Changing cityscapes
To whom does Delhi belong? To the ruling elite of the country’s capital or to the toiling masses who make the wheels of civilization run?
Massive Pratirodh Rally by CPI(ML) in DelhiThousands of working people, youth and students participated in a massive “Pratirodh (Resistance) Rally” organised by Party’s Delhi state unit on 12 December against communal and anti-people policies of BJP-led central government and the Congress government of Delhi. The central slogan of the rally was primarily directed against eviction of workers: “Delhi is not the jagir (fiefdom) of Jagmohans, It belongs to the working people”. Addressing the rally Party Gen. Secy. Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya called upon the working people and progressive intelligentsia to rise in vigorous protest against the combined offensive of globalisation and communal fascism. He appealed for a broad-based struggle-oriented unity of all left and democratic forces and other activists of new social movements and called upon the left ranks to reject the path of hobnobbing with the Congress and corrupt regional leaders. Comparing the Supreme Court order on relocation of polluting and non-conforming industries in Delhi to the verdict for resuming the Sardar Sarovar Project, he said that while the rich and the powerful are going scot free, the poor and the weak are being forced to bear the brunt of so-called judicial activism. Devoid of any notion of socio-economic justice for the downtrodden, judicial activism can only degenerate into judicial despotism. He condemned the double standards of the rulers, who are prepared to
bend every rule and even rewrite the Constitution for the benefit of foreign
MNCs and their Indian collaborators, even as they treat the Delhi Master
Plan as a sacrosanct document and conspire to ruin the lives of two million
workers in the name of upholding it. |
The crusade for de-industrialization of Delhi in the name of environmental protection has brought forth many questions. The recent Supreme Court order to shut down the polluting industrial units had made Mr. Jagmohan purr, with generous support from the city’s ruling elite, but the total strike observed by workers of these industrial sectors had shown the other side of coin too. Years ago, as the legend goes, Nero, might have played fiddle while the city of Rome was burning. But today, even if Jagmohan tries donning the mantle of Nero, the workers of the city will not let him, and the elite crowd he represents, save themselves from the leaping flames of the fireworks already initiated.
The sudden clamour for the rule of law is not devoid of some hidden agenda up the sleeves of people like Mr. Jagmohan. For the first time in the history of the nation, we have witnessed such an unprecedented and unparalleled concern for de-polluting the city and upholding the law of the land. The Master Plan 2001, Mr. Jagmohan’s ingenious urban planning programme for the country’s capital, is tailor–made to suit the purposes of the agenda of globalization, liberalization and the philosophy of free market pursued for the past decade, as the panacea for all ills. The city must be ready for the final take-off; the bells have started tolling for the poor before the curtains are lifted; the stage is set for welcoming the international corporate tycoons and their national collaborators, for offering them a “clean(ed up) Delhi of corporate glass houses.
The hollowness of the justification propounded by the apex court for the crusade is revealing. The whole issue of shifting/shutting down industries and implementing the Master Plan has raised many basic questions. The BJP and the Congress have been the two major players in Delhi’s politics. Who else can be held responsible for the collapse of the urban planning process in the city? Who have been the real polluters of not only the ecological environment but even the socio-political environment of the city? So long, they have never bothered about either the civic amenities or the rule of law; rather they are the ones who gave birth to, pampered and institutionalized all sorts of criminalisation and lawlessness. Every machinery of the state was subservient to their private economic interests and to protect it, they allowed all kinds of mafia in land, construction, tax-revenue system, etc. to grow. But now they have run into a crucial impasse. The politics of globalization and liberalization has tied their tails with invisible strings, pulled by invisible hands. So while Jagmohan tries to uphold the banner of the elitist movement of a ‘pollution-free, clean, green Delhi’, Mr. Madan Lal Khurana and Mr. Sahib Singh Verma, the two ex-chief ministers of Delhi from the same party, are forced to dance to another tune, in a bid to save their constituencies and their fast-receding mass-base, even if it means going against their own minister.
The Supreme Court is being projected as the key player, but the fact is quite contrary, as till date, not even a single instance can be cited where the “rule of law” was established with the help of court orders, be it the mass-murder of Sikhs in the ’84 riots, murder and loss of property in communal clashes, rapes, lock-up deaths, or issues related to labour disputes! How did the court become such a hallowed institution all of a sudden?
The lop-sided urban planning process calls for a probe into the growth-pattern followed so far and the matter needs to be looked into, keeping the concerns of the working people in mind. To make Delhi truly pollution free, one has to re-orient the capital’s priorities in favour of not “free market” polytricks rather pro-people politics for wider growth for the largest numbers. The issues that need to be addressed accordingly are as follows:
• Migration: The single-most important factor that causes
migration is unemployment and poverty in the states adjoining Delhi. A large
number of rural poor from UP, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, and West Bengal flock
the city’s industrial sector. If the issue of rural economic infrastructure
is not addressed, this trend of migration to cities cannot be stopped. What
can Jagmohan-style city-cleansing do in the long run other than thwarting the
nation’s progress in real terms?
• Land distribution and housing question: Out of a total
population of about 135 lakh in the city, 32 lakh live in 1100 slum-clusters,
comprising 6 lakh jhuggi-jhopari dwellers. Delhi has at present, over 1500 unauthorized
colonies in which a population of nearly 40 lakh people is residing. Approximately
20 lakh people live in resettlement colonies, which number around 50. All this
account for about 70% of the population of the city, for which there is no governmental
planning. What is the government’s land-use management policy? Again, if
there is land scarcity in the city, then how is Delhi famous for its thousands
of palatial farm-houses and bungalows? Whom does the Master Plan 2001 cater
to after all?
• Indiscriminate mushrooming of industries: There had
been a phenomenal growth of industry in Delhi in the last 2-3 decades, recording
a sharp increase in the number of units from 26,000 in 1971 to 1,37,000 in 1999.
Only 25,000 units out of a total of 1.37 lakh are functioning in the conforming
industrial areas. About 1.10 lakh units are in the non-conforming areas. Industrial
employment (average 10 workers per unit) grew from 2.15 lakh in 1971 to 11.36
lakh in 1999. Alternative surveys show an average of 30-40 workers per unit,
showing a total of 35-45 lakh workers. So the main source of employment in the
city is in the unorganized sector, facing the brunt of market vagaries, inhuman
working conditions, low wages, exposure to hazardous chemicals, indiscriminate
retrenchments, inadequate housing, so on and so forth.
• Vehicular Pollution: The main source of air pollution
in the city is vehicular pollution, which contributes nearly 72% to the total
pollution, while the industry contributes 20% and, 18% is the domestic contribution.
The major source of vehicular pollution is from private vehicles, which are
still on the rise. Vehicle-population in Delhi is more than the vehicle-population
of Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai put together. So if one is really serious about
the problem of air-pollution in Delhi then the only alternative possible is
to drastically reduce the vehicle-population which is possible only through
providing cheap, easy and dependable public transport. But what is happening
on Delhi’s roads? While private buses are left free to wreak havoc on the
city’s roads, the state-owned DTC is being systematically dismantled. Even
metro rail is not an answer. Seeing the city’s geographical topography,
a combination of bus and cycle routes is the only possible solution. Have protagonists
of the “Master-Plan” any such idea or even the political will to initiate
a change in the positive direction?
• Municipal Waste and the Problem of Water Pollution:
Water pollution in Delhi comes mainly from municipal waste which is about 1900
Million Litre per Day (MLD) and the contribution of the industry is about 320
MLD. Could the government evolve a satisfactory solution to the problem of municipal
waste disposal? What was done about installing effluent Treatment Plants and
other methods of controlling industrial wastes? Is research and development
being supported in this direction?
Then the question arises as to who is the real culprit waiting to be brought to book? Who should pay for the city’s pollution? Why not impose pollution tax? Why not impose tax on individuals and families possessing more than one vehicle? Is it not fair to ask the polluter to pay? What long term fiscal measures have been taken to overcome pollution? Is shifting of industries in any way the answer? Even if it is possible, what about Bawana (proposed re-location site)? Will the Bawana area withstand this ecological burden? Why should common people living there pay for the health of the city’s elite?
These are certain questions which cry for an answer. Jagmohan’s war-cry of cleansing the city and attempts to change not only the landscape but also the mindscape of people are nothing but crude designs to dislodge and dislocate the industrial working class and put them to further misery. But if the three-day strike, that had all schools shut down and the city paralyzed under its impact, is any indication, the Delhi Govt. as well as the Central Govt. should give up such anti-people policies. The working class struggle will pave the way for emergence of new forms of protest and if there is any vanguard to spearhead the movement of environment, it is the workers who will come forward to safeguard the people’s interest. The magnificent past of Delhi was created by the working people and they are the real inheritors of Delhi and not the likes of Jagmohan.
The working people are the real creators of history; it is they who will preserve it and they who will advance it.