'Urban discipline need of the hour'

By Kalpana Sharma

NEW YORK, JUNE 7. The Minister for Urban Development, Mr. Jagmohan, stopped short of admitting that the three-day U.N. special session on urban problems was a waste of time. ``I can't say it is pointless,'' he told Indian journalists, ``but something solid must be done.''

In his speech to the General Assembly, he said the imbalances of the present times, coupled with a system which continued to deepen these imbalances, had made it difficult for developing countries to solve their problems inspite of bringing the necessary will and vision to the task.

On asked what the Government was doing to fulfil the commitments it had made at Istanbul, Mr. Jagmohan said the task was not easy. Urban discipline was needed and cities had been taken over by the land and builders' mafia, he added.

The Minister said more than one lakh people had been resettled in the last few years. Citing New Delhi as an example, he said the new settlement in Narela, where slumdwellers from the heart of the capital had been shifted, was a model for what could be done. There was a thinking and ideology behind Narela. In a few years there would be shortage of labour in Narela as the relocated population would find jobs and more jobs would be created. The idea of resettling them was to make them skill- oriented, he said. On the strictures passed by the National Human Rights Commission and the Delhi High Court in response to a public interest litigation petition on the conditions in Narela, Mr. Jagmohan said no one had worried about the rights of these people when they lived alongside a drain for over 30 years. But, when something was done, trouble-makers seeking publicity come into the picture, he said. Mr. Jagmohan also spoke of the programme of rejuvenation of culturally-significant towns which his Ministry had launched. The first town selected for this was Varanasi.

While China registered its presence at every session, India's was hardly felt at the meet. And while many countries had included some of their most outstanding NGOs in their official delegation, the Indian team did not have them.

In fact, India's presence was felt only because of the remarkable intervention by groups such as the National Slumdwellers Federation, represented by the Magsaysay Award winner, Mr. A. Jockin, Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) and Mahila Milan. Their model house and toilet block, and their interventions in the parallel sessions during this meeting were noteworthy.

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Section  : International
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