The Hindu : Teeming millions, tottering city

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 19, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Teeming millions, tottering city

Once the nation's showpiece, it's now bursting at the seams. Sujay Mehdudia writes on New Delhi's decline.

Chaos reigns during rush hour.

OVER THE past few decades, the national capital has attracted people in droves from far and near. Besides being the centre of "political activity", many see it as a "city of opportunity". The result: unimaginable chaos and a city bursting at the seams.

Inadequate civic infrastructure, mushrooming jhuggi-jhonpri clusters, illegal colonies and lawlessness have all contributed to an overall decline in the standard of living and quality of life.

In 1911, urban Delhi had a population of only 2.5 lakhs. Following Partition, there was a massive influx of refugees which pushed the population to around 14.5 lakhs by1951. The figure is ten times that now.

However, this huge population has not been dispersed evenly over the entire capital comprising all of 1,483 sq km.

Most of the human habitats and activities have been concentrated in a 30-sq km area around Raisina Hill.

According to the former Member-Secretary, National Capital Region Planning Board, Omesh Saigal, the population explosion in and around Delhi has not been mainly due to natural growth.

Following the influx of a huge refugee population immediately after Partition, 5.3 lakh people migrated to Delhi during 1961-71. But in the next decade (1971-81), this figure rose to 12.3 lakhs, while the decadal migration figure during 1981-91 is estimated at 20 lakhs.

In addition to this is the floating population. It is estimated that three to five lakh people commute to Delhi every day from the National Capital Region townships (in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan) adding to the day-time population.

A strong proponent of the NCR concept, Delhi's Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, says: "Apart from the ever-increasing migratory population, it is this floating population which walks in and out of Delhi that is of great concern. I had suggested that a Common Economic Zone be established among the NCR States in order to have an equitable distribution of trade, economic activity and opportunities. But the NCR concept has failed to take off despite our repeated requests to the Union Government to give a fresh impetus to this area. Already the pressure on civic amenities is becoming too difficult to handle. Some concrete steps need to be taken to set our priorities right otherwise everything will fall apart in a few years time."

Ms. Dikshit says the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) set up in 1985 through an Act of Parliament has failed to achieve its objectives mainly due to the failure of the Central Government to seriously pursue the idea in its entirety.

"The policy makers and planners have gone wrong somewhere and this wrong needs to be set right," she says, adding that it was important that the NCR was developed as an integrated spatial system of urban and rural settlements to accommodate economic activities and to provide socio-economic opportunities and infrastructure for all.

An efficient rail and road-based mass transportation system well integrated with land use patterns, economic activities and settlement systems should be put in place, she says.

In addition to this, the NCR plan should be implemented with the active participation of the public, private and joint sectors.

It is not that a serious attempt has never been made. During the tenure of Jagmohan as Union Urban Development Minister, industries slowly started shifting to the NCR region along with the workforce. Besides, work started on the ground level for integration of the NCR region.

"Development of the NCR is a national commitment. We should honour this commitment by bringing vision and will to the task," says Mr. Jagmohan.

Arguing that a speedy and balanced development of the region would act as a pace-setter for regional development and also check the growing rural-urban divide, Mr. Jagmohan says this in turn will save the capital from getting choked. It is at his instance that "direct dialling facility" was extended to the neighbouring satellite towns. Similarly, steps were taken for development of highways and a ring road for the NCR. For its part, the Ministry of Power set up a committee to conduct a techno-economic feasibility study to establish captive power generation plants and carve out a sub-grid for the NCR within the northern grid. But soon after his exit, all these initiatives fell apart.

Planners say the State Governments in the NCR should stop offering lucrative packages for industrial and commercial entrepreneurs and the same should be extended to the NCR magnet townships.

They suggest that a committee should be set up at the State level to coordinate various development initiatives in the counter-magnet areas with other development programmes relating to agriculture, marketing infrastructure, rural roads and electrification.

The counter-magnet towns should be given priority status for the purposes of institutional funding of various development projects such as infrastructure and housing.

Migration from other States is another serious challenge. Adding to this has been the inflow of people from Bangladesh and Tibet which has led to further deterioration in social and civic services.

These people live in slums on the fringes of various undefined service sectors. It is estimated that around five lakh people are added to Delhi's exploding population every year, putting endless pressure on the civic services.

Be it hospitals, transport, power, water or other civic amenities, they have all come under strain due to the continued influx.

The end result of all this has been several social, civic, economic and environmental problems.

For instance, Delhi's water supply requirement is estimated at 2,950 million litres a day against which only 2,120 MLD is available. Not to talk of the reduced supply during peak summer months which is further aggravated by the erratic supply of untreated water from Haryana.

Another major area of concern is sewage and solid waste disposal. Delhi generates around 6,000 tonnes of solid waste every day and only around 4,000 tonnes is disposed of by the civic agencies.

The solid waste generation is expected to touch around 8,000 tonnes over the next three years. Similarly, there has been an all-round degradation of the environment with pollution touching a new high, until the Supreme Court intervened.

Even then environmental <147,1,0>pollution continues to be two-and-half-times more than the permissible limits.

Vehicular pollution alone accounts for around 1,300 tonnes of pollutants everyday. It is estimated that 2,500 tonnes of pollutants are emitted into the atmosphere every day.

In fact, the failure of the Central and State Governments to deflect economic and administrative activity from the capital to the areas of the National Capital Region (NCR) States — Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh — has resulted in all Plan projections going haywire.

Delhi is virtually heading for a "population explosion".

Various studies have warned of an alarming situation, unless immediate remedial measures are taken. The population has been growing at a rapid pace of 5 per cent annually.

"This trend is likely to witness a sharp increase in the near future and the projections are that it would touch 170 lakhs by 2005. And if this population explosion happens, then the pressure on civic services will increase tremendously, resulting in the crumbling of the civic infrastructure," warn experts.

Pressure on infrastructure aside, NCRPB officials attribute the recent spurt in crime in the capital and its neighbourhood to this massive inflow of people from the NCR States and other parts of the country and the failure to shift economic activity to Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

"If this trend of migration into the capital continues unchecked, it would lead to sharp increase in crime and related activities in the next five years," they caution.

Poor implementation of the Regional Plan — the magnetic features of Delhi proving too strong to deflect the population flow elsewhere — and the lack of will to shift Government offices to the NCR areas are being cited as some of the reasons for the problems.Also, it is felt in certain quarters that the subsidisation of the various services to the residents of the capital has contributed to this grim scenario. According to official estimates, every Delhiite enjoys a massive subsidy of Rs. 7,000 per head on various civic amenities, including transport, water and power.

With the services coming cheap, more and more outsiders are making a beeline for the capital.

The Regional Plan had estimated a deflection of 20 lakh people from Delhi by 2001.

But the efforts have not taken off due to the slow pace of development of the NCR and the tardy process of decentralisation of economic activities.

On the basis of the present data, it is assumed that in the next five years, Delhi would have a population of 170 lakhs followed by the Uttar Pradesh sub-region (135.57 lakhs), the Haryana sub-region (102.79 lakhs) and the Rajasthan sub-region (23.01 lakhs).

Incidentally, in the Regional Plan, Delhi's population was projected at 132.60 lakhs by 2001, but it has now touched 1.40 crores.

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