We are the law

Just how brazen politicians can get is demonstrated by Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy's statement, in the wake of demonstrations against the sealing of illegal buildings in the Capital turned violent and resulted in three deaths on Wednesday. The government will call a joint session of Parliament, and amend the Constitution, if need be, Reddy said, reiterating that the government is serious about the notifications that have sought to regularise most of the irregular construction done in New Delhi over the past decades. Fortunately, what Mr Reddy threatens is easier said than done, since it means taking on an already incensed judiciary and involves a President who has already played hardball on the Office of Profit Bill. Mr Reddy says the duty of the courts is to interpret the law given to them by Parliament, which is true enough. But in the given context, and bearing in mind the history of the issue, there is no certainty that the courts will allow the government to do what it pleases, since they have already castigated the government for trying to circumvent their orders through legislative action""in May, Parliament passed a Bill which put a moratorium of a year on all sealing and demolition work. Getting a joint session of Parliament to change Delhi's Master Plan or to amend the Constitution will also mean that the Congress Party will have to co-ordinate with the BJP, which may run away with the cream by claiming that it should get the credit for regularising Delhi's blatant building violations.

The glaring feature of this particular scandal is the complicity of all concerned, from politicians to bureaucrats, and from law-breaking builders to willing buyers of illegal shops and houses. The Delhi Development Authority gets the first prize since its incompetence and lethargy in developing commercial space""it has developed just 16 per cent of the commercial space required by the city so far""are being used to justify the rampant misuse of residential areas for commercial purposes. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi turned a Nelson's eye (presumably not because of altruism) while the illegal construction and violation of zoning laws took place, and refused to take action for decades as commercial complexes came up in the middle of residential areas, often without adequate parking space. Indeed, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) several years ago showed that between 68 and 93 per cent of unauthorised constructions that were ordered to be demolished by the Delhi authorities during 1995-2 000 were never even touched by the bulldozer, 82 per cent of buildings to be demolished escaped in south Delhi, and the figure for the Najafgarh zone was a whopping 93 per cent. So firm is the nexus between politicians and builders/traders that when the Delhi Rent Act, which sought to evict tenants who refused to vacate properties for generations, was passed by Parliament and even signed by the President, the traders' lobby in the Capital managed to ensure that the Bill never got gazetted! And right through all this, the politicians refused to modify Delhi's Master Plan, which is clearly out of sync with the Capital's needs and development""why change the Master Plan when the authorities can be persuaded to turn a blind eye to any and all violations? The irony is that Delhi is positioning itself as a world-class city as it readies for the Commonwealth Games.