Abstract

On 20 August 2021, a single window at the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) headquarters, allocated for citizens’ objections and suggestions to Delhi’s draft Master Plan 2041, was extended into multiple desks outside the building. Spilling out onto the steps leading up from the pavement where people had gathered, officials scrambled to accommodate sheaves of handwritten objections brought in for submission in person. These were written in response to the release of Delhi’s draft Master Plan (see the box below) for public comment in early June 2021. This was initially for a period of 45 days and was later extended by a month. The official channel was an ‘invited’ space of participation (Miraftab 2004) for citizen responses to the draft plan through a portal on the DDA’s website. In contrast to very few suggestions being filed through the online portal, which was inaccessible to most, a citizens’ campaign named Main Bhi Dilli (MBD) mobilised the submission of physical letters of objections and suggestions. An unprecedented volume of over 20,000 objections was submitted in person on this day itself in an offline mode. While the outcomes of these are yet to be determined, the filing of objections in such a volume is arguably unprecedented in the planning process in Delhi, and a pertinent moment for the collective efforts of co-production of knowledge discussed in this chapter.