Bhopal: The template is half empty

It is something the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh has been struggling with for 15 years. Bhopal, the hill-ringed state capital that was once known as one of India’s greenest cities, has witnessed the same unchecked boom that has bespoiled urban landscapes elsewhere. And if that cries out for a Master Plan—a grid of rules to tame the metastasising concrete—the failure to notify one has not shown the government in a flattering light. In June, hope sprang anew as the Shivraj dispensation initiated the process of bringing in a plan, but even this might turn out to be a false dawn. Sceptics feel the plan may not go through in the shape envisaged now. Reason: some of its provisions ruffle the feathers of the state’s rich and powerful.