National

The Blueprint Of Chaos

As vested interests make the issue of industrial relocation knottier, mob ire spills on to the streets

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The Blueprint Of Chaos
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In Delhi, decision-makers, ministers, government officials, judges, top defence officials, journalists, industrialists and others of the upper crust live in Lutyens' hallowed precincts that come under the New Delhi Municipal Corporation, the country's richest and best-maintained municipality. Roughly 5 per cent of the capital lives here; the remaining 93 per cent (2 per cent is cantonment board) just about live in what is the territory of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (mcd): a bulky, corrupt and inefficient organisation, infamous as a politicians' backyard where rulers make their money quietly without much ideological fuss.

Till two weeks ago, the most preferred way to do so was through the issuing of industrial licences. Licences were given to anyone wanting to set up small industries—producing anything from rolling pins, helmets, screw drivers, slippers, dyes, rubber material, cloth, an endless chain of artifacts labelled ‘duplicates' to local stuff.

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Nothing wrong with such an arrangement, except that such industries proliferated in residential areas. Developed capitals the world over make a distinction between residential and industrial areas. Not Delhi. Through a lucrative and well-oiled racket, licences have been issued ad nauseam during the last 50 years or so, with the result that some areas in east and west Delhi, which were purely residential colonies two decades ago, are now major industrial hubs. Leaders from the Congress and now the bjp are included under this long list of ‘industrialists', often under assumed names.

Bureaucratic lethargy over the last few years would have continued, had the Supreme Court—on a massive anti-pollution drive since last year—not decided to take the bull by its horns. Last fortnight, it sounded the bugle: throw out all polluting industries from Delhi. And fast. The Delhi government, headed by Sheila Dixit, went into knee-jerk action. Delhi chief secretary P.S. Bhatnagar issued express orders for industrialists to vacate instantly.

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But it's easier saying it than trying to move nearly one lakh industries and more than 20 lakh workers (unofficial estimates put the figure at 40 lakh, that includes a floating population) from their established places of work over some 50 years. Especially when there are just two places—Narela and Bawana on the outskirts of Delhi—that have been earmarked for relocation, with no hands-on plan for the actual movement.

Expectedly, rampaging unit owners and their workers, for two whole days, held parts of Delhi to ransom. Three people were killed and many others injured; traffic was thrown out of gear and the main areas where these industries are located were a picture of chaos. The Delhi administration moved the SC with an emergency caveat: give us more time to move these industries given the riotous situation. The three-member bench headed by B.N. Kripal was appalled: "The court will not withdraw its orders just because hooligans take to the street."

By this time, the issue had turned into one of political namecalling. bjp leaders Madan Lal Khurana and Vijay Malhotra blamed Dixit and her government, saying her administration had misinterpreted the court order and acted hastily. "While the court wanted only polluting industries removed, the chief secretary said all industries have to be relocated, which led to riots on the streets," Khurana said. The bjp ire was directed against its Union urban development minister Jagmohan, a man whose commitment to Delhi's development is not just longstanding but hardline as well.Jagmohan, aware that moving industries entailed changing the entire master plan, filed an affidavit in the court saying that the Delhi master plan could not be amended.

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Khurana took the opposing view. "There are three main problems. One, regularisation of unauthorised colonies; second, regularisation of 4,000 shops in residential areas and resolving the matter of 1.26 lakh industries in non-conforming areas. All these issues can be sorted out if the master plan is amended," he emphasised. Dixit, on her part, said the preceding bjp government had done nothing about the matter while they were in power and the current happenings were an outcome of flawed planning.

Says Congress' Kapil Sibal, who launched a blistering attack on the government in the Rajya Sabha: "The case has been lying in courts since 1993. Orders to relocate industries were issued then. There was a bjp government in Delhi between 1993 and 1998. But things began to move only after the Congress came into power towards end-1998." According to him, the Delhi government got the mcd to sanction land use policy in 1999 and applications for changing the master plan were made before the Delhi Development Authority the same year. Then the file was sent to the urban development ministry. "What was Jagmohan's ministry doing sitting on the file for a whole year?" asks Sibal.

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In response, Jagmohan softened his stance a bit, but not fully. At a meeting convened by Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee and home minister L.K. Advani, it was decided to amend the Delhi master plan by redefining ‘household industry' to allow industries employing less than 10 persons and using less than 5 kilowatts of power to operate in residential areas. bjp leaders maintain that the new definition would immediately remove 60 per cent of the industries out of the SC's purview. As for the rest 40 per cent, a time-bound programme would be drawn up for them and presented before the court.

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Officials in the mcd say that for Delhi-based politicians, investing in home-based industries has traditionally been the most lucrative ‘side business', besides real estate. Many names are doing the rounds but those of Dixit and former CM Sahib Singh Verma top the list of those who have ‘sound' investments. Former bjp industries minister Harsharan Singh Balli hit headlines last year after neighbours at his west Delhi residence complained of an industrial unit in his house. Not surprisingly, Balli is one of the leaders of the anti-shifting agitation.

The exercise of shifting and relocating industries operating from the most congested areas in the city to other earmarked colonies which are no less congested remains a Herculean task. Jagmohan was candid enough to admit it. "The fact is there is no information. We do not know how many industries there are; there is no list of what constitutes polluting industries. The economic survey of the industries is factually incorrect. In short, everything is just speculation," he said. Given this scenario, how and where do the industries move?

Just how serious governments have been to relocate industries can be gauged from the ground situation at Bawana. The thousand acres, admittedly insufficient to house 25,000 industrial units, present a picture of neglect. There are no roads, lights, sewage or water. Allotment of land has just about begun but as J.R. Jindal, president of the Delhi Factory Owners' Association, points out: "A person asking for 1,000 yards gets 250. Can you develop industries like this?" Even more farcical is that all the land exists only on paper with no demarcation done so far.Asks Jindal: "Who'll give you loans when plans exist only on paper?"

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Like the Euro 2000 plan for putting in unleaded fuel in new automobiles, the apex court has moved hard on this business too. But it's one thing to persuade a consumer to buy a certain type of car, quite another to move out well-entrenched, vocal and politically-savvy middle- and lower middle-class entrepreneurs and workers. Especially when they constitute a formidable votebank. Argues Sibal: "It's like asking people to pay 90 per cent of their earnings in taxes." Clearly, this is one SC order the somnolent political system could have done well without.

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