Sealing Delhi: Unease Of Doing Business In The Capital As The Arbitrary Big State Strikes

Mukesh Jha is a migrant from Bihar who, like million others, is trying to eke out a living in the capital city. He started out as a mechanic at an automobile repair shop. Last year, he started his own set-up and rented a small shop in south Delhi; a vibrant market with restaurants, grocery shops, salons and a huge toys showroom. Jha says he was making a decent profit despite paying a princely sum of Rs 3,000 as monthly rent.

But it all came to an abrupt halt in the first week of January when a team of municipal corporation officials and the police arrived, pulled down shutters and 'sealed' all the shops.

"I have literally come on the road," says Jha who has taken to repairing auto rickshaws in a vacant patch outside his shop. When cops arrive, he leaves the spot and goes "here and there" to escape their attention. When the cops leave, Jha resumes his work. "I am barely making Rs 100-150 a day. I am broke," he replies.

Jha isn't angry at the Supreme Court for ordering the sealing drive or at the government for not being able to stop it. Rather, he is most upset with the owner of the shop he has rented, for he never told him that it's unauthorised.

The market has been closed since January. No store owners or customers can be seen. The sight of a man in uniform standing guard outside a locked showroom evokes surprise. "It [the showroom] is stocked with goods," explains Mithilesh Kumar, who is perhaps the only staff to have retained his job in this market of about 50 shops. "Each store gives employment to 10. More than 500 have been rendered jobless," he says.

This market is one of the many that the Delhi municipal bodies have sealed in a massive drive across Delhi over unauthorised construction or non-payment of conversion charges. Orders came from the apex court and a monitoring committee appointed by it is overseeing its compliance.

The drive has led to massive unrest and anger is even spilling in the streets. On Wednesday, traders in thousands turned up at Ramlila Maidan demanding, among other things, immediate relief by de-sealing of around 4,000 shops.

This was the fourth shutdown since the drive began in December. The protest was accompanied by a bandh, so key markets like Karol Bagh, Gaffar Market, Chawri Bazar, Ajmal Khan Road, Azad Market, Fatehpuri, Hauz Khas, South Extension, Defence Colony, Greater Kailash and Kotla as well as most of Old Delhi remained closed, bringing the city’s commercial activities to a standstill.

The two major trade unions, Confederation of All India Traders and Chamber of Trade and Industries, held a rally along with several market associations. They collectively threatened the government that they wouldn't pay their goods and services tax (GST) if the drive isn't stopped.

The trade unions claimed that the bandh caused business losses to the tune of Rs 1,800 crore. It also caused a revenue loss of around Rs 250 crore for the government.

Unrest among traders is rising every passing day and there are fears that the city may witness a repeat of 2006 when the last sealing drive was carried out. During a similar large-scale bandh, traders clashed with the police who opened fire. Four people died, including two children.

But this is one side of the story. The other side is the future of Delhi, which is in danger. The worst fears are that Delhi might go the Mumbai way. It may end up a chaotic urban mess. A disaster.

The entire story begins five decades ago when the Delhi Development Authority, tasked with developing land, came up with a master plan for a planned Delhi in 1962. It followed the basic principle that shopping and residential areas must be segregated, and an industrial zone must be set up outside the city limits. It envisaged a city centre (Connaught Place), at least 75 district centres, 1,250 shopping plazas, 300 community and 3,000 convenient shopping centres.

But most of the plan remained only on paper. A surge in population and immigration triggered a corresponding surge in demand, and private developers stepped in to make the most of the situation. A number of unauthorised colonies, along with slums, came up in areas where they were not supposed to, like agricultural and even government land. Bustling commercial activities started in residential colonies all over the city.

It is this mess that the judiciary is trying to sort out.

The master plan was to be renewed every 20 years. When the 2001 plan came into force in 1991, it led to the Supreme Court ordering 168 hazardous or "polluting" industries to be shifted out of Delhi. By 2000, the Supreme Court was asking almost all commercial units in residential areas to be sealed.

But the government of the day made quick amendments to the master plan and provided relief to the traders.

The Supreme Court hardened its stand in 2005 and appointed a monitoring committee to make sure the units flouting the master plan are sealed. The backlash from the traders, who resorted to violence in desperation, made the government again tweak the plan to assuage them.

What we are witnessing now in Delhi is just a continuation of this long cycle.

In fact, when the traders gathered in Ramlila Maidan on Wednesday, their key demand was an ordinance by the Centre to stop the sealing drive and a notification by the Delhi government to mark 351 residential roads for mixed and commercial use.

No wonder that the Supreme Court was so miffed that in a December hearing, it likened unauthorised constructions to invading. "Invaders have pillaged Delhi for hundreds of years but for the last couple of decades, it has been ravaged by its own citizens and officials governing the capital city..." the bench observed.

If by this time, your sympathies are rolling over to the other side, you must keep in mind that many traders, in fact, do not have much of a choice. The mushrooming of the commercial units happened right under the nose of the successive governments and with help from the municipal corporations. In so many cases, the traders have obtained all sorts of clearances and licences from the civic bodies, only to realise now that they mean nothing because the very land they stand on, doesn't authorise them to run their operations!

Hitendra Kumar, a trader in south Delhi, responded angrily to the drive saying that when the government can't provide jobs to all, why crack down on people earning their livelihood through honest means. "A trader gives employment to so many people. But we are forever caught up with bureaucracy. We feel the axe always, while the bureaucrats and the netas never do," he said. “Will those who let us set up shops go to jails now?” he asks. And that’s a legitimate question.

It's a deadlock with no way out in sight. The city has to choose between its present and its future. The political class has, obviously, always sided with traders and employees. But at what cost?

As this article notes, answers can come only through a cooperative decision-making system and not a competing one. The question is, will they find it?