When development authorities become guest houses for political bigwigs

Thiruvananthapuram: The state government, which disbanded development authorities across the state in 2016, had spared TRIDA along with two other authorities, but, none of the officials are certain for how long. The long list of projects with ‘to be implemented’ status, deprivation of powers for spatial planning following decentralization and dwindling revenue have posed questions over the future of TRIDA.
The document on urban policy and action plan for Kerala prepared by department of town and country planning in 2002 notes that the urban local bodies were given the authority to formulate spatial plan and consequently development authority lost relevance.Authorities based in five small towns had been abolished during that period, the report points out.
Former chief town planner A Kasturirangan, who had fiercely opposed the continuance of development authorities as powers were devolved to local bodies, says that a development authority ought to function as the development agency of the local body, but the authority has seldom been able to do so. “Legally speaking, a non-democratic organization like a development authority is not essential in a system where almost all powers are enjoyed by local bodies, but, our LSGIs do not have the technical expertise for spatial planning, land pooling or to plan development for an area. That is where a development authority needs to act by transforming as a supportive technical body, but it’s been a while TRIDA lived up to that task,” said Kasturirangan.
As per the definitions regarding responsibilities of a development authority, it should envisage the pattern of development in an area. One strong argument in favour of need for a development authority is that a group of local bodies in the suburbs of an urban local body could be guided in terms of land development. However former chief secretary S M Vijayanand says that even the town planning Act has provisions for formation of a joint committee which can have members from various local bodies and oversee land development. “You don’t need a development authority for that. They have become become parallel bodies with nominated members which doesn’t gel with the spirit of local bodies,” said Vijayanand.
Officials point out that development authorities have become more like guest houses to accomodate politically important people and their definitive tasks are often forgotten. In case of TRIDA, despite the pressing needs for parking systems or road development, the authority has failed to take forward any of the projects. Projects like Attakulangara commercial complex, and revamp of Palayam had dragged on for years.
The state government was even forced to use the funds of LIFE housing mission to bail out TRIDA from revenue recovery proceedings as an amount close to Rs 9 crore had to be paid to HUDCO from cash-strapped LIFE mission.