People equally to blame for Delhi's woes

Pollution, traffic congestion, insanitation, unauthorised construction and violent crime have turned the national capital into a living hell, say experts and concerned citizens.

While decisions like the recent one announced by Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna to clean up areas around Jantar Mantar and New Delhi railway station are welcome, a more comprehensive approach is needed to tackle the city's many woes, they say.

And it is not just the government that is to be blamed, they say. The people also contribute to the mess and local, neighbourhood initiatives would go a long way in making the city pleasantly livable once again, was the common refrain.

''The local legislative assembly members should be made accountable for the upkeep of his area and should be actively involved along with volunteer groups to launch cleanliness drives,'' says the Conservation Society of Delhi's Madhu Bajpai.

Experts are also suggesting mild punitive action against residents found dirtying their environs.

''It is a typical Indian habit. People keep their houses clean and throw the garbage on the roads,'' says Dr Bindeshwari Pathak, pioneer of the acclaimed Sulabh International Movement.

''Those sticking posters and pamphlets should be given 10 days to remove them. The defaulters should be penalised by the municipal authorities,'' says Bajpai.

Well-known consumer activist and Common Cause director H D Shourie also echoes the need to inculcate a sense of neatness in Delhi-ites.

Besides neighbourhood initiatives for cleanliness, schemes such as ''Neighbourhood Watch'' are also needed to check the growing crime graph which has made the capital unsafe, Shourie adds.

But by far the most important problem facing the capital is that of unauthorised constructions which are ''strangulating the city'', he says.

Half of Delhi's 10 million population is estimated to live in slums and unauthorised colonies. These unauthorised colonies further strain the city's inadequate infrastructure, resulting in insanitary living conditions.

Shourie squarely blames politicians, who hold these clusters as ''vote banks'', for the problems. ''Bureaucrats turn a blind eye to them for their own interest. How else can unsanctioned three and four-storeyed buildings come up right under the nose of the Delhi Development Authority and the Municipal Council of Delhi,'' he says.

Noted town planner Sayed S Shafi also pins the blame on decision-makers, who have ''neither the vision nor the will and courage to plan for the city or to stem the rot''.

The towns around the National Capital Region should be developed in right earnest to stem the flow of immigrants to Delhi, he adds.

The veteran town planner, who was part of the capital's first planning team, the Delhi Development (Provisional) Authority set up in 1956, singles out environmental degradation as the worst problem bedevilling the city.

While 17 canals drain out millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Yamuna, power stations located in the heart of the city spew out hundreds of tonnes of fly ash.

''The Indraprastha and Raj Ghat thermal power stations were located in the city centre despite express written advice of the planners. As a result, recent surveys show 30 per cent of the school children in their vicinity are suffering from bronchial asthma and other respiratory disorders,'' says Shafi.

The chaotic public transport system adds to the pollution and increased stress levels, says Shourie.

''A multi-modal rapid transport system is needed to reduce the pollution and congestion on the city roads,'' adds Shafi.

Suggesting that Lieutenant Governor Khanna and his special secretary Kiran Bedi travel incognito like the legendary Haroun Al Rashid to see first hand the people's problems, the veteran town planner accuses the policy-makers of misplaced priorities.

''Why is the government willing to spend millions of rupees on building 15 more five-star hotels in the capital while not sparing a thought for infrastructure,'' Shafi asks.

Dr Pathak, whose Sulabh International works in 800 towns and cities in 22 states in the country, says Delhi is the most difficult place to work in. ''Decisions are delayed and reversed, leading to a generally slow pace of work,'' he says.

Citing slums as an example, Dr Pathak says the government is neither removing them nor providing facilities to the people to live in hygienic conditions. As a result, insanitation prevails.

Identifying sanitation as the single most important issue, Dr Pathak estimates that the city needs at least 5,000 more public toilets. The present 400 are totally inadequate to meet the people's needs and are often ill-maintained, making their use impossible.

Non-governmental organisations and people's initiatives can only be supplementary to government efforts as resources are needed on a huge scale, he adds.

All agree that though the situation is bad, it is not beyond repair, provided the government and the people put the revival of the city on top of their agenda.

UNI

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