Or it is just another case of planning paranoia?

Although commonly understood to be a city of traders, Ravinder Singh Chowdhary*, is adamant that Delhi be understood as the abode of farmers.  Sitting adjacent to lush verdant fields of brinjal, rice, and spinach in the village Madapur Khadar in Delhi’s Badarpur Constituency, Chowdhary, explains how Delhi is paradoxically “a city of farmers.”  “From Kilokri and Kotla Mubarakpur in the South-East, to Karol Bagh in Delhi’s North-West, almost every new colony post-partition has been settled on farm land. Those settled by the Government were given water, electricity and drainage and became proper colonies; those settled by private individuals were denied these basic amenities and termed ‘illegal’ or ‘unauthorised’.”

In its most recent and controversial policy announcement, Delhi Government and the Union Ministry of Urban Development seem to take cognisance of Chowdhary’s understanding of the city’s settlements and have begun the process of issuing provisional regularisation certificates to about 1,500 unauthorised colonies that are mostly settled on agricultural land; a move that they claim will benefit approximately 40 lakh residents.

With state assembly elections in November, questions have been raised regarding the timing of the move, but Ajay Maken, Union Minister of State for Urban Development, told Frontline that the announcement comes as the logical culmination of a process that began in February 2007 with announcement of the New Master Plan 2021 that contained the basic provisions for authorisation. In an interview with Frontline, Maken stated that “The process began two and a half years before the elections and so should not be seen as a sudden decision or a knee jerk reaction.” However, the BJP opposition, in the state and the centre, remains unconvinced, terming the Maken’s move a “poll gimmick” and an “election stunt”.  Perhaps one reason to believe Maken, when he denies any link between regularisations and the upcoming elections, is the fact that nothing he does at this stage appears likely to win the Congress a third term in Delhi.  The court ordained sealing and demolition drives, the sharply rising prices of essential commodities and the much touted anti-incumbency factor all suggest that the BJP is set to win Delhi after a decade in opposition.  “In the 2003 elections, Sheila Dixit’s government was able to divert electoral anger to the BJP government in the Centre,” points out a source close to the party, “But the same strategy cannot work with the Congress in power in the State and the Centre.”  The ruling party’s chances have also been hurt by the factionalism that has been characteristic of the Congress’s second term.  However, election stunt or sober city planning, the regularisation drive offers a fascinating insight into the settlement of the country’s most populous city.

The earliest decision to regularise colonies was taken in 1961, when 103 colonies were regularised in the period from 1959 and 1962. In 1969, through another notification, the Union Government took a decision to regularise another 51 colonies.  The first major, and mildly controversial, regularisation wave came in 1977 under Indira Gandhi where the Government sought to regularise another 567 colonies.  At this however, sustained opposition from a variety of groups forced the government to lay down a series of guidelines that stated that severe action would be taken against any official in whose jurisdiction any unauthorised construction took place.  But by 1993, the city was preparing for another round of regularisation – this time for another 1071 colonies.  This time however, the Government ran into its first legal roadblock.

On 31 October 1993, the Common Cause filed a civil writ petition in the Delhi High Court urging the judiciary to restraint the government from the implementation of the policy, on the grounds that regularisation inevitably lead to the provision of civic services such as electricity, water and sewerage to these colonies, “stretching the resources of the municipal authorities, beyond what was originally planned, to the limit of the breakdown of these services.” In its petition to the High Court, a copy of which has been made available to Frontline, the Common Cause society claimed that “… in the process of sponsoring, motivating and encouraging the setting up of these unauthorised , and subsequently, regularised colonies, the interests of the under-privileged persons do not really get served; they are encouraged to act illegally and to gain from such illegal acts; their moral fabric gets undermined; they get encouraged to dispose of the illegally secured gains and move over to other areas for creating new unauthorised colonies; and these measures inevitably generate an atmosphere of crime as well as develop a nexus between property dealers and land grabbers, the operation of the land mafia and a general lowering of the standards of morals.”  Common Cause essentially argued that regularisation posed what legal experts call a “moral hazard”; i.e. a precedent that would encourage people to act extra-legally.   The High court found the society’s arguments persuasive enough to appoint a High-powered committee; pending whose recommendations no regularisation could take place.

However, in 1994, the Delhi Government approached the high court, asking for permission to provide basic amenities such as electricity and drinking water to these colonies.  The court in its reply, clarified that the said amenities could be provided, but the provision of amenities would not imply regularisation. The most recent judgement came in April 2008 when the Delhi High Court finally permitted the government to provide sewerage facilities to these colonies, again noting that “by giving this permission [on the provision of sewerage facilities] this court has not expressed any opinion about the regularisation of such unauthorised colonies.”

While the courts may have reserved judgement for now; Union Minister of State Ajay Maken however, is reasonably confident that the drive shall pass muster.  Maken points out that almost ninety percent of these colonies are either built on private land, or on land that has been earmarked for acquisition but has not been formally taken over.  Those living in such colonies are neither “encroachers” nor land grabbers – in fact, most residents have paid for their land.  Pursuant to a 1994 and 2008 order, unauthorised colonies now enjoy the same facilities of water, electricity and sewerage as authorised ones.  The provisions for regularisation incorporated in Masterplan 2021 also imply that while the 1993 regularisation was contrary to the Masterplan, this new round in 2008 carries more legal heft.  The Government has also earmarked a fund of Rs 2800 crores, of which 743 crores have been allocated for the 2008-09.  Hence, fears that regularisation of these colonies shall create additional stress on the infrastructure, to the detriment of authorised colonies, appear misplaced.  Regularisation shall in fact benefit all residents: At present, most unauthorised colonies are forced to rely on groundwater for their daily needs – contributing to the dipping of the water table. By providing water, sewerage and electricity legally, the government might be able to reduce groundwater usage and power theft and improve the performance of the water and electricity grids

The government is also at pains to illustrate that development work is already underway.  An examination of government figures indicates that the Delhi Jal Board has already laid water pipelines for 407 colonies while proposals have been submitted for another 417; 1093 colonies have been electrified and work is in progress in another 47.

A visit to Delhi’s Badarpur constituency illustrates how such in-situ upgradation is possible.  Home to some of Delhi’s largest unauthorised colonies like Aali extension, Madanpur Khadar extension and Jagdamba Colony, Badarpur has benefitted from the vigorous efforts of its NCP MLA Ram Vir Singh Bidhuri.  Tall imposing and energetic, Bidhuri is not one to be needlessly modest about his initiatives: large sign boards across Badarpur inform constituents of the pukka roads, drains, hand pumps and electricity connections provided by their MLA.  To his credit, random interview in the area certified his efforts, with residents pleased with development the area has been in the last four years.  “We have metalled almost all the roads in our constituency,” says Bidhuri, “and hope to provide sewerage as soon as possible.”

However, even Maken and Bidhuri’s enthusiasm does not absolve the Government in what is essentially a rear guard action coming at a time when the consequences of decades of poorly conceived city planning have become apparent.

Despite being the national capital, Delhi – as a city – is so wracked by uncertainties that even the size of its population is open to question.  The 2001 Indian Census actually places the Delhi Urban agglomeration population of 12.9 million in third place behind the Greater Mumbai Urban agglomeration of 15.4 million persons and the Kolkata Urban agglomeration of 13.2 million, however a recent paper published by the Population Reference Bureau – a USA based population think thank suggests that Delhi might actually be the largest Urban agglomeration after all.  Authored by O.P. Sharma – a former deputy director of Census Operations in India, the paper points out that in India an Urban Agglomeration (UA) is defined as “a continuous urban spread constituting the urban population of a town or city and its adjoining urban outgrowths (OGs), or two or more physically contiguous towns together with their OGs… India defines its urban agglomerations in a quirky way: They cannot cross state boundaries. This has no effect upon the population size of Kolkata and Greater Mumbai UA, which are located far from their state borders. But it does affect Delhi.”  O.P. Sharma’s paper estimates that if Delhi’s population is measured by the same yardstick as Mumbai or Kolkata, the “redefined” population for 2001 jumps to 16.4 million, 0.2 million greater than Mumbai, and adjusting for constant growth, Delhi population in 2007 is estimated at a whopping 21.5 million.  While this may seem to characterise the quibbling so typical of statisticians, this adjusted figure has considerable policy implications regarding the size of the population taken into account while planning civic infrastructure.  This mismatch between reported and actual population might explain the why Delhi’s infrastructure routinely appears overburdened.

A further examination of Sharma’s figures reveals that in the decade from 1991 to 2001, Delhi’s adjusted population increased by a staggering 60 per cent; official census figures peg the growth at almost 52 per cent.  Housing however, has not kept pace.  While Delhi Development Authority figures are not easily available, a presentation made by the Sajha Manch – a NGO concerned with urban issues – on the Master Plan 2021 states that “In the period of the second Master Plan (1981-2001), DDA estimated that new housing of 16 lakhs would be required . In fact, DDA was able to provide land and housing for only 5.5 lakhs Dwelling Units (DUs), roughly 34 per cent of the target.  Even within this greatly reduced number, there was a bias against the poor.  70 per cent of the housing to be built was supposed to cater to the EWS (40%) and LIG (30%).  However, only 58 per cent of the housing actually built was allotted to poorer groups while, for the rich the target was over-achieved by more than three times.” The DDA website itself states that in the thirty years from 1967 to Jan 2007, the organisation has allotted a total of 3,67,724 flats, or a paltry 0.3 million houses in a city of 21.5 million.  This severe housing crunch has forced working class populations to seek alternative means of accommodation.

Even government documents take acknowledge this failure; an October 1996 letter from the Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi notes that the colonies have come up “primarily due to the sky rocketing land prices in the national capital and the inability of the large majority of migrant as well as local population to afford shelter …”

The regularisation drive is only the latest development in a long-running feud over the future shape of the capital city; a conflict that has been played out on many fronts such as the closure of industrial units and wholesale markets, the outright assault on working class homes and demolition of so called “polluting slums.”  The role of the courts has been remarkable in its blatant efforts to ensure that an elite crust of Delhi population continues to enjoy its monopoly over resources such as land, water, electricity and public spaces.  The regularisation drive is a step towards recognising the rights of the working class to proper housing.  It is now completely acceptable in public discourse to bemoan the rise of vote-bank politics at the cost of the rule of law; at such instances it is useful to remember vote-banks comprise of the basis of a constituency-based system of democracy.

Aman Sethi

(First published in Frontline Magazine)