On 25.07.03 at an IHC consultation about the homeless
and Delhi Master Plan, Mr Amod Kanth, Jt Commissioner
of Delhi Police, making the lead presentation to,
among others, Delhi Chief Minister Ms Sheila Dikshit,
translated ?responsive governance? as ?that what you
are giving us, Madam?.
On 03.09.03, at an ?official function? attended by her
few bhagidaars in Vasant Kunj Ms Dikshit, along with
her health and urban development minister Dr A K
Walia, area MLA Mr Mahender Singh Bhatewala and area
Councilor Ms Rajendri Sehrawat, laid the foundation
stone for an Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences ?
in an area with duly notified precarious ground water
regime, on a patch of green belt in complete
contravention of Delhi Master Plan land use, norms,
premises and goals, on a site amidst an up-coming very
posh ?unauthorised colony? and singularly unsuited to
such facility that, in any case, should not be in a
residential area and ideally not even in Delhi. With
reference to Ms Dikshit?s remarks at Mr Kanth?s
consultation about need to develop NCR to solve
Delhi?s problems, a suggestion was made to her to lead
from the front by shifting her liver Institute, one of
its kind in Asia, to elsewhere in NCR. Incidentally,
in 2000 Ms Dikshit had promised the same site in
bhagidaari to flat residents for a 100-bed hospital.
In 2002 she announced this Institute, in some other
bhagidaari, and in July 2003 boards for 100-bed
hospital were repainted. At the ?official function?,
area MLA said the Liver Institute would benefit also
the entire rural belt that he is currently wooing in
his current bhagidaari. All the bonhomie of bhagidaari
notwithstanding, the illegal Institute seems less
worthy of an essentiality certificate from government
(duty-bound to determine essentiality of any use of
land within the ambit of the only statutory framework
for landuse, viz, the Master Plan) than the 291 cases
that Ms Dikshit suddenly reconsidered on 01.09.03 for,
by media accounts, political considerations.
While Ms Dikshit and her party colleagues and
bhagidaars celebrated behind D2 Vasant Kunj misuse of
public land to infringe citizens? rights to land and
water and jeopardise the city?s environment and
heritage, complete with police bandobast and,
obviously, cooperation of DDA without which ?official?
Master Plan violations are not possible, barely two
kilometers away in Arjun Camp B9 Vasant Kunj
non-bhagidaar public, aggrieved by misuse of its land
and forsaken by its representatives and servants under
Ms Dikshit?s responsive governance, found itself in
the midst of a completely different experience of DDA
land management and police bandobast.
The big story of which the little story of residents
of Arjun Camp, illegally demolished without notice in
sub-judice matter on 19.05.03, is but small part is
that out of 2000 hectares of land set aside in the
Master Plan to solve Delhi?s slum problem through EWS
housing only 174 hectares have been invested in this,
a fact that is part of the latest official report on
Delhi?s slums, a report to which Ms Dikshit?s
government is party. Her attention and that of her
minister for urban development and health has been
drawn to this, besides to their powers and
responsibilities vis-à-vis the Master Plan, since
2001. After August 2002, when residents of Arjun Camp
moved court for their housing entitlements on this
premise, Ms Dikshit?s bhagidaari was solicited, in
vain, in face of repeated demolition threats. After
the court struck down, in PIL in November, her
government?s illegal slum resettlement policy, already
challenged in the Arjun Camp case in the context of
superior Plan entitlements, government was requested
to seek a review with full facts, which it did not do,
chosing instead to ?own? the SLP of Central
Government, which it publicly accuses of being
anti-slum. After CBI exposed the Sahara matter,
directly connected to Arjun Camp, since the infamous
restaurant reportedly occupies a Janta Housing site
adequate for solving Vasant Kunj?s slum problem, Ms
Dikshit?s attention was drawn again to citizens?
statutory entitlements. When she announced, instead, a
?White Paper? for slums in two months on 28.05.03 she
was requested in person to not reduce Plan
entitlements to white paper. Two months later Arjun
Camp residents and those from other slums and
elsewhere engaging likewise appealed to her to discuss
in the Assembly on 28.07.03 not an admittedly illegal
Cooperative Bill but the promised White Paper, but
there was no White Paper. On 22.08.03 in the Arjun
Camp matter the Court strictly ordered DDA to reply to
questions of entitlements and allegations of misuse of
land meant for EWS housing. Unmindful of the Court?s
order, besides Election Commission directive,
harassment continued, as did business as usual in
Sahara, and on 31.08.03 residents lodged a request in
the Police Station and wrote to DDA VC to advise local
DDA staff and Police and, if necessary, identify an
?interim? site for them to shift to till their matter
is settled by the Court.
On 03.09.03, exactly at the same time that Ms Dikshit
arrived at the ?official function? to celebrate her
grossly illegal liver Institute, DDA and Police
arrived in Arjun Camp and, without work order or
document to show, abused and threatened residents,
confiscated without receipts building material they
had salvaged from the demolition, destroyed their
belongings and threw them out on the road to build a
high wall to ?block off? the site.
On 25.07.03, while promising wholehearted bhagidaari
for patently ill-informed NGO ideas for the homeless
and Master Plan (which Ms Dikshit, despite sworn
allegiance to the Constitution, publicly disparages
along with DDA, Police and all else outside her
?control?), CM advised citizens to keep whistles to be
able to get together to beat up anyone who harassed
them, including Police. On 03.09.03, with the area?s
public representatives and servants all attending an
?official function? to celebrate violation of the law
to score brownie points for an Assembly election,
misguided non-bhagidaars in Arjun Camp, who foolishly
sought on 28.07.03 accountability on a promised White
Paper instead of going out to buy Pocket Whistles,
paid heavily for not heeding their progressive CM?s
progressive advice. One can only hope they remain
regressive, despite the stiff odds.
Gita Dewan Verma / Planner / 03.09.03
__________________________________
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and Delhi Master Plan, Mr Amod Kanth, Jt Commissioner
of Delhi Police, making the lead presentation to,
among others, Delhi Chief Minister Ms Sheila Dikshit,
translated ?responsive governance? as ?that what you
are giving us, Madam?.
On 03.09.03, at an ?official function? attended by her
few bhagidaars in Vasant Kunj Ms Dikshit, along with
her health and urban development minister Dr A K
Walia, area MLA Mr Mahender Singh Bhatewala and area
Councilor Ms Rajendri Sehrawat, laid the foundation
stone for an Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences ?
in an area with duly notified precarious ground water
regime, on a patch of green belt in complete
contravention of Delhi Master Plan land use, norms,
premises and goals, on a site amidst an up-coming very
posh ?unauthorised colony? and singularly unsuited to
such facility that, in any case, should not be in a
residential area and ideally not even in Delhi. With
reference to Ms Dikshit?s remarks at Mr Kanth?s
consultation about need to develop NCR to solve
Delhi?s problems, a suggestion was made to her to lead
from the front by shifting her liver Institute, one of
its kind in Asia, to elsewhere in NCR. Incidentally,
in 2000 Ms Dikshit had promised the same site in
bhagidaari to flat residents for a 100-bed hospital.
In 2002 she announced this Institute, in some other
bhagidaari, and in July 2003 boards for 100-bed
hospital were repainted. At the ?official function?,
area MLA said the Liver Institute would benefit also
the entire rural belt that he is currently wooing in
his current bhagidaari. All the bonhomie of bhagidaari
notwithstanding, the illegal Institute seems less
worthy of an essentiality certificate from government
(duty-bound to determine essentiality of any use of
land within the ambit of the only statutory framework
for landuse, viz, the Master Plan) than the 291 cases
that Ms Dikshit suddenly reconsidered on 01.09.03 for,
by media accounts, political considerations.
While Ms Dikshit and her party colleagues and
bhagidaars celebrated behind D2 Vasant Kunj misuse of
public land to infringe citizens? rights to land and
water and jeopardise the city?s environment and
heritage, complete with police bandobast and,
obviously, cooperation of DDA without which ?official?
Master Plan violations are not possible, barely two
kilometers away in Arjun Camp B9 Vasant Kunj
non-bhagidaar public, aggrieved by misuse of its land
and forsaken by its representatives and servants under
Ms Dikshit?s responsive governance, found itself in
the midst of a completely different experience of DDA
land management and police bandobast.
The big story of which the little story of residents
of Arjun Camp, illegally demolished without notice in
sub-judice matter on 19.05.03, is but small part is
that out of 2000 hectares of land set aside in the
Master Plan to solve Delhi?s slum problem through EWS
housing only 174 hectares have been invested in this,
a fact that is part of the latest official report on
Delhi?s slums, a report to which Ms Dikshit?s
government is party. Her attention and that of her
minister for urban development and health has been
drawn to this, besides to their powers and
responsibilities vis-à-vis the Master Plan, since
2001. After August 2002, when residents of Arjun Camp
moved court for their housing entitlements on this
premise, Ms Dikshit?s bhagidaari was solicited, in
vain, in face of repeated demolition threats. After
the court struck down, in PIL in November, her
government?s illegal slum resettlement policy, already
challenged in the Arjun Camp case in the context of
superior Plan entitlements, government was requested
to seek a review with full facts, which it did not do,
chosing instead to ?own? the SLP of Central
Government, which it publicly accuses of being
anti-slum. After CBI exposed the Sahara matter,
directly connected to Arjun Camp, since the infamous
restaurant reportedly occupies a Janta Housing site
adequate for solving Vasant Kunj?s slum problem, Ms
Dikshit?s attention was drawn again to citizens?
statutory entitlements. When she announced, instead, a
?White Paper? for slums in two months on 28.05.03 she
was requested in person to not reduce Plan
entitlements to white paper. Two months later Arjun
Camp residents and those from other slums and
elsewhere engaging likewise appealed to her to discuss
in the Assembly on 28.07.03 not an admittedly illegal
Cooperative Bill but the promised White Paper, but
there was no White Paper. On 22.08.03 in the Arjun
Camp matter the Court strictly ordered DDA to reply to
questions of entitlements and allegations of misuse of
land meant for EWS housing. Unmindful of the Court?s
order, besides Election Commission directive,
harassment continued, as did business as usual in
Sahara, and on 31.08.03 residents lodged a request in
the Police Station and wrote to DDA VC to advise local
DDA staff and Police and, if necessary, identify an
?interim? site for them to shift to till their matter
is settled by the Court.
On 03.09.03, exactly at the same time that Ms Dikshit
arrived at the ?official function? to celebrate her
grossly illegal liver Institute, DDA and Police
arrived in Arjun Camp and, without work order or
document to show, abused and threatened residents,
confiscated without receipts building material they
had salvaged from the demolition, destroyed their
belongings and threw them out on the road to build a
high wall to ?block off? the site.
On 25.07.03, while promising wholehearted bhagidaari
for patently ill-informed NGO ideas for the homeless
and Master Plan (which Ms Dikshit, despite sworn
allegiance to the Constitution, publicly disparages
along with DDA, Police and all else outside her
?control?), CM advised citizens to keep whistles to be
able to get together to beat up anyone who harassed
them, including Police. On 03.09.03, with the area?s
public representatives and servants all attending an
?official function? to celebrate violation of the law
to score brownie points for an Assembly election,
misguided non-bhagidaars in Arjun Camp, who foolishly
sought on 28.07.03 accountability on a promised White
Paper instead of going out to buy Pocket Whistles,
paid heavily for not heeding their progressive CM?s
progressive advice. One can only hope they remain
regressive, despite the stiff odds.
Gita Dewan Verma / Planner / 03.09.03
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
http://search.yahoo.com