Ghulam Hassan Mir, Town Planner, Srinagar Development Authority has been deputed to Srinagar Municipal Corporation as Joint Commissioner (Planning), the post which was lying vacant from last more than six months.
Mir has two decades of experience in town planning wing of SDA which specifically dealt with master plan local area including SMC and LAWDA jurisdiction. Being a Ford Foundation Fellow, he pursued Master of City Planning (on study leave without pay) from Bloustein School of Urban Planning and Public Policy (among top 5 of urban planning & policy development institutes in America), RUTGERS University, USA.
In addition, he has a background education in architecture, public administration, urban sociology, disaster management and environmental sustainable development. Mir has participated in various national and international conferences, seminars/workshops and in 2015 was selected as Senior Urban Planner by International Society of City Planners to work on UN-Habitat/UNDP sponsored project in West Bank, Palestine/Israel. He has visited major cities in India, USA, Palestine and Italy apart from Toronto, Seoul, Bangkok. He is a well-known prolific opinion writer with progressive and pragmatic approach towards urban ecology/ environment/climate change and urban disaster resilience which in the long run would add value to SMC as Srinagar is set to be developed as a smart city. His articles have been published in NAGAR LOK (Urban Affairs quarterly of Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi) and “PLAN” Magazine in Netherlands.
Although, the main job of Joint Commissioner (Planning) is to issue building permits in SMC jurisdiction but Mir’s international education, expertise and experience would be helpful in creating a bridge between urban planning and public health in order to improve physical quality of life. Initially Mir had a passion for heritage conservation in 90s thereby pioneering the concept of architectural heritage in the state and subsequently after joining SDA was able to promote the concept at official level in the city’s two authorities (SDA/SMC).
However, he shifted focus to advocate disaster preparedness in the J&K state after the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake and wrote extensively on pre-disaster earthquake preparedness. Mir would often call himself a People’s Planner in view of his city cum citizen-centric approach towards urban problems and their mitigation through transparency and right to develop because of being conscious of basic human rights, natural and socio-spatial justice. Prior to joining SDA, Mir has worked with international eminent Architects- Hafeez Contractor of Bombay and Karan Grover of Gujarat, taught architecture in a private polytechnic and disaster management in Central university, Kashmir (before flood-2014). His life-long learning attitude and as a resource person with comprehensive but integrated education/experience gives him a cutting edge.
Presently his new mantra is to narrow the gap between urban development & Public health so that livable, user-friendly/citizen centric, technology oriented, disaster free, ecologically sustainable E-Srinagar cityis created through e-governance, e-business and eco-tourism. He believes that city is the key to sustainable economic growth and job creation and city authorities need to be inclusive, self-financing and environmentally conscious so that Human Development Index gets better rating in this part of the world. Srinagar must get ready to collaborate with other cities across India and globe through linkages that help in learning best practices and adapting suitable & feasible techniques/skills and technology.
SMC needs to adopt ward-wise planning & development approach through community participation of stakeholders including Corporaters/legislators, government officials, civil society, NGOs, subject expert groups, students, youth etc.
The community participation without women and marginal groups, vulnerable sections including poor, physically challenged persons and informal sector would be incomplete. (KNS