A development authority has a statutory duty to develop open spaces as public parks and cannot amend the master plan to allow the use of such spaces for any other purpose.

( 1 ) THIS writ petition is an apt example as to how the statutory object to secure preservation of environment and development of the residential colonies shown in the master plan, sought 19 be achieved by the State of Uttar Pradesh under the U. P. Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973 (the Act briefly) is defeated by the authorities, who lack dynamism, aestheticism and enthusiasm for development, though assigned the developmental duties.

( 2 ) THE Act, as the preamble shows, was enacted to provide for the development of certain areas of Uttar Pradesh according to plan and for matters ancillary thereto. The growth in Uttar Pradesh before this enactment was quite haphazard and, therefore, the Government felt that in the developing areas of the State of Uttar Pradesh the problems of town planning and urban development need to be tackled resolutely. As existing local bodies and other authorities in spite of their best efforts were inadequate to cope with these problems to the desired extent, the State government in order to bring about improvement in the hopeless situation considered it advisable that in such developing areas Development Authorities patterned on the Delhi development Authority, which was then a model Authority, be established. This is how on the pattern of Delhi Development Authority, the Ghaziabad Development Authority (for short, the g. D. A. ), a statutory body, was set up under the Act, Section 7 of the Act, states that the object of the Authority shall be to promote and secure the development of the development area according to plan and for that purpose the Authority shall have the power to do all that what is necessary or expedient for the purpose of such development and for purpose incidental thereto. Section 8 (1)of the Act says that the Authority shall, as soon as may be, prepare a master plan for the development area, Section 8 (2) (a) mandates that the master plan shall define the various zones into which the development area may be divided for the purposes of development and indicate the manner in which the land in each zone is proposed to be used. Sub-section (3) of Section 8 states that the master plan may provide for any other matter which may be necessary for the proper development of the development area. Section 9 (1) enjoins upon the authority to proceed with the preparation of a zonal development plan for each of the zones into which the development area may be divided simultaneously with the preparation of the master plan or at the earliest thereafter. Section 9 (2) describes all that which a zonal development plan may contain. Every plan immediately after its preparation shall be submitted by the authority to the state Government for approval under Section 10 (2) and the concerned Government may either approve that with or without modification or reject the same directing the authorities to prepare a fresh plan.

( 3 ) IN exercise of such powers, the G. D. A. prepared a plan of sector Raj Nagar, Ghaziabad, a copy of which is placed on record as Annexure "1" to the writ petition. The said plan refers to proposed public buildings, residential houses and plots of land for the citizens amenities and civic amenities, open spaces including an open space, namely, Adu Park, earmarked for public park, a small plan of which is annexed to the writ petition as Annexure "1-A".

( 4 ) THE short grievance of the petitioners, who belong to the same locality where the open space, namely, Adu Park, as situated in Raj Nagar sector, is that though the said area was earmarked for being developed as a public park, but the G. D. A. has taken no steps so far whatsoever to develop the same as a public park. Not only that, the contention of the petitioners is that the respondents are marking time to carve out plots on such open space dedicated for public park in the plan and alienate the same with a view to earning huge profits. It is averred that the G. D. A. cannot alter the plan, duly approved by