Now a farce

Nothing better depicts the contempt that Delhi's lawmakers have for the law than what is happening on the illegal buildings that dot the capital, buildings that were first sealed (and in some cases demolished) with great fanfare under court orders over the past two years and which are, with considerably less fanfare, now being "de-sealed" or allowed to come up again. Large stretches of the Ring Road and the tony Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, which were the public face of the sealing/demolition just a year ago, are now blossoming again. The affected shop-owners, and the political-bureaucratic class which turned a blind eye to the illegal buildings over decades, are ecstatic, but the citizen is left wondering what the fuss was all about if this was to be the denouement. What happened to the courts, for instance, which had seemed determined to clean up the Augean stables the capital had begun to look like? To be fair to them, there was little the courts could do when, to protect all the illegal buildings that had come up, the government decided to update the city's master plan. So, if it was illegal to build commercial complexes in residential areas, the courts were within their rights to ask that they be demolished; but once the new master plan last year allowed such mixed land use, the courts had no locus standi any more.

This does not mean that everyone is now in nirvana. There is still a case pending in court on whether the new Master Plan 2021 is a brand new plan or a modification of the existing one. The distinction is crucial, because if it is a new plan, all existing irregularities get condoned, whereas if it is a modification, the existing irregularities will continue to remain illegal as all changes in usage will be only prospective in nature. One would have hoped that, between the Delhi authorities and the courts, this matter would have been sorted out before the de-sealing operations began. For, if it turns out that the new master plan doesn't hold up, all the commercial buildings that have started coming up once again in residential areas will have to be sealed and demolished all over again.

An even more important issue pertains to Delhi's carrying capacity. Familiar problems like the lack of parking space, an inadequate sewage system, and shortage of water and of electricity still exist. Most of the illegal buildings have come up in such a way as to compound these and other problems. Residential areas planned for a few hundred inhabitants have had to deal with the vastly magnified needs of a few thousand. The indicators are that, while offices and commercial complexes will once again be allowed to come up in residential areas, little has been done to ensure that bona fide residents do not suffer as a result of the increased demand on parking/sewage/power/water. The train of events also means that, if the new master plan is brutally violated once again, all that the government of the day needs to do is to come up with yet another master plan! For the city's residents, that cannot be a pleasing thought, though the drive to de-seal is said to be with an eye to the state elections due at the end of the year. It would seem that the law-breakers outnumber the law-abiding citizens.