Environmentalists unhappy with land pooling

Policy recognises 89 villages as urban areas, opening them to infrastructure development by the authorities.

India’s share in global suicide deaths, prevalence of ischemic heart disease and stroke, and chronic obstructive lung disease cases have increased between 1990 and 2016, said the papers released by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The data was released on Wednesday by the India State-level Disease Burden Initiative, a joint study of ICMR, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and other institutes in collaboration with Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The paper brought to light some shocking revelations, one of them being that 37% of suicide deaths among women globally, occur in India, while the suicide rate among the elderly has increased over the past quarter century. The papers showed that suicide is also the leading cause of death in the 15-39 years age group in India.

“India’s contribution to global suicide deaths increased from 25.3% in 1990 to 36.6% in 2016 among women, and from 18.7% to 24.3% among men,” stated the papers.

Interacting with the media, Dr Rakhi Dandona of PHFI said, “I was surprised to find the number of suicide deaths among women so up. The rate is twice the over average standard. India comes at the sixth position globally.”

“Personal or social factors such as socio-economic circumstances, interpersonal, social and cultural conflicts, alcoholism, financial problems, unemployment and poor health are known as major reasons for suicide in India for both men and women,” stated the papers.

Cancer is another health hazard which is a concern among the doctors in India. “One reason is the lack of awareness among the people about the disease,” said Dr Prashant Mathur of ICMR.According to the papers, the proportional contribution of cancers to the total health loss in India has doubled from 1990 to 2016. However, the incidence of different types of cancers varies widely between the states.

“All cancers together contributed 5.09% of the total disabilityadjusted life years (DALYs) and 8.3% of the total deaths in India in 2016,” revealed the papers.

The death rate due to cancer has increase 90.0% and 112.8% respectively since 1990. The highest crude cancer DALY rates in 2016 were found in the states of Mizoram, Kerala, Assam, Haryana and Meghalaya.

The leading types of cancer responsible for more than 5% deaths due to the disease, among both the sexes, are stomach cancer (9.0%), breast cancer (8.2%), lung cancer (7.5%), lip and oral cavity cancer (7.2%), cervical cancer (5.2%).

“Tobacco use was the leading risk factor for cancers in India to which the highest proportion (10.9%) of cancer DALYs could be attributed in 2016,” said the reports. Pollution was also stated as one of the major factors for lung related cancers.

An interesting fact also emerged during the conference, where the newly-appointed Director-General of ICMR and a cardiologist at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Balram Bhargava revealed that Mahatma Gandhi had high blood pressure.

“The Mahatma had hypertension and was on treatment. We will publish tables to show how doctors managed his blood pressure,” said Bhargava.

Full details of Gandhiji’s blood pressure records will soon be made public by ICMR. The data records are being released by the Ministry of Health as part its efforts to mark Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.

Piece on Gandhi’s history as a hypertensive is being published to make people aware that this is an old disease and is can be managed now, explained Bhargava. He added that by bringing this to their attention, they will try and help people to take low-salt diet to fend the disease. Gallons of sewage emanating from Delhi’s industries and human habitats are rapidly turning the Yamuna into a drain, say environmentalists and conservationists.

Selvarajan, a noted environmentalist and promoter of Green Circle, a Delhi-based NGO, told The Sunday Guardian. “Every day, Delhi’s industries and human habitats add up to 850 million gallons of sewage into Yamuna though its 22 big drainage outlets spread across the capital.”

According to the findings of a research conducted by Selvarajan and his organisation Green Circle, almost 80% of the entire Yamuna’s pollution is happening within the 22 km stretch of the total length of the river which is With Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal’s approval of the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) land pooling policy (LPP), developers and those linked to the infrastructure sector are happy, but environmentalists are crying foul as they say that the policy would “kill the villages” on the outer margins of the capital, as the policy bestows the urban tag on 89 villages. Baijal is also the chairman of the DDA.

Following the LG’s approval of the policy, the Urban Development Department of the Delhi government issued a notification declaring 89 vil- lages as urban areas.

The notification has great impact on the demography of Delhi and, as per experts, it will help the authorities develop infrastructure projects in those localities. The LPP bestows the urban tag on 89 villages, including Salahpur Majra, Neelwal, Goela Khurd, Bakkarwala, Sultanpur Dabas, Bazidpur Takran, Mukhmelpur, Neb Sarai, and Baprola, among others.

After the policy’s approval, the Delhi government will not have to purchase land from the DDA for developing infrastructure. Under the policy, the Delhi government will pool the land from the owners in these villages and hand it over to the DDA. Further, the DDA will develop public infrastructure on the pooled land and will return a substantial portion of the plot to the owners.

Developing infrastructure is needed, but the bone of contention arises due to the DDA’s proposed plan of constructing 17 lakh houses for almost 76 lakh people on the pooled land.

According to sources close to the DDA, the DDA has already sent a proposal to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for building 17 lakh houses in these 89 villages. A source said: “A plan outlay for the construction of 17 lakh houses has been already made and sent to the Ministry of Housing and Ur- ban Affairs for its nod. Once the DDA receives the green light of the Ministry, it will go ahead for implementation of the plan.”

However, environmentalists are unhappy with several provisions of the policy and they say that the government plans to create a new city within these villages that will be similar to Hyderabad in terms of population. As per the 2011 Census, the population of Hyderabad is 60 lakh.

Selvarajan, a Delhi-based environmentalist, said:“The recently adopted land pooling policy by the Delhi government might prove to be fatal for the villages situated on the outskirts of the capital. These villages are already facing ex- tinction and would soon turn into concrete jungles.”

“I have been living in Delhi from 1993 onwards and I am witness to the population pressure in Delhi in the last two decades in particular. There are about 125 villages in Delhi-NCR with less than 1,000 people each. These villages are slowly losing their characteristics with the ever-changing preference for urban comforts among the village population,” he said.

After bestowing the urban tag on 89 villages, the number of villages in Delhi has reduced to 36. As per the Delhi demographic profile report 2012-13, till the 1980s, the capital had almost 350 villages.

Various studies indicate that the moisture level in air gets absorbed due to construction activities. The heat generated gets trapped in the air, thus raising the mercury level by 3-5 degrees .Increased heat raises the demand for more energy in the form of refrigeration and air conditioning and the increased energy demands pumps more pollution in the air.

According to the demographic profile report of Delhi, the breakup of the land use of 1,483 sq km of the Delhi-NCT area reveals that in 1991, the urban versus rural share of land area was 46% and 54%, whereas in 2011, it stood at 75% and 25% respectively.