Editorial
Reviewing DAP
The committee should get more time
NOT very long ago in these very columns we had called upon the caretaker government not to approve the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) before addressing all its flaws that had been pointed out by the experts from time to time.
We note that the CTG before its exit decided to form a review committee to go through the recommendations therein of the long term development of the capital and its surroundings, and recommend actions to rectify the faults that are in it. And needless to say there are a number of basic flaws that will render the plan totally counterproductive if it were to be implemented in its current form. The members and the head of the committee are reputable persons with expert knowledge whose suggestions we are certain would make the DAP more wholesome.
However, we suggest that the committee be provided more time than the one month that it has been given to come out with substantive suggestions to put right the flaws. We also expressed our concern that there has been an undue haste in seeing the plan passed. The plan has been in the works since 2004, and it can wait a few months more.
The authorities cannot overlook the fact that a common apprehension expressed as regards the plan is that it has taken the interest of the land developers and real estate agents into consideration more than that of the city dwellers as well as the environment.
As it is, the two things that themetropolis suffers from is the lack of open space for its residents and seasonal flooding caused by the filling up of the catchment areas surrounding the capital, by land grabbers and the so-called developers, mostly with the connivance of those that are supposed to prevent it happening. These concerns should find adequate reflections and responses in the DAP.
We would like to think that the committee will be provided adequate time to address all the inadequacies of the DAP.
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