If that reads like a leaf from the doomsday book on an urban nightmare, it is chillingly close to the truth.

With the Union Urban Development Ministry going ahead with its decision to allow the construction of an additional floor in all residential areas, without having the corresponding civic infrastructure in place, the above problems may soon become a part of our lives, no matter which part of Delhi we reside in.

A public notice was issued by the ministry last month, inviting objections to its proposal. Once the notice period lapses on Tuesday, the government is likely to give a go ahead with the implementation of this controversial recommendation of the Vijay Kumar Malhotra Committee on building bye-laws.

Other sweeping changes, including the proposal to regularise 1,000 unauthorised colonies, have already been cleared by the ministry.Urban planners and concerned citizens apprehend that the development will unleash a fresh wave of construction activity, putting enormous pressure on the existing civic infrastructure.

An estimated two lakh dwelling units are likely to be added to the existing housing stock in the Capital, creating additional demand for basic amenities like water, electricity and sewerage. In the upmarket and even the typically middle class localities, more residential units would also lead to a greater demand for parking space.``Considering that the government has been finding it extremely difficult to provide all these facilities, what with the dharnas and protests about the water and power problem becoming routine, one may well imagine the situation when two lakh more families start sharing the same resources,'' says H.D. Shourie, director of Common Cause that takes up the public issues. The regularisation of unauthorised colonies too, he adds, would add to the chaos.Already, in colonies like Greater Kailash, Lajpat Nagar, Munirka, Friends Colony, Malviya Nagar, Nizamuddin -- to name just a few -- and even the trans-Yamuna localities, cars can be seen parked bumper to bumper on either side of the roads, creating congestion and traffic snarls. One more dwelling unit will add at least one car per household in these areas.

According to H.K. Yadava, former executive director of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO), since the roads cannot be widened any further, the extra vehicles too will spill onto the main roads, further adding to the chaos and congestion. Since the civic bodies just cannot replace the entire sewerage system, the pressure on the existing system, too, could result in its collapse.

Prof M.R. Agnihotri, former head of the department of architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) and Syed S. Shafi, former chief planner to the Government of India, too, had expressed similar concerns recently.

``Even in a posh colony like ours, we have had days without even a bucketful of water for taking a bath,'' says Mona Albuquerque, a social worker residing in Vasant Vihar, who is currently rallying public opinion against the impending notification. Inder Sharma of Sita World Travels in a letter to the Union Urban Development Minister Ram Jethmalani, has expressed similar apprehensions, like hundreds of others who are pledging their support to the Common Cause on the issue. Shourie is now planning to file a public interest petition in Delhi High Court against the move.

S.K. Sharma, former HUDCO chairman and the consultant with Development Alternatives, endorses the point, adding: ``There are better ways of augmenting the housing stock. The government still has hundreds of acres of undulating `gram sabha' land with it in various rural pockets that can be imaginatively used for housing, without actually spending any money on levelling it.

The en masse levelling of land and creating assembly like structure creates the problem of drainage. If the undulating land is better utilised, there would be no such problems, he adds. The experts are also demanding a stringent action against all those who have already built four to five stories, in a glaring violation of the building norms.

Vijay Kumar Malhotra, senior BJP leader and the author of the one-man committee report which recommended the move, feels elated at the development. He says: ``The demands have been pending for a long time and our party had promised to implement the recommendations in our manifesto.''Reacting to the apprehensions raised by the urban planners and citizens, he maintains that development charges would be levied on the house-owners and the funds thus raised would be kept in a separate account to be used for the augmentation of the civic infrastructure.

``Underground parkings and the replacing of smaller sewer pipes with the larger ones should take care of most of the problems. In any case, 90 per cent of the households have already built an unauthorised additional floor. The notification will only give the civic bodies a chance to recover development charges from these people,'' he assures.

But in a city where permission to build one floor is taken to imply the right to build another unauthorised floor, the argument holds little water.

Chief Minister when he strictly enforced the condition that the millers should obtain permission of the collectors before moving the stocks to other states.

Jaspal Singh has since disowned his statement, which he had made in the presence of a number of mediapersons. The BJP leadership also seems to be keen to bury the issue. ``The minister's explanation was satisfactory and the matter is closed'', said Sanjay Joshi, party general secretary, when asked what action was being contemplated against Singh.

At the Rajkot meeting, Singh warned the millers that he would initiate stern action against those indulging in hoarding and blackmarketing. ``I fail to understand why the groundnut oil price has kept on skyrocketing when groundnut production in the State has gone up from 24.5 lakh tonnes in the previous year to 26.6 lakh tonnes this year'', the minister told the oil millers.

Apparently, the minister seems to be unaware that production in certain other states hasn't been so good. Therefore, edible oil is in short supply in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The Gujarat millers have been taking advantage of this shortage. Last month, The Chief Minister wrote to the Centre, seeking duty exemption for import of edible oil to help Gujarat tide over the crisis. But there has been no response.