For 30 per cent of Delhi’s population, which lives in unauthorised or illegal colonies, there is a battle to be won every day.
One spell of rain and the cramped lanes are flooded with knee-deep water. It is not unusual for children returning from school to brave the ugly cocktail of sewage, garbage and rainwater.
This is not to say that life here is good on a sunny day.
In Chandan Vihar in north-east Delhi’s Burari, 16-year-old Himanshu Kumar has just resumed school after recovering from dengue. Residents here rue the lack of an effective drainage system, which results in stagnating nallahs. “There have been at least four dengue cases here this season. The drains spill over to the streets and there is no way for the water to flow,” said Tribhuvan Nath Chaurasia, who has been living in Chandan Vihar for more than two decades.
Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain feels that roads in the Capital’s unauthorised colonies need immediate attention, but the residents beg to differ.
All inhabitants of the colonies The Hindu visited expressed concern over the lack of well-connected drainage networks. The situation is particularly bad in colonies of south Delhi, which includes Jawahar Park, Shiv Park and Krishna Park in Ambedkar Nagar, and most of Sangam Vihar.
Last year in April, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced that 895 illegal colonies would be developed based on six broad parameters — roads, sewage, drains, street lights, water and sanitation. The number increased to 1,797 colonies by March this year after the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (DSIIDC) was given complete charge of the project, which is estimated to be worth Rs. 3,640 crore.
Residents unaware
However, work is yet to begin in all the colonies The Hindu visited. The residents, in fact, are completely unaware of the government’s plan.
More than a year after the project was announced, it seems to be stuck at a stage where surveys are still being conducted. When asked about the status, Mr. Jain said: “Just a few days ago I approved development works to be carried out in 40 colonies of Najafgarh. Meanwhile, a survey is being carried out to get a constituency-wise project estimate.”
Multiple challenges
There is no dearth of challenges staring at the project, which envisages development of around 14,000 acres of land falling under unauthorised colonies in the Capital.
“There is still ambiguity in the total number of colonies that need to be developed. This is because of multiple ownership of land covering approximately 301 unauthorised colonies, which results in overlapping. Consequently, the same colony is being counted more than once. This is why the survey report, which is currently being conducted by a consultant, is going to be significant as we will get the exact figures,” said a senior DSIIDC official. Some of this land is with the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) while some of it is forest area or with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Records with the government say that, so far, development work has been completed in 755 colonies while the DSIIDC is yet to begin work in 620 other colonies in the next phase. It must be noted that most of the works that have been counted as ‘completed’ in the 755 colonies are those which were sanctioned way back during former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s tenure.
“These works were carried out by agencies like the Public Works Department (PWD), Flood and Irrigation Department, MCDs and the DSIIDC. But now, the DSIIDC is responsible for building or renovating roads and storm water drains; the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has to upgrade water and sewer lines while the distribution companies have to ensure adequate street lights in these colonies.
Deadline set
The government has now set a deadline of December 2017 for finishing all ‘development’ works, but it remains to be seen if building roads and sewer lines alone will be enough for these matchbox houses in case a major earthquake hits the city. Out of the five categories in the country-wide macro earthquake zone, Delhi falls in the second highest impact zone — Zone-IV.
