Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy has come to the rescue of NGOs in the capital, who were being sealed out by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The minister asked the NGOs to suggest some norms and criteria that can provide the basis for regularisation of NGO activity in residential and mixed-land use areas. Following the meeting with the minister last week, the NGOs have submitted a note to the ministry.
At least 12 NGOs in the South Delhi district have been sealed so far. These include the Wildlife Trust of India and SOS Villages of India.
The move started after the Master Plan 2021 was notified and an interim order to spare NGOs became ineffective. The Delhi Master plan does not have any room for NGOs. Hence, they had approached the Supreme Court last week.
However, the court did not give an interim stay order on the drive and the hearing was posted for July.
The NGOs, about 50 of them, subsequently rushed to the ministry seeking relief as more closures were feared before the next hearing.
A representative of NGO Jagori, which is coordinating the NGO effort, said the challenge now was to make norms as inclusive as possible, while drawing validation from the standards laid down in the Master Plan.
Several parameters were mentioned in the meeting of the NGOs with the minister as possible considerations in defining this boundary "" total budget, total number of employees, area occupied and nature of activities.
The proposed norms for NGOs include expansion of the definition of professional activity to cover NGOs in the list of permitted activities. It suggests that planning for NGOs follow s the model for informal trade. It also suggests making optimum use of government space to accommodate NGOs as they are often the implementing agencies for various government programmes.
The note to the ministry says that NGOs have been mentioned at different places in the Draft Master Plan 2021, whether as NGOs, charitable organisations, voluntary agencies or non-profit organisations.
The note says night shelters could be run by voluntary agencies, health facilities should be permitted to be run by charitable institutions, educational facilities, and other social welfare activities are entrusted to NGOs, it says.
MCD, which is sealing the NGOs, is providing financial and technical support for local composting projects implemented by NGOs at the neighbourhood level and thus there is an implicit acceptance of the role of NGOs (charitable institutions, voluntary agencies, community groups) in the master Plan.
