VMRDA including scheduled areas under its purview is illegal, says former bureaucrat
The Hindu
‘Some of the villages have already been proposed to be brought under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution’
The way in which VMRDA (Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority) proceeding to include scheduled areas in the district under its purview is illegal and unconstitutional, said former Union Energy Secretary E.A.S. Sarma here on Thursday.
He said that some of the villages have already been proposed to be brought under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution. He said the manner in which the VMRDA has been constituted, is violative of the provisions of Article 243ZE of the Constitution, as it has no representation from among the locally elected legislators. It should therefore be deemed to have no legal authority to take up regional planning exercises, he said.
Unfurling the zine handed to us at the start of the walk, we use brightly-coloured markers to draw squiggly cables across the page, starting from a sepia-toned vintage photograph of the telegraph office. Iz, who goes by the pronouns they/them, explains, “This building is still standing, though it shut down in 2013,” they say, pointing out that telegraphy, which started in Bengaluru in 1854, was an instrument of colonial power and control. “The British colonised lands via telegraph cables, something known as the All Red Line.”
The festival in Bengaluru is happening at various locations, including ATREE in Jakkur, Bangalore Creative Circus in Yeshwantpur, Courtyard Koota in Kengeri, and Medai the Stage in Koramangala. The festival will also take place in various cities across Karnataka including Tumakuru, Ramanagara, Mandya, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Hassan, Chitradurga, Davangere, Chamarajanagar and Mysuru.