TEJENDER KHANNA COVMMITTEE ON UNAUTHORISED CONSTRUCTION AND MISUSE OF PREMISES

Suggestions by COMMON CAUSE

I) BACKGROUND :

There was an influx in Delhi of refugees mainly from Punjab. However, some effort was made to rehabilitate them in well ordered localities. Delhi was already hub for the distributive trade in north and west parts of India. The importance of Delhi also grew with parliamentary and planning activities. A large number of immigrants started arriving in Delhi looking for livelihood. Very soon a serious housing shortage was felt. Though for some time, accretion in population was absorbed in planned colonies, yet when the planned colonies burst at the seams, illegal colonies and jhuggi clusters came up under gang leaders but always along with political protection.

II) UNPLANNED GROWTH :

There are various factors which have contributed to the growth of illegal structures in Delhi leading to the present chaos. These are:

i. For the domestic and unskilled services, Delhi's requirements grew very fast and attracted unskilled labour in very large numbers. Housing for this labour was not there and both the employers and the government took hardly any action. This led to the creation of jhuggi clusters with the attendant evils of congestion, crime, social abuse, sanitation and the theft of electricity and water. The accretion of population has been estimated at around two lakh every year. Out of present population of 1.4 million, the jhuggis probably accommodate 35 to 40 lakh persons living in the most insanitary conditions and subject to all the evils that such populations exhibit. All the successive plans for removing and rehabilitating them have remained virtually on paper. The responsibility has been tossed between DDA and MCD and large amounts provided in the budget have gone down the drain or remained unspent. From time to time, Jhuggis have been demolished with the intention of relocating them by allotting small plots of land or constructing single room apartments with hardly any significant impact

ii. An important feature of the creation of unauthorized colonies and jhuggis has been the promotion of and the protection given to these clusters by elected representatives of the MCD, the MLAs and the local members of Parliament, very quickly joined by an ever-willing highly corrupt MCD/DDA and Police. It must also be added that while the elected representatives used the opportunity not only to create their vote banks but also to line their pockets, the MCD and DDA administrations and the police made the most of the permissive situation that has continued till this day.

iii. The large scale acquisition of private lands by the DDA for the purpose of city development, and its non-use for many years encouraged large scale encroachments and the construction not only of jhuggi clusters, but also of whole housing colonies that have existed for many years, some even for decades. Desultory efforts were made to demolish illegal constructions and reclaim the land, but in the absence of fencing or proper watch and ward all such effort were brought to naught. Again, the people who benefited were the lawbreakers including the elected representatives, MCD and DDA staff as also the police.

An additional factor is without doubt the isolation of the DDA, its planning, land acquisition and development as a statutory authority without involving in a credible manner the city government of Delhi, which was at least in the recent years an elected government. (The irresponsible manner in which the Delhi Assembly and under its pressure the Delhi government have behaved recently, only goes to show that even a representative government deeply involved in decades of law breaking cannot in fact be an effective partner in the development of the city state. In the circumstances, one feels a little uncomfortable in accepting the demand that the subject of land, meaning the DDA should be transferred to the elected government of Delhi )

III) SOME MEASURES TO PREVENT RECURRENCE OF VIOLATIONS :

i) The management and overall control over the administration of Delhi should be concentrated in a single department preferably in the Ministry of Urban Development. This should include all the activities of government in the Union Territory and all subjects at present dealt with by separate ministries should be brought together under this department for initiation of programmes, making financial allocations, coordination of policies with the technical support of subject ministries and broadly observing the overall policies approved by those ministries. This would ensure the overall coordination for which the Central Government is answerable to the Parliament. For this purpose, there could be one or more coordination committee's under the Department for Delhi in the Central Government.

ii) Quite apart from the administrative arrangement proposed above, for all the subjects where there is people's involvement, the participation of the people's representatives must be treated as absolutely imperative. Generally speaking, both the DDA which has hardly any public involvement and the MCD which is an elected deliberative body give no particular importance to public opinion on the various important issues that they face. It is therefore necessary that the participation of all the stakeholders should be built into both the DDA and MCD regulations.

IV) MEASURES TO DEAL WITH EXISTING VIOLATIONS :

So far the law breakers were generally able to get their way by seeking support of their friends and collaborators' in the DDA MCD, the Police, and the politicians to get any penal action aborted. The recent intervention of the Supreme Court and the High Court of Delhi has made the DDA and MCD afraid that their old position may be jeopardized and they may face charges of contempt of court or worse. The Delhi government that was initially in full agreement with the action proposed by the superior courts had to backtrack when hundred percent of the MLAs moved and adopted a resolution asking that the illegalities committed so far be condoned by way of an early implementation of MPD 2021, in which there is a provision for commercialisation of residential houses in a selective way. In the alternative, their recommendation was for legislation or even an ordinance to see that the court action was aborted. With rather scary headlines in the press, this lobby of lawbreakers and irresponsible politicians was able to create a hysterical situation. Leaving aside the traders and other lawbreakers, the residents of Delhi and particularly Residents' Welfare Associations were to an extent alarmed, because of the fact that the irresponsible politicians who were responsible for all the lawless activities seemed to be quite capable of changing the law to prevent any adverse impact on their vote bank and of course, on the steady flow of protection money.

1) The first recommendation of COMMON CAUSE is therefore, that the action begun by the superior courts should not be interrupted by the government and it should be allowed to be completed. If this is done, the evil of the encroachments, illegal constructions and permissive commercialisation could well be cleared in a relatively short time. A high-level panel can then be constituted to deal with specific cases of hardships. All talk of amnesty or the imposition of heavy composition fee on violators will prove to be a diversionary tactic to delay action, in the hope that the law breaking will be forgotten very soon.

2) The residents' need for essential services can be met by selective commercialisation e.g. for daily necessities, dispensaries, doctors' clinics and nursing homes limited to the requirements of each locality determined in consultation with the RWAs.

3) Both the MCD and DDA should immediately go into a " no tolerance " mode to be implemented on a continuing basis under watch-dog senior officers with powers to place under suspension negligent/collusive field staff up to the level of Executive Engineer. The Residents ' Welfare Associations should be fully involved and encouraged to report deviant behaviour, abuse of authority, etc. to a designated central authority (ombudsman?). All such reports must be answered in writing within a time frame.

4) Meaningful and Time-Bound Programme of Rehabilitation of the Jhuggi Clusters :

This is the most important part of the proposed programme. Both on humanitarian and town planning grounds it is necessary to give the highest priority to rehabilitate the jhuggi clusters with convenient transport to place of work, water supply, electricity and elementary sanitation and health facilities. A time bound programme should be prepared keeping in mind the Commonwealth Games due to be held in 2010. The NGOs and private sector may be involved in the preparation and execution of the plans. At the same time, the administrative machinery will need to be geared so as to ensure that no new settlers join the jhuggi clusters and claim the right to be rehabilitated.

Considering the magnitude of the task, it is recommended that at least there Autonomous Corporations with in-house or associated planning, construction and evaluation capabilities should be created. A central monitoring authority in the DDA should ensure full accountability. The target date for completion of this first stage of the project should be the end of 2009. Considering the limited capacity of the D.D.A. / M.C.D., the construction of the rehabilitation colonies should be outsourced.

The above may be considered a rather rough and ready approach to the present situation. As the entire exercise involves executive operations in the field, apart from monitoring programme, there need to be no involvement of MLAs or Corporators.

A SURGEON, an architect and politician were discussing which of their professions was the oldest. "Mine, certainly", said the surgeon, "for it was inaugurated by God when he removed man's rib to make woman".

"But before making man and woman", the architect said, "he had to be an architect to give form to the creation, producing it from chaos".

"Exactly", said the politician, "and who made the chaos?"