Chandigarh Ahmedabad – Le Corbusier - Vereniging van ...

detrimental to their own well-being.
Over the years, the Chandigarh Administration has been tackling the problem of squatter settlements. Since
1975, the chandigarh Housing Board has taken up schemes which have resettled 14,619 families. Low-cost
housing has been created for many thousands of people. Initially, the Chandigarh Housing Board constructed
resettlement colonies consisting of one-room tenements The most recent approach has been to mark out
plinth areas on developed land (in situ resettlement) and allow the people to create their own homes. The
Ambedkar Awas Yojana is also being implemented in Chandigarh. This scheme provides funds to the
Chandigarh Housing Board which constructs one-room dwellings and allots them to Scheduled Caste and
Backward Class persons. The Administration's plans are targeted at some 20,000 families living in huts.
The Administration's resettlement schemes have attracted criticism on the grounds that, by their liberality, they
have attracted squatters to the city. It is alleged that a man comes and builds his hut on the periphery of the
city because he knows there is a very good chance that the Administration will resettle him in better conditions
-- perhaps in a clean, dry, cement-roofed house with electricity and running water -- and then, if he is in dire
need of money, he can sell this better house, use the cash, build another hut and wait for the next
resettlement scheme. Against this, it is argued that such squatter population of persons who cannot afford to
own urban property (even , in some cases, if it is given to them) is inevitably a part of the urban population of
all major cities; that resettlement, including in situ resettlement, can improve the quality of urban life despite
the criticism made.
The last census of persons residing in squatter settlements was conducted in 1991. At that time 9.08 per cent
of the city's population lived in huts. (19,210 huts at that time and a total population of 96,050) The percentage
has probably grown much higher over the past six years. Professor Gopal Krishan, who conducted the survey
estimated that but for the Administration's rehabilitation schemes the percentage would have been about 18
per cent. Krishan projects a squatter population of nearly 13 per cent by the year 2000, rising to 17.25 per
cent in 2010 and 21.55 per cent by 2020. His projection may have been optimistic, and the squatter population
of Chandigarh may already by close to the national average of 21 per cent of urban population. The search for
a humane, and affordable and cheat-proof, solution to the problem of labour colonies grows more urgent.
Several villages were allowed to remain in the southern area of the city. As development of the sectors has
progressed, these villages have been engulfed by the city. The villages are exempted from architectural and
sanitation controls. The sectors are a ready market for milk with the result that the cattle population of these
villages has grown although the villages have no grazing land left, nor any space for keeping cowdung or
cattle-feed. Many of the original inhabitants have divided and redivided the compounds of their homes and
rented out to labourers. Population density in these villages is now extremely high, while water, electricity,
sanitation and other services for this population remain grossly inadequate. In some village areas one also
sees a boom in construction of commercial premises. In the absence of strict regulation, many of these new
buildings may be highly unsafe. In short, the "engulfed villages" constitute a problem -- or possibly an
opportunity to add traditional flavour to the rigid recipe of Le Corbusier's Chandigarh. One of the most
fashionable areas in Delhi is one such "engulfed village" -- preserved in all its traditional charm but made
clean and inviting to both shoppers and tourists. It has been suggested that a similar role might be found for
Chandigarh's villages though the issue is open to debate.
CHANGES IN LAND USE
Labourers are not the only people who put areas to unauthorised use. Many people residing in the sectors
have knocked down back walls and created small shops in a portion of their homes. Land use is informally
changed from residential to semi-commercial. This has its effect on services, quality of life, the city's economy
and land prices.
City planners know that as towns evolve there is a tendency for land use to change from predominantly
residential to predominantly commercial. In severe forms this is "inner city decay" with all its attendant ills of
congestion, neglect, high crime rate, falling property values and so on. Some planners suggest that
Chandigarh might permit mixed land use with strict conditions on parking and unauthorised construction
thereafter.
Even in purely residential neighborhoods, one may see an increase in population density as the grandchildren
and great grandchildren of original occupants demand space for their families on the same property. At
present the law prohibits sub-division of plots but families may find a way to get around this. They may rebuild
or remodel existing homes so as to create flats, thereby increasing population density.
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