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| Locked out: But where is the space to
set up shop? |
It has three
layers of government and two municipalities looking after it,
but Delhi remains a showpiece of how not to approach urban planning.
If the last controversy concerned lal dora (red boundary line)
land, which once belonged to villages, but was now being used
for non-agricultural purposes, then the current one has to do
with rampant commercial activity in residential areas. That's
a malaise every Indian city suffers from. The power, water, sewerage,
and parking infrastructure of residential neighbourhoods aren't
equipped to support commercial activity, other than a few shops.
That could explain why Resident Welfare Associations
(RWAs) rejoiced when the Supreme Court ordered on February 16
that commercial establishments in residential areas be shut down.
The Supreme Court's order came at a time when the Municipal Corporation
of Delhi (MCD) was complying with a Delhi High Court order asking
it to demolish buildings that had violated building laws.
Since then, MCD has sealed over 5,000 commercial
establishments, including those in tony boroughs such as Defence
Colony, South Extension and Greater Kailash. Over 21,000 owners
have filed affidavits, promising to shut down their businesses
in residential areas by June 30, the deadline fixed by the Supreme
Court. And politicians, and the state and the central government
are trying to find a way around the court's order.
"The MCD action will affect business
worth Rs 30,000-35,000 crore annually," claims Pravin Khandelwal
of the Confederation of All India Traders' Associations (CAIT).
He also claims that the Delhi government lost Rs 1,500 crore in
vat revenue in the fortnight since March 29, the day mcd started
sealing shops. "That is not to mention the 5 lakh traders
whose businesses have been endangered and their 25 lakh workers
whose livelihoods are at risk," he adds.
The main grouse of the traders is that there
is no commercial space to be had in the city. "We are prepared
to move, but where?" asks Murali Mani, a restaurateur who
runs an outlet in the crowded Karol Bagh area. The central government
has admitted to the Supreme Court that the development of commercial
space in Delhi has not kept pace with demand. "The government
will eventually have to regularise unauthorised commercial buildings
in residential areas to make up for the crunch in commercial space,"
says Anshuman Magazine, Managing Director, CB Richard Ellis, a
real estate firm.
With commercial property prices in Delhi
appreciating by over 40 per cent ("The ongoing crackdown
has been a factor behind that," admits Sanjay Verma, Joint
Managing Director, Cushman Wakefield, another real estate firm),
the central government, which owns and distributes all land in
Delhi through the Delhi Development Authority, is inclined towards
a liberal mixed land use policy.
"Mixed land use is actually good planning.
It integrates all the elements of urban planning and efficiently
brings together the services needed by residents of a neighbourhood-shops,
parks, community centres and entertainment," says Swati Ramanathan,
a Bangalore-based urban planning expert and founder of Janaagraha,
a citizen's organisation. She believes that the rub lies in the
fact that municipalities and other bodies managing the cities
are totally unaccountable to the citizens; ergo, plans do not
get enforced and corruption is rampant. "The fact is that
illegal constructions and land use conversions are rampant in
all Indian cities, including Bangalore. The fault lines are there;
it's only a matter of time before they cause the 'earthquake'
that Delhi is going through," she adds.
That, though, doesn't mean the government
is thinking long-term and nationwide. "Urban development
of cities is a state subject," says Union Minister for Urban
Development S. Jaipal Reddy. "No changes are expected in
the nationwide rules as long as there are no objections to the
mixed land use in the states."
-Kapil Bajaj and Pallavi Srivastava
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