DITORIAL Second Thoughts on Slum Clearance Mr. Mehr Chand Khanna, Union Minister for Works and Housing, said in Madras on October 27 that the Centre was now having second thoughts on proceeding with slum clearance projects in any large scale. For, he told a news conference, the slum-dwellers after acquiring the tenements at an enormously subsidised cost from the Government sold them away to outsiders, again found themselves in the streets and started new slums. "Our experience in Delhi in this respect is really bad," he said. It was a pity that these poor people did not realise what was good for them. Mr. Khanna found that the Madras Housing Minister, Mr. R. Venkataraman's experience in this regard was no better. Mr. Khanna also said he was unhappy that housing had been given a "back seat" in Central budgetting. The situation became worse when the Chinese aggression inecessitated shelving of housing schemes. Also, the Centre found some State Governments diverted allocations for housing to other projects. He, however, hoped substantial progress could be achieved under the Fourth Five-Year Plan. It is not necessary to quote statistics that a tremendous amount of work has to be done to reduce the number of slumdwellings in India to numbers which would not cause shame to any government and people, and the leeway that remains to be made to provide suitable housing to the rest of the people. Like the problem of food, the problem of housing and slum clearance is overshadowed and greatly affected by the rising population in the country. The work done in the field of slum clearance and housing so far has been more in the nature of window dressing, and in order to make the claim that this social need was not being neglected. Whatever has been done has not made any dent in the collosal backlog. With the economic pressure constantly mounting, one has to be more than an optimist to share the Union Housing Minister's wishful thinking that substantial progress might be made in the fourth Five Year Plan in the field of housing. Month Reviewed Delhi Civic Administration-State Of Civic Bodies Delhi's Civic Administration Delhi's Interim Metropolitan Council was inaugurated on October 11 with a drive-instate and traditional ceremony and the following day, the very first day of business in the Old Secretariat Building (which will cost the tax-payer Rs. 3 lakhs in face-lifting charges) a familiar pattern was repeated, of invective, disorder and shouting, an echo of the famous legislature and the present Corporation, wrote "Argus" in the Hindustan Times. Is this the shape of things to come? Meanwhile the Mayor was assuring an agitated Municipal Corporation that the Council would not infringe on the Corporation's statutory rights! What rights, may we ask? The statutory rights to irresponsibility, corruption, inefficiency and total ineffectiveness? Does this imply a guarantee that the Corporation's consistent civic failure will continue ? Is this what the new set-up is for? We are told there is lack of business be fore the Council. We may be forgiven if we ask where was the need for the Council. We read that an opposition Councillor highlighted the problem of multiplicity of authority, that other speakers emphasized that what the people wanted was not promises but action, and spoke of the need for sinking political differences to make Delhi a "more livable city." Nothing is, and has been more, obvious for over 15 years. We want action, not words, and we just do not see how the New Delhi set-up will do anything about the problems enumerated. The only small mercy for which Delhi citizens can be grateful is that they have, at least for the time being, been spared the farce and expense of a full legislature with a cabinet. Official assurances have been plentiful that the new set-up will solve the problem of multiple authority. How? The Interim Metropolitan Council, headed by the Lt. Governor and his four Executive Councillors, has taken over the functions of the Delhi Administration, and other functions previously performed by Central Government offices, namely, law and order, some medical services, education at a higher level, but only partially, the DDA and so on. After the Delhi Bills, to be considered at Parliament's next session, are passed, the DESU, the DTU and the Delhi Water Supply and Sewage Board will become statutory boards, internally autonomous, but responsible to the Council. Generation of power and the control of the sources of water supply will be the sole responsibility of the Boards but, and this is an important "but," distribution of water and electricity will remain with the Corporation. Road construction and maintenance will continue to be divided between various authorities and development will also remain a divided responsibility between the Corporation and the DDA. The Corporation will be expanded to 98 members. All this does not make sense. We hear that in future all education except primary will probably be taken over by the Council, that there are proposals either to allocate all development activities to the DDA, excluding the Corporation completely, or, alternatively, to abolish the DDA and turn over all development to the Corporation. The second alternative fills one with horror, while the first-coordinated development by a single authority-should have been done years ago. What remains a mystery is why, with the establishment of the Metropolitan Council, the Corporation should exist at all. When the interim period is over and the Council is a fully elected body, the Corporation should be abolished. The only sure forecast, therefore, seems to be that civic chaos will persist, the obvious facts are that much valuable time of persons, all levels of political and administrative responsibility is being wasted, public money squandered, and no improvement worth the name achieved. Perhaps the Transport system will work better, but the medical services will continue to operate without coordination and without uniform standards, roads will continue to be constructed by one authority and dug up the next day by another, essential projects will continue to be delayed for months by shoddy work, corrupt practices, and the present contract system and so on, ad infinitum. Federal capitals, the world over, function without popular governments. Many of them, Canberra for one, which is the same age as New Delhi, are well planned, beautifully maintained, efficiently administered cities, in sharp contrast to our national capital. They are Centrally administered and the people are satisfied. In Delhi the clamour for political representation is restricted to politicians. The popular clamour is for efficient, honest services, and for less political interference. What Delhi needs is a single co-ordinated authority, with many zonal municipal committees, responsible for compact areas carrying out purely civic duties, committees partly elected, partly nominated, with an absolute minimum of politics and a maximum of efficiency and expertise. Even now it is not too late to do some thing. Even if our leaders cannot resist local political pressures and willynilly, we must have all the paraphernalia of a Metropolitan Council, let us at least do away with the discredited Corporation, and be spared the redundancy of two elected bodies. Surely the money wasted on elections alone could be used to advantage to improve the city. So could the money wasted on Councillors. While the Metropolitan Councillors indulge their political ambitions in talk, let small, efficient, municipal committees get on with the job of dealing with the problems of daily life. Delhi has seen and suffered the failure of many experiments. Will this be another? But meanwhile the problems are increasing in magnitude almost daily. How much more discomfort must the taxpayer suffer? How many more opportunities for co-ordi nated planning must be lost? How much further must the city deteriorate into chaos and ugliness before we can have the single responsible authority, answerable to the Government and to the people, which all objective, intelligent and honest observers of the Delhi scene recognize as the only solution ? State Of Civic Bodies A Disirict magistrate in the midst of his multifarious duties and an increasing pressure of work is not able to devote abequate attention to the affairs of the urban local bodies. This is the conclusion reached by an official study. It is said that, while different district magistrates have been known to have taken an active interest in the promotion of medical and educational institituons, the main concern of most of them is the overriding consideration of law and order. It is only in extreme circumstances affecting the interest of the departments of the Government that the matter is brought to the notice of the district magistrate to intervene in securing any modification in municipal administration. The study says that "by and large the municipal bodies are allowed to meddle their way through till a breaking point is reached resulting in the drastic remedy of suppression." It is pointed out that if the municipal bodies are financially strong and administratively well organised and equipped to carry out their local tasks, the interference from the district officer and the State Government is bound to decrease. There are 25 municipal corporations, 1,500 municipalities, 164 notified and 327 town area committees in the country. Town areas are entirely the responsibility of the district magistrate and he exercises an extensive control over its administrative and financial working, often through his subdivisional officers. The town areas do not |