By Madhulika Gupta
A movement that dates back to the first half of 2006 has the national capital weeping again. The sealing drive, currently rampant in the city, has eaten into jobs and has been leading to commercial losses every minute of the day that businesses do not run. The trader community is complaining about how their livelihoods and that of those who depended on them have been destroyed. After the Supreme Court gave a go ahead to revive the Monitoring Committee that spearheaded the sealing drive in Delhi in December last year, there has been no going back.
Posh areas in Delhi and shopping hubs like Karol Bagh, Rajouri Garden, Defence Colony, Kailash Colony, among others, have been brought under the scanner. Amidst this, businessmen and traders affected by this have been seen doing regular rounds of political parties offices, looking for some sign of relief.
The Supreme Court is not budging from its stand and making no move to give respite to the traders and businessmen of Delhi. With all this in the backdrop, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written personally to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi for help.
Revisiting the sealing drive of 2006
The matter became of public importance in 2006 when the government had more than a decade and a half to implement the Delhi Master Plan 2021. The drive-by Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), sought to shut down illegal shops, restaurants, hotels, showrooms, and so on if they were running out of residential complexes without having paid the conversion charges. Naturally, traders and businessmen community had opposed the move and in the course of violent uproar, four people lost their lives.
Sealing or shutting down of these illegal and unauthorised hubs was ordered by Supreme Court in early 2006 when the apex court appointed a Monitoring Committee to look into it. The drive, which continued for over a year saw 5,100 illegal commercial establishments shut down which made people see the gravity of illegal commercial hubs in Delhi.
These commercial establishments were given respite by the then Central Government when an emergency ordinance was passed in the Parliament making commercial establishments in residential areas legal. However, the Supreme Court put a stay on this order in 2012 and stripped the Monitoring Committee of all its powers. A movement which was started to look into the misuse of land and residential quarters soon turned into a trader vs. government situation.
On another hand, unauthorised construction has now been given relief from punitive action from 2018 to 2020. This clearly shows the governments intention (both Centre and State) of protecting traders and enticing to a specific stratum of the society. Both of these things coupled together show how the governments are trying to salvage their positions when it comes to sympathising with traders.
Delhi Master Plan and associated problems
The first Master Plan for Delhi was introduced in 1962, which, unfortunately, was a failure. The second Master Plan was also a failure which was introduced in 2001. Now, with the third Master Plan for Delhi to be implemented by 2021, the Government, civic bodies and the judiciary are fighting it out. As always, the common man is suffering in the midst of power and politics.
The Delhi Master Plan 2021 will define the land-use pattern in the city for sustainable development. The current Delhi Master Plan 2021 does not provide a uniform Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and the penalty charges are ten times than the annual conversion charges levied on traders. Plus, the conversion charges itself is a hefty amount for traders and small businessmen to bear.
Chandigarh, for instance, is an example of a well-planned city, where there are clear demarcations for commercial hubs and residential area. There is no commercial encroachment in residential sectors, whatsoever. National capital Delhi, on the other hand, is a city that continues to be occupied haphazardly. Perhaps, this can be accrued to callous behaviour on the part of civic bodies to whip people up whenever the norm was broken. Perhaps, it is also due to a faulty Master Plan that does not take into account how grotesquely the population of Delhi is growing and hence, illegal residential and commercial hubs are cropping up everywhere and anywhere.
Recalling the Monitoring Committee in 2017
In mid-December last year, SC Justices MB Lokur and Deepak Gupta recalled the stay on the sealing drive and returned the Monitoring Committee its powers back. The committee, comprising of Bhure Lal, chairman of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, K J Rao, former advisor to the Election Commission and Major General (Retd) Som Jhingan sprung back to power by the third week of December and the decade-old sealing drive was revived back to life.
In the hearing, Justices Lokur and Gupta rapped the government and authorities for not doing their job and termed the situation in Delhi as a disaster … waiting to happen, in addition to quoting the recent Kamala mills and Bawana fire and Upahaar tragedy as examples. According to Justice Lokur, the inefficiency of the government to have cracked down on these illegal establishments since 2012 when the stay was announced has prompted the Supreme Court to take up the matter again.
After its revival in the latter half of December last year, posh areas like Meherchand Market, Defence Colony, Khan Market and Hauz Khas, among others, have been seeing daily shutdowns. As a reflex action, the traders are not leaving any stone unturned protesting against this and even called for a two-day bandh. Today, most of these markets that are generally bustling with activity can be seen lifeless and barren.
Why this is important to the Government
There are two facets both AAP and BJP are seeing when it comes to the somewhat sensitive matter.
Firstly, The AAP office of profit controversy during the end of January made it clear that 20 constituencies of the national capital would go to bypolls in less than six months. This perhaps will take place sometime before the 2019 General Elections which will make the election to these 20 seats a litmus test (majorly for BJP since it is a national party). This is related to the second facet, that of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Appealing to the trader and businessmen community of Delhi is an important factor for winning elections. When this community is in distress because of civic bodies ruining their livelihood, a major vote-bank will be crushed and hence, political parties will become the second group of people after traders to have suffered because of the sealing drive.
Seats like Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazaar, Tilak Nagar, Kondli, Burari, and so on, will be seeing bypolls. Some of them are heavily populated with traders and businessmen. With the status quo, both BJP and AAP are seeking to entice to this community to cash in on votes with bypolls and 2019 as the big picture. So, by the end of January, when 20 AAP MLAs had been disqualified and the sealing drive was on a high, Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs announced that the Delhi Master Plan will feature amends for the benefit of people and traders. This included cutting down the penalty charges for conversion, cutting down the conversion charges and even allowing a uniform Floor Area Ratio.
Kejriwal seeks a solution
With all the hula-ba-loo, CM Arvind Kejriwal has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi, seeking appointments with them in order to come up with a solution to this problem. He has addressed the issue and asked for a Bill to be passed in the Parliament which lawfully lets traders practice peacefully since all they are doing is earn an honest living and give employment to others.
Ethically and technically, the traders and small businessmen in the community generate employment and also pay a good chunk of the total taxes that the government receives. Shutting them down will mean a deficit of taxable income, which is going to lead to a deficit of tax collection with the government, which, in turn, will make implementing welfare schemes and other amenities for the people quite difficult.
The only solution to this problem is to find a balancing act where neither the residents in residential colonies suffer, nor do the traders. This seems like a balancing an apple on a sword, but the onus is on the government in power to deliver.