Housing / Heritage

Slums are backlog on DMP housing for the poor, driven to protected or derelict space. NCMP references to social housing and renewal are in line with trends seeking to open up in DMP2021 this space and DMP space meant for the poor. But its promise of no evictions and interpretation by President and PM lend them also to DMP convergent perspective.

Convergence opportunities and imperatives

• Request to DST for its seismicity studies in walled city in view of likely convergence with DMP imperatives and consequent NCMP opportunities for reversing ad-hoc redevelopment trends, enclosing earlier publication on inner city renewal (08 June 2004)
• Joint Demand from citizens groups in 20 ridge area "slums" to stop evictions as per NCMP promise till DMP housing solution / hearing by Parliamentary Committee on fourth "anniversary" of summary demolition for illegal Sultangarhi scheme on 5 July 2000 and start of DMP efforts (4 July 2004)
• NCMP-DMP Note-5 about DMP solutions for ridge, riverbed and housing, NCMP commitments for housing and renewal, subversive policy of recent years and inertial initiatives, and minimum accountability imperatives (also enumerating NCMP-DMP efforts by citizens) (5 July 2004)
• s.41(3) application for examining legality and propriety of willful dispossession for willful development in riverbed and ridge in letter to Secretary MoUD (5 July 2004)
• Offer-cum-demand for initiative against government encroachment on public land equaling that against encroachment on "government land" in letter to CVC with copies to other Commissions, CBI and Parliamentary Committee (6 July 2004)
• Request, with reference to reports of deaths in Bawana, for clarification of legality of resettlement and response to demand for legal relocation options by those facing banishment to Bawana in letter to DDA VC and others (7 July 2004)

Subversions

• Demolition threat in Pushta (27 May): Letter to DDA Commissioner (Planning) to personally ensure no demolitions till clarifications pending and to Secretary MoUD for assessment of clearance as per same decision by which it was started.
• Report of foreign jaunts for Games Village on riverbed (7 June): Letter to Secretary MoUD about illegality of expense on such (as last made on illegal hotels / Malls project in ridge in 1996), and to ask for Pushta clearance assessment and about letter about NGO anti-Plan propaganda and DMP violations on ridge, riverbed, etc, forwarded for appropriate action as per President Secretariat letter of 11.02.04.
• Builders awards for architectural excellence to DMP violations in ridge and riverbed, etc, given by President (7 June): Letters, including to Secretary MoUD in view of letter forwarded by President Secretariat, to ask also for Pushta clearance assessment and compliance of court order of 16.09.02 for inquiry into illegal Sultangarhi scheme in ridge area (also forwarded for appropriate action as per President Secretariat letter of 18.06.04).
• Committee set up to prepare "Slum-free Master Plan" in 2 weeks (26 June): Citizens demand for hearing by Parliamentary Committee, s.41(3) application to Secretary MoUD to examine legality and propriety of DDA participating in committee and in decisions to dispossess in ridge and riverbed, letter to Commissioner (Planning) to ask about his decision to serve as Member Secretary of it, etc
• Demolition threat, without formal notice or response to requests for legal options, in Lal Khet / ridge (02 July) (6 old settlements with about 1000 families, lately come in the way of scheme for Malls and so-called "biodiversity park" usurping DMP residential land, sub-judice): Fax to PM to report imminent breach of NCMP promise against forcible eviction, pledge of responsive administration, etc (02 July 2004)
• Demolition without notice in Masudpur Harijan Basti (08 July), affecting also those also evicted in 2003, with their case staking claim to housing site still occupied by Sahara Restaurant-Bar of DDA scam fame still sub-judice: Letters to report NCMP breach, with pictures of illegal boring and club construction on adjoining site in same DMP park cleared of slum in 2003, etc (8 July 2004)
• Start of Pushta-like "camps" to evict Lal Khet and of illegal boring for Malls (09-12 July): Letter to Secretary MoUD and others to stop both (12 July 2004).
• NGO application to court-appointed Empowered Committee to declare Lal Khet area forest (13 June): Letter to Committee to point out existing DMP / CGWA protections, matter being sub-judice in PIL based on efforts of local citizens groups seeking enforcement of existing protections and solutions since 2000, etc (20 July 2004)
• Plans about Sultangarhi scheme (14 June): Letter to LG / DDA Chairman to request compliance of court order of 16.09.02 for inquiry and information of outcome of Public Notice to which 1700 families responded to object to the scheme and directions for stopping Malls/Park scheme involving identical illegalities (21 July 2004)
• Three more borings and earthwork machines in readiness to start on Malls site: Letter with pictures to Secretary MoUD and others, also with picture of willful NDA government riverfront scheme calling for Pushta clearance appearing in a newspaper as UPA scheme for riverfront, etc (23 July)
• Informal / oral "notice" for demolition on 29 July announced in Lal Khet: Letter to DDA VC and others enumerating statutory / judicial / parliamentary processes, besides NCMP promise and pledge, that proposed demolition would frustrate (26 July 2004)
• Open letter about willful dispossession for willful development and start of citizens protest against (27 July), forwarded by President Secretariat to Secretary MoUD for appropriate action as per letter of 30.07.04
• NCMP subversion - Capital Case:MALLS on RIDGE / PARK on POOR | The case against unplanned development in general | The case against the unplanned scheme in lal khet area | The case against unplanned resettlement | The pursuit of planned development (and indifference thereto) (27 July 2004).
• Late evening summary demolition of a school for the non-rich near Sultangarhi (27 July): Letter to DCP (SW) and others about demolition done and demolition proposed and concerted but unsuccessful efforts, including by children in both places, to meet "someone" (28 July 2004), forwarded by President Secretariat to Secretary MoUD for appropriate action as per letter of 03.08.04
• NCMP subversion - Capital Case: Dispossession on riverbed: 800 homes demolished in Pushta on 27 July 2004, Times of India news report of 28.07.04
• NCMP subversion - Capital Case: Dispossession in Lalkhet (in Delhi Ridge): Demolition of 29 July 2004 that looked a lot like Pushta demolitions, though people burst briefly the war-bubble with decision to "co-operate" (forced by all-round indifference of previous day) to prevent breach of NCMP promise of forcible eviction – account of "dignified dispossession" oxymoron (31 July 2004)
• DDA counsel claimed in High Court that Supreme Court had allowed in later PIL Malls and boring (4 August): Letter to Empowered Committee (with copy to others) for hearing and copy of whatever NGOs (instrumental in Supreme Court clearance of 1997 for DMP violating Hotel and institutional allotments in part of the site including Malls) had filed for seeking forest status in contravention of DD Act for the area.
• Report of High Court order for compliance report on Pushta clearance in 2 weeks (4 August): Letter to Secretary MoUD requesting response to applications about willful dispossessions for willful development in ridge and riverbed
• Supreme Court issues notice in PIL against Akshardham Temple (9 August 2004)
• Report of Supreme Court appointing committee for the river (6 August 2004)
• (Imminent) NCMP subversion: Riverbed: Yamuna riverbed has come suddenly alive in courts (and hence in media, with politics likely to follow). Illegal dispossession for illegal development on it has also lately resumed. The two might be unconnected. Or government might be inertially poised to secure judicial endorsement for more riverbed shenanigans.

Links to previous posts, etc

Slumming Delhi (Talk), January 2003

Entitlements at risk DMP2021 Minder / Track / Entitlements – Housing, Carrying capacity based sustainable development, Conservation and integration for continuity (up to August 2003)

Sultangarhi case against illegal scheme in ridge area for which part of 50-year old settlement was demolished and which High Court ordered stopped and inquired into in judgment of 16.09.02 (chronicle up to June 2003)

Arjun Camp cases, against misuse of sites and stock meant for DMP housing for the poor and for housing as per DMP instead of in illegal sub-standard resettlement, waiting final disposal, with order of November 2003 connecting the slum problem to its DMP housing solution

• PIL against unplanned development jeopardizing DMP entitlements of old communities in ridge area, in which the state is clearly deploying adversarial dilatory tactics while making the matter infructuous with evictions, as in Lal Khet (filed December 2003)

Letter to Standing Parliamentary Committee, President and Chief Justice about DMP violations with reference to statement against / call for public debate about so-called Housing Rights Event at World Social Forum 2004 at Mumbai, January 2004 (forwarded to Secretary MoUD for appropriate action as per letter of 11.02.04 from President Secretariat)

• Pushta SLP (with additional affidavit about the first dispossession and the illegal resettlement of some in Holambi Kalan), dismissed without hearing, 15 March 2004

Pushta dispossession accounts on mpisgmedia mail-list (January-May 2004)

• s.11A suggestion to demolish Metro Depot, etc, in compliance of High Court order for riverbed encroachments, in response to Public Notice for releasing land from purview of DMP restrictions for so-called Metro Property Development (reiterating suggestion made since order of 03.03.03), May 2004