THE emergency tag attached to the rehabilitation exercise notched up yet another 'victim' when renowned architect Laurie Baker, who was designing Banegaon in the Latur district as a village which would conform entirely with the requirements of the villagers, resigned in mid-April due to authoritarian pressure to switch to the "modern style" of construction.

Sources in Malayalam Manorama, the donor agency which had engaged Baker, said that his departure is the fallout of the pressure that was being applied by the government of Maharashtra to finish off the construction of the houses at the earliest. A member of Baker's team in Latur told Down to Earth that "there is a difference between relief and rehabilitation. Relief is immediate but rehabilitation is a slow process because it incorporates many factors. But the politicians, with their eyes trained on the elections, and the donor led by the prestige factor, have put paid to one of the very few villages that would have been suitable for the villagers.

"Laurie Baker was attempting to design each house according to the requirements of the future occupants right from the day that the Oxfam (India) trust asked him to visit some villages following the earthquake. That is why the programme was getting delayed. But during the past 2 months, there was pressure to switch to the 'modern style' and material."

Baker had, in fact, worked through and scrapped 27 architectural plans for Banegaon. Unfortunately, both the government and the donors are subject to the tyranny of deadlines, which is why Baker had to go. The completed villages are likely to be handed over to the people on May 3, in a ceremony to be attended by the bigwigs of the Maharashtra Congress party.