Not yet bulldozed

The mafia that gave rise to illegal constructions by making false promises to a poor electorate needs to be cleaned up first

Sanjay Kapoor

Just at the turning of a road in south Delhi is a building that gives an impression as if a bomb mistakenly fell on it. The building was demolished as the builder, backed by some local politicians, besides ignoring the municipal authorities, foolishly antagonised the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) of the colony that seemed to be hurt by its construction. RWAs are usually run by zealous retired bureaucrats looking for opportunities to relive the clout of yester years and can present formidable opposition. The association managed to get a demolition order from the court and parts of the newly-constructed structure were methodically pulled down. It has been a year since this happened, but there has been no attempt by either the authorities or the anxiety-ridden builder to either clear the rubble or pull down the entire building.

Similar half-demolished structures are staring the people of Delhi after its now-on-now-off demolition drive began to selectively pull down illegal constructions. If the court order to bring them down is carried to its logical conclusion then the entire city would end up resembling Baghdad or a Kabul—torn asunder by smart bombs. "Eighty per cent of Delhi is illegal" claimed a Delhi politician whose illegal building stared grotesquely from the front page of a local newspaper.

While no one really doubts the urgency of restoring the primacy of law in these illegal urban spaces, the fact that they could come up in the first place has brought to the fore the corrupt nexus that ruled Delhi and other cities all these years. These sharks took advantage of the somnolent and venal administration and the desperate need of a growing populace for shelter and working place. Politicians, police and municipal officials wantonly made money and left hapless people with the belief that their illegal constructions would be regularised. Delhi's political bosses like late HKL Bhagat illegally settled lakhs of people in trans-Yamuna area and turned them into his vote bank. And it worked for many years. Due to the voting power they represented, many of these colonies and settlements were regularised.

Many of the posh colonies, too, got the government's nod creating an impression that the government was soft and would legalise every unauthorised settlement. Delhi's Sainik Farm, an illegal entity if there was one, also came up in this hope. The fact that it has escaped the bulldozer all these years shows that there are some places that are still immune.

This trajectory of illegal urban growth was not limited to Delhi alone. Nearly every big city was blighted by such happenings. Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, all began to lend meaning to an urban nightmare where the roads were potholed, waste and sewage disposal inadequate and safe drinking water and power supply virtually non-existent. This was a recipe for an urban disaster, which revealed itself when monster rains came down last year first, in Mumbai and later, in Bangalore. In Mumbai it seemed like biblical deluge that would end the world. In Bangalore, India's information technology capital, the rains brought the industry honchos in direct conflict with the political class. Industry icons like Narayan Murthy and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw criticised the government for ignoring its infrastructure and even threatened to move out of the city if the government did not lift itself up.

The plans for urban renewal were unveiled long before Mumbai and Bangalore were devastated by nature's fury. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced an ambitious $30 billion Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission in February 2005, which was meant to reconstruct old cities and provide them with quality infrastructure. Renewal cannot take place till the old clusters, slums and illegal buildings that do not conform to the master plan are demolished. Old cities, which are bursting at its seams, would have to rebuild if they have any desire to provide good quality of life to its citizens.

Left critics see the invisible hand of the multilateral bodies behind this grand project. The gravaman of their charge is that "renewal" is an American concept directed against slum removal and provides an entry point to privatisation of power and water utilities. They express fears that the demolition drive could provide greater space to private builders to build their malls and high-rise structures to cater to the nouveau riche.

Even if there is substance in these charges that World Bank has nudged the government to undertake urban renewal and the pro-activism of the courts is an expression of this new order, there is just no case at all for saving the corrupt that have destroyed India's cities and prospered from the misery of harassed residents.