‘Lutyens’ Delhi is a parasite urban space’

New Delhi: An environmentalist on Thursday dubbed the Lutyens’ Delhi a “parasite” urban space, alleging the bungalow zone, housing the “rich” and the influential, “draws more water” and jettisons its waste outside the prime land.

“I know the garbage figure and the pollution figure (for Delhi). The liveability index of the city is going down. The richer the city, the less liveable it is becoming in terms of health indicators and liveability, which you would define as a quality of life in a city," Ms Narain, director-general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said, while speaking during an interactive session. The session was tilted ‘Citification of Bharat: Emerging nightmares or exciting opportunities’. Union urban affairs minister Hardeep Puri was also present at the session.

She also claimed that the clean and green space of Lutyen’s Delhi has become a “parasite” urban space, drawing more water and not dealing with waste properly.

The posh Lutyen’s Delhi houses the influential and the rich and Ms Narain added that it “draws more water” and jettisons its waste outside the land.

She said that there was a need to have a discussion on the “form of urban governance” the city required.

She said that compared to some of the best urban zones in the western world, Lutyen’s Delhi has also insulated its residents from realising the “urban mess” that the city of Delhi or any other part of India is in.

“So, if one talks of Lutyens’ Delhi, it has a huge amount of land yet it doesn’t deal with its waste, which goes to Okhla (landfill site). It draws more water per capita than any other part of the city,” Ms Narain said.

“It is so green, so clean, no one who is living here believes that the capital or any other part of India is in the urban mess that we are in.