After the delays plaguing the Kathputli Colony in-situ redevelopment scheme, a public-private partnership project, the Delhi Development Authority is set to embark on the redevelopment of another slum cluster, this time in North-West Delhi, but as an in-house project.
Jailorwala Bagh, is a slum in Ashok Vihar, housing around 1,400 jhuggis and home to nearly 7,000 people. Residents say they settled here in 1990, with over 90 per cent of them natives of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. Unlike Kathputli Colony, where the residents are apprehensive about the redevelopment scheme because people would have to relocate to transit camps, two kilometres away at Baljeet Nagar in Anand Parbhat, the people here welcome the project and are anxious that it start soon.
“In Jailorwala Bagh, there is ample vacant land around the slum, which we can utilise to relocate the people during the redevelopment work. Unfortunately, all the area around Kathputli Colony is occupied and relocating them was the only option for us,” said a DDA official.
This new DDA project, envisaged in 2007 as a public-private partnership, aims to build 1,600 dwelling units each of 30.5 square metre (328 sq. ft.) area in nine-storey towers also equipped with elevators. It will also boast a multi-purpose community hall, basti vikas kendra, religious structures and a police chowki.
The Master Plan had originally earmarked the land for recreational use, and converting the land-use to residential was finally achieved in October 2010. The official said that 400 units were additionally being built to resettle slum dwellers from other colonies. He expected the project to begin by the year-end. A survey by the DDA has found 1,200 households at Jailorwala Bagh eligible for new houses.
Shiv Bachan Singh, a schoolteacher living here says: “All the jhuggis here are identical 100 square feet cramped units. There is no infrastructure here – either sewage or drinking. If the DDA sticks to its plans and delivers what it promises our standard of living will improve.”
Over 90 per cent of the families are Dalits here, says Bipin Kumar of the Rashtriya Dalit Mahasabha. He has been undertaking a survey of the households here to ascertain their socio-economic conditions.
Bipin lists the absence of adequate public toilets as a major problem facing the residents here. There are 18 toilets for men and 18 for women for the 7000-strong community. “People are forced to defecate in the open areas around the slum without adequate toilets. They can not be blamed for the unhygienic conditions. The DDA should delay the redevelopment project anymore.”
Long rubber hose pipes, one to each jhuggi, snake along the mud from the lone Delhi Jal Board source of water in the colony. But the pipes rarely bring water and the residents rely on tubewell water supply which they say is of poor quality.
However, the residents alleged that an affluent Residents Welfare Association in the area is hindering the redevelopment plan because it fears the influx of more slum-dwellers to Jailerwala Bagh and consequent expansion of the slum.
