Citizen Participation in Planning the City
A very significant paradigm shift is required in India if Citizen Participation is going to be a meaningful exercise in urban planning! And why not? After all, the city is for the people and they are the major stakeholders in expressing and planning for what they want from their neighborhoods. This movement of involving citizens in key and traditionally governed areas like Urban Planning saw a basic shift in western countries in the 1980s and gained strength in the 1990s. Starting from sharing of information to seeking opinion, then stakeholder participation to citizen empowerment has been a journey that has shifted the way city planning happens. Here the mayor and the elected representatives actually play a very key role in giving voice to the citizens, their concerns and opinions. However, for Indian cities to see this shift, we will need a major overhaul of the Development Planning process. In Maharashtra, the urban planning is governed by the Maharashtra Regional and To...