Malegaon: Jagdeep DESAI, Architect and Academician, has authored a petition which has been published online on change.org by Manish Mishra, urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to create Indian Architectural Services "IArS" like IAS, IPS and IFS so that they can also contribute in nation building.
“The existing bureaucratic setup of the Indian Administrative Services is not in a position to give full justice to National Building codes, development control regulations and building by laws, etc. Hence, I would propose a new Indian Architecture Services and Indian Planning Services to give the nation some serious professional value addition", Desai wrote in the online petition started on change.org.
The petition has so far received about 4,000 signatures.
"Keeping in mind the Smart Cities Mission of the Government of India, it is imperative that Architects and Planners be included in the administrative positions and decision making process", he went on write.
Desai also proposed the government to introduce new mandatory positions, by appropriate statute in various capacities, with appropriate criteria, of experience, qualification and capabilities including Urban Local Bodies as Chief Architectand Deputy Architects like Chief Engineer and Deputy Engineer, District Architect, like District Magistrate and District Collector.
Stating that India still lives in her villages, Desai said, "In that sense, most of our development should focus on the rural areas, some thing to strengthen the Providing Urban Amenities for Rural Areas, PURA, the intitiative of former President APJ Abdul KALAM, where Architects can be very productive".
"Though ideally, there should be a fixed term of public service during college term, the internship could very well be a few weeks of hands on training in villages, this could be structured by the Council of Architecture, in the guidelines and norms for Architecture education, the small steps for the Barefoot Architect", he added.
According to Desai, there are around 50000 plus registered Architects in India, with around 16000 Bachelor of Architecture graduates coming out of colleges each year.