Articles by J B D Souza

Irrelevance of Planners and Their Plans J B D'Souza Is Bombay's second Development Plan needed? Is it relevant to Bombay's needs? Would the city be better off with no Development Plan, but only a set of building rules? Does it make sense to adopt a plan for a period of which half has already elapsed?

Obsolescence in Bombay's Housing Stock J B D'Souza THIS paper is a brief account of the obsolescence of the housing stock in Bombay and a description of the efforts made in the last decade or so to arrest it. A rough evaluation of those efforts will be attempted, with a view to their repetition elsewhere.

The Indian City: Poverty, Ecology and Urban Development ed Alfred de Souza; Manohar Publications, 1978; pp xxxi + 243, Rs 55.
THIS small book contains eleven penetrating studies of the Indian urban scene in its most striking aspect; pervasive povetry. Recent years have brought mounting concern over the declining quality of life, the hazards of industrial pollution, the transportation problem and the chaotic traffic conditions, as well as the law and order situation in our cities, and much has been written on one or the other of these undoubtedly grave issues. But till I got 'The Indian City" I had yet to see a book that deals so sensibly with the central problem which generates most others in our cities, the problems of the poor, and the gross inefficiencies and inequities that characterise urbanisation.