.
24:00The layer of Srinagar that was there in 325 BC, you can still see it.
24:05So, Srinagar has recorded history which is still there.
24:08It is preserved in the layers of the city.
24:11So, you cannot compromise on this city, on a historic city like Srinagar, without considering the consequences or repercussions of
24:18what actions you are taking.
24:22So, this was Srinagar Hakeem.
24:25So, who explained to us the ease of doing business law that was brought by Chief Mr.
24:30Member Obrutal Laid Kamen in the Legislative Assembly during the Autumn session recently.