The news item was so small that it passed everyone by. And yet it has massive ramifications especially for a congested city like Madras that is Chennai. We allude to the latest amendments to the Open Space Reservation (OSR) policy of the Government. It is yet another indicator of the insidious manner in which the real estate lobby works hand in glove with the bureaucracy and the political leadership.
OSR rules have been an integral part of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971. As per this, developers need to set aside ten per cent of the land in development projects exceeding 3,000 sq mts (32,000 sq ft) in size. These were to be gifted to the local authority for communal and recreational purposes with a view to maintaining greenery in the area. All very noble and highly laudatory no doubt. But mark the way these provisions have been steadily whittled down to a point where the very concept of OSR has come to mean nothing.
Initially it was mandated that the ten per cent land had to be one contiguous patch but later this was left to the discretion of the local authority, as many properties could not offer this owing to constraints of plot contours and demands of effective planning. But who was to decide whether this was really so? In reality, many builders began randomly earmarking small pockets here and there along the periphery of their plots to comply with the ten per cent. This was so even by those who could offer a single patch of land. This fractioning of the OSR rendered it meaningless when it came to considerations of offering it for public recreation. There was another way out too – in cases where no OSR was possible, the builder could pay the local authority a compensation and be rid of the problem once and for all.
There then came another amendment to the effect that the land earmarked as OSR need not be given to the local authority. It could be maintained by the developer and all that was required was that there ought to be signboards declaring that the land was indeed OSR. In effect therefore, the builder retained control of the OSR. This could over time morph into servants’ quarters, a generator room or even a private play area and no action would be taken. However, if and when the local authority needed the OSR, it could reclaim it.
But there was worse to follow. The law very clearly stipulated that the parcel of land offered as OSR should be contiguous to a public road so that the public could access the space when needed. The idea behind this was that the OSR land could be used as a public playground or a park. Now as per the latest amendments this has been declared optional. In other words, the OSR need not be near a public road and can be anywhere within the plot as long as it can be accessed by the general public. The naivete behind this amendment is simply stunning. We live in a city where even footpaths are enclosed by the owners of nearby houses and converted into private spaces. What are we to say about large builders who do the same with the OSR that they have ostensibly offered to the local authority?
In effect, what we have today is a toothless OSR legislation that has pleased the real estate lobby no end. The general public, which has learnt to manage with less and less public space, is hardly likely to notice. As for the Government, all is perfect on paper anway!