Sunil Sethi: Will Delhi's miseries now end?

AL FRESCO

Many of the horrors inflicted upon Delhi by way of demolitions and zealous sealing drives of properties in the past year were the result not of cumulative bad decisions but indecision. When there is no clear-cut policy as to who can build or where, for what purpose and how much, there is bound to be disruption and mass agitation""of the kind that led to police shooting at angry protestors on the streets.

The release of an urban Master Plan for the city that projects property development till 2021 is therefore a huge relief. Good or bad""and pending the view the Supreme Court takes""it is at least a concrete policy proposal. How effectively it will be implemented is another matter. But it ventures where others have feared to tread, by freeing up construction activity and large tracts of land, legalising slums, curtailing building monopolies of corrupt agencies such as the Delhi Development Authority and placing sanctions on private builders, who will have to provide for services like effluent treatment and water-harvesting systems. By allowing a variety of commercial establishments to continue in a large number of residential areas, the Congress government will appease a vast lobby of traders and working professionals rather than face a bloodbath in the upcoming municipal elections followed by state elections in 2008. Political survival, more than an altruistic vision of a glorious Capital that is to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010, is what prompted the release of the Master Plan by none other than Union Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy.

That, in essence, is why Delhi is different. In other metros people will complain to the municipality, the MLA or MP. Here they go right to the top""to the Prime Minister, the Union Cabinet, the Supreme Court, the RTI Commissioner himself. Everybody who matters""the country's richest and most powerful""has a stake in Delhi and that stake holding begins with owning a piece of property.

Prime real estate values and building activity in and around Delhi far outstrip anywhere else in the country. In almost every respect Delhi is wealthier today than Mumbai. More outsiders migrate to Delhi than to any other metro. Its current population of 14 million is expected to touch 30 million in 2026, making it one of a handful of global urban agglomerations of that scale. Like mega-cities anywhere, its swelling population represents a takeover of services by ethnically diverse groups. Hop into a taxi and the driver will most likely be from Bihar or eastern UP. Cast around for a plumber and you will find that the city's water pipes are kept running by a network of Oriyas. Artisans like bricklayers, masons and carpenters are often from the poorer districts of Rajasthan.

How will the new Master Plan help in accommodating this rising tide of new arrivals or rehabilitate residents who feared eviction and closure of trades during the sealing drives? Legalising slums to create low-income housing and a vertical expansion of the city's buildings are all very well, but who will pay for everyday services such as water, electricity and garbage disposal? Because the trouble with much of Delhi's pampered citizenry is that it doesn't want to pay. Despite privatisation, electricity companies fail to make money due to power theft. Water bills paid by residents don't cover even 10 per cent of the cost of delivery. Many slums/middle-class areas are dependent on water tankers run by the water mafia. Thousands of unionised sanitation and garbage disposal workers refuse to work, leaving much of the city with choked sewers and mounds of rotting refuse at every corner.

In pandering to their growing vote banks Delhi's government and municipality have a hopeless record in providing the simplest services. How will it now manage with a Master Plan that unleashes a massive new building boom? All smiles though he was whilst announcing the Plan, Jaipal Reddy deftly passed the buck when asked who would provide for the extra water, power and sewerage disposal. "It is up to the Delhi government to make those arrangements," he said.