CALCUTTA'S HOUSING PROBLEM One of the first pronouncements, made after the United Front Government started functioning, was on the housing problem in Calcutta. If housing for the middle and low-income groups is considered, the projects ready and under way would hardly touch the fringe of the problem. Housing for bustee dwellers, who are a legion within the heart of this metropolis, is still more a difficult problem to solve. No Planning The middle-class in the city has over the years become more or less house-less. There have been a massive transfer of properties within Calcutta. The rental has also registered a sharp rise, quite beyond the means of the ordinary man in the city. It is the finding of the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation that there is no planning at the State level, based upon actual housing needs. The planning activity has, so far, been confined within recommending a few projects under each scheme and demanding funds from the Centre to finance such projects. The Housing Department is yet to develop a housing policy for the State. Apart from the Central schemes or individual projects, there is no public housing programme for the urban or rural areas of the State. Few schemes, which are completed, show that construction is far below the standard compared to cost incurred. In some schemes, in which houses were built hardly a year ago, doors and windows are cracking off. Plasterings are also falling off. Invariably in almost all the Government -constructed buildings under the housing programme, electrical wirings and sanitary fittings including pipes, used for water supply are, to express in the popular way 'rotten' indeed. Plots of land, acquired and alloted by the Government, are fairly priced unlike those allotted by the Calcutta Improvement Trust, which by its method of distributing such properties, had a share of responsibility to shoot up prices of urban properties. The townships, built by the Government, are taking unusually long time to build infra-structure. Allotment of plots had been made without any regard for the principle that a township is being built for the middleincome group. Moreover, a strong bias has been maintained for distribution of not only the plots of land but also for allotting builtin houses to the Government servants. And 'benam' holdings too are there. In the previous Ministry the Minister, presiding over the housing schemes, had shown a strong tendency to allot land and built houses to his kinsmen. In the Salt Lake Township Scheme price of plots for dwelling houses had been fixed too high so that many, who were given allotments, had declined to finalise the purchase. The United Front went into a close examination of the land prices, fixed at the Salt Lake and gave immediate relief to allottees of small plots by reducing the price by a few hundreds rupees per katha. The new Government also discovered that 400 plots of land reserved for the middle-income group had not actually been distributed although there were thousands of applicants. Fresh announcement has now been made asking those, who had applied earlier but were not allotted any plot, should re-submit their applications with number and date of acknowledgement of their applications submitted to the Government during the Congress regime. Worst Record For any Government to undo undesirable matters now with regard to built-in houses is something impossible to think of. Yet engineers, architects and others, who did a bad job and got promotions, are still holding the promoted places to which they were pushed as a reward for their (bad?) work. The CMPO says that the quality of housing that does exist is poor on the average and at its worst indescribably squalid. This is an observation recorded on an overall basis, covering institutions like hospitals, colleges, jails, etc. From a review, made showing the present progress of Calcutta under the various Government of India schemes, the CMPO says it can be concluded that the current housing policy (policy adopted during the previous Ministry) is nothing more than an ad boc assortment of projects, with little or no relation to real needs or even the realities of the total housing problem. Calcutta's record in housing is undoubtedly worse than that of Bombay or Madras, but is not much different than that of most of other Indian cities. The present Government of India programmes for social housing schemes are themselves a miscellaneous assortment of rules, regulations rewards, and redundancies. It leaves the various house building agencies little choice but to scramble for grants and loans to invest in 100 units of middle-income housing here, 200 units of low-income hou. sing there, and so on. Rethinking Vital There is need for a total rethinking, leading to a reorganisation of the overall role of the Government in housing. More emphasis is required on establishing procedures of private financing so that families with steady income streams can build housing outside of the Government programmes. There is need to improve the architecture and construction techniques to conserve scarce materials, rewrite the building codes, introduce a constructive tax policy, and increase the density of new residential areas within the urban centres. All of these things, as vital as they are, still will not lead to the solution of the problem of housing. The lowest income groups, however, which is a very important subject for the Government to consider. There can be no solution for this group, until there is a realistic understanding of the problem factors of popula tion and per capita income. Road Safety Traffic Police Inadequate To Meet Delhi's Needs An increase of about 30 per cent, in the strength of the Delhi police has been urged by the authorities on the ground that the present force is inadequate to meet the growing needs of the Capital. The demand is under consideration by the Police Commission, which was appointed some time ago to examine the working of the police department in the Union Territory. The police authorities have pleaded for the supply of modern equipment and more motor vehicles to facilitate its mobility. The equipment asked for includes wireless sets, mobile patrol vans and cranes or recovery vans to remove broken down vehicles from thoroughfares. A suggestion has also been made to set up a modern control room for the police. The need for strengthening the force is perhaps most keenly felt in the traffic police. The number of motor vehicles in Delhi has increased three times since 1960, but there has been no corresponding addition to the traffic police. The force at present consists of one Superintendent of Police, one Assistant Superintedent of police, three inspectors, 89 head constables and 748 constables. One fifth of the force is usually on leave. The annual rate of increase in the number of motor vehicles is 16 percent. At this rate there will be 1,50,000 motor vehicles by 1971 and 2,50,000 by 1981. The problems of the traffic police become more difficult because of lack of a traffic and transport policy. There is no check on the number of cycle rickshaws, tongas, rehras and other slow-moving modes of transport. Political Pressure Sometime ago a limit on the number of cycle-rickshaws was put by the Municipal Corporation. However, apparently under political pressure, as many as 1,500 cyclerickshaw licences were issued on the eve of elections in the trans-Yamuna colonies. Restrictions on the movement of tongas in certain areas during Peak hours were relaxed on election eve. There is no limit on the number of rehras, scooter-rickshaws, taxis, fourseaters and other vehicles. The traffic committee recommended the setting up of a transport and traffic department which should include a full-fledged branch of traffic engineers. The recommendation is in the cold storage. The committee recommended that vendors should not be encouraged on the roadside. This too has been ignored and markets have sprung up on the roadside in many, localities. Provision of multi-storeyed parking: places, better street lights and improvement of roads and cycle tracks were among the other recommendations of the committee. which have been ignored so far. Construction Of Overbridges Malhotra To Seek More Funds The Chief Executive Councillor, Mr. V. K. Malhotra, will soon take up with the planning Commission the issue of increased allocation for the construction of overbridges at vital points in the Capital. (Continued on page 18) City Transport TUBE TRANSPORT The Town and Country Planning Organization (TCPO) has suggested to the Delhi Development Authority that there sould be a tube railway in the capital to solve its perennial transport problem. In a detailed study of the transport problem the TCPO has suggested that on the basis of traffic trends the Ring Railway "in its present form may be retained and used purely as a goods avoiding line with margi nal passenger train running between centres to serve the local traffic." It has also pointed out that the proposed Ring Railway does not connect residential areas with offices and commercial centres and educational institutions. To spend the estimated Rs. 25 crores on the scheme even after increasing the lines by four times was, therefore, not worth while "as the benefit will be meagre." According to the TCPO, the tube Railway scheme would cost Rs. 45 crores and is expected to carry one million passengers daily in 1981. The alignment of the Tube Railway would be about 70 km or 44 miles. "The great advantage will be diversion of the passengers, who are using bicycles as their mode of transport today, on to the tube. The number of cyclists with their projections to 1981 works out to about (Continued from page 17) The estimated cost of widening of two bridges and construction of nine overbridges is Rs. 35 crores, but the Fourth Plan has provided only Rs. 8 crores for these projects some of which were scheduled to be completed during the Third Plan period. How proiects have been held up because of lack of funds is illustrated by the Rs. 45lakh Serai Rohilla bridge project undertaken jointly by Northern Railway and the Municipal Corporaton. The Railway has already completed its share of the work at a cost of Rs. 13 lakhs, but the Municipal Corporation has been able to spare only Rs. 50,000 for it. Similarly, for the Patel Nagar overbridge only Rs. 1.5 crores has been sanctioned as against the estmated cost of Rs. 5 cores. 800,000 and at least 80% of them would prefer to go by the tube. The benefits of constructing the tube are thus expected to be in proportion to the investment in it." The TCPO's report says that the construction of the tube railway to connect the Delhi railway station with the New Delhi railway station would greatly reduce the chaos "which prevails due to poor connexions between these two stations". It explains that a large number of passengers who are mostly intra-urban have to get down at the Delhi Main station or the New Delhi station and then make a long journey to reach their destination in the city. "If this link between New Delhi and Old Delhi with the help of the tube is given immediately this will reduce the traffic congestion to a very great extent and relieve these two stations of the burden of suburban traffic passengers. Next on the line wil be the areas of Mehrauli the Central Secretariat, Karol Bagh and Patel Nagar', the report added. It also suggested that the Metropolitan Transport Team of Delhi should request the Planning Commission to earmark funds for detailed investigations to collect the necessary data for a rapid transit system, its mode, type and alignments. Cyclists And A Trip To The Moon According to calculations mads by the the cyclists in the Capital daily can enable Delhi traffic police, the mileage covered by them to have 10 return trips to the moon. An average cyclist covers 10 miles a day. Delhi's 5,25,000 cyclists thus cover 52,50,000 miles daily. The distance between the earth and the moon is 2,38,857 miles. If lined bumper to bumper, Delhi's cyclists will go round the carth 500 times. If all the cyclists from Ramakrishnapuram to the Central Secretariat are asked to go back home in the evening in a single line, the last man will reach his house at 4-30 p.m. the following day. These figures have been worked out by the Statistics Department of the Traffic Police. Delhi The number of fire outbreaks reported in Delhi nearly doubled in April and May. As against 155 fires reported in March 294 fires broke out in the city during May. June would be worse still as far as fires are concerned. The maximum number of fires are reported during May and June every year, according to Chief Fire Officer A. B. Advani. This is because high temperature, dry weather and the frequent dust-storms help spread the fire. Jhuggies and Jompris are the worst hit during these months. Nearly 50 per cent of the fires are caused by carelessly thrown burning cigarette butts. "Actually, taking into account the careless habits of the people." Mr. Advani said, "the fire incidence should be much more. What saves us is the fact that a large number of people in the jhuggies smoke biris which burn out much more quickly than cigarettes." This year the Delhi fire service plans to acquire wireless sets to ensure quicker and smoother service. Some of these sets were introduced in 1962 but due to foreign exchange difficulties they had to be removed. To begin with the fire service will acquire on an experimental basis seven Indian sets. At present, if a fire unit needs additional equipment at a certain spot, it has to look for a telephone to inform the sub-station. Also, while a unit is out and a fire breaks out in another area nearby, the control room cannot inform it to rush to that spot but has to send out another unit. The fire service, Mr. Advani said, had expanded considerably in the last five years. Against the seven sub-stations in 1962 the city had now 13. Fire appliances have increased from 25 to 70 and the staff from 250 to 650 since 1962. Each sub-station is so located that it can reach any given spot within five minutes. To be "a really efficient" service it will require seven stations. As regards the frequent complaint that SERVICE fire engines take much longer to reach the scene of a fire, Mr. Advani said it was "completely false." In most cases the fire was not reported to the station soon after it broke out. People gathered at the spot but few cared to confirm whether anyone had got in touch with the fire service for help. From the time the report of a fire was received, it took one and a half minutes for a fire unit to be on its way to the spot. This could be quicker still if the fire service men were working in two shifts and were always ready in their uniforms. The service is thinking of introducing a double shift from this year. |