MOHD. ASIM KHAN wonders if there is any end to the woes of Delhiites regarding sealing of their shops and establishments and welcomes the rays of hope coming from government.
Delhi has been in turmoil for more than a year now over the sealing and demolition issue. The magnitude of the problem is so large that not only the streets of Delhi witnessed fracas and bloodshed but it also led to a situation of tug of war between the legislature and the judiciary. The Congress has lost the MCD elections because of poor handling of the issue.
Meanwhile, the newly elected BJP has come up with the proposal of one time amnesty to the unauthorized constructions and land use. The BJP has already succeeded in getting the amnesty scheme passed by the MCD Standing Committee on May 4. The Scheme offers to provide relief to those areas which (a) Have not been notified for commercial/Mix land use by the Central Government and (b) the areas not covered under the provisions of Master Plan 2021 and the notification issued by the Ministry of Urban Development on September 7, 2006.
The primary reason being given by the BJP for supporting the Amnesty Scheme is the failure of the Delhi Development Authority – the premier agency responsible for the development of the capital city – to provide the infrastructure according to the needs of the rapidly growing population. It should be noted that the capital has seen a steep rise in the population since 1962, when the first Master Plan was introduced, as a large number of people from the neighbouring states have migrated to Delhi in search of employment. The current population size of Delhi is about 15 million which is expected to go up to 23 million by 2021.
Under the Development Plan, the DDA was supposed to provide schools, shopping centres, three wheeler and taxi stands, hospitals, community centres, Banquet Halls, District Centres, whole sale markets, milk booths, exhibition cum fair grounds, etc. according to the requirements of the population. However, the DDA has miserably failed in achieving the targets and the Central Government had to admit it in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on April 12, 2006 in Writ Petition (Civil) Number 4677. The DDA is an autonomous body but large-scale corruption has rendered it inefficient so much so that recently, there was a talk of dissolving it.
Today, there are more than one thousand unauthorised colonies in Delhi, besides a large number of Jhuggi clusters. There are encroachments on government and public land, parks, pavements and roads. In short, the capital is a mess of concrete. Since it is largely the government’s failure to handle the ever-increasing population of the city, therefore, the BJP contends that amnesty should be given on humanitarian grounds as it won’t be possible to dislocate such a large number of people. However, the BJP is not the first one to come up with the amnesty proposal. It was first proposed by the Congress on June 7, 1999. The Congress was controlling the MCD at that time. But the Centre’s NDA government rejected this scheme. The MCD again sent this proposal to the Union Government for its approval on September, 26,2001. Again, the Centre disagreed. (Mind you, it was BJP led NDA’s government at the Centre during this period). When the MCD sent it a third time, the Union Urban Development Minister, Jagmohan was reportedly so furious that he is said to have taken the then MCD Commissioner to task for repeatedly sending this imprudent scheme for approval. Clearly, Jagmohan had other plans for the city. Even former Union Minister, Arun Shourie’s father late H.D. Shourie also raised his voice against the amnesty scheme.
For the past one year, the BJP had been raising hue and cry over the delay in introducing the new Master Plan and was holding the Congress responsible for people’s suffering at the hands of the sealing squads. Now, when the Master Plan has been introduced the BJP is pushing the amnesty scheme. This time around the Congress is opposing it saying that this is not practicable and that the Master Plan is the only remedy. Thus, quaint and curious the story of the BJP is. It supports the same thing while in opposition, then it rejects it when in power. Its politics seems to be that of opportunism rather than based on any coherent principles. Now BJP is paving its way for the Delhi Assembly elections. Has it mollified its Jagmohans and Shouries first?