Demolition drive at Nehru Place

Sudarshana Bannerjee

NEW DELHI: A bulldozer breaks yet another Samsung or a LG sign. Nehru Place, the largest IT retail hub in India, if not Asia, witnessed its worst ever demolition drive ever since it has come into being. Two bulldozers, 200 policemen, accompanied by DDA officials began the drive at around 11 am in the morning. The glow signs of several resellers have been torn down. Air-conditioning systems uprooted. Several glowboxes are left hanging in various stages of being ripped out. And there are shreds of glass and plastic in every square-inch in the heart of Nehru Place.

In a moderate estimate, there are some 800-plus IT resellers in the 1500-outlet hub. A mid-sized Vinyl board comes for Rs 12,000. Airconditioner machines hurriedly plucked out or discarded costs money. Add to the fact that business for the day has come to a standstill, and the cumulative loss of the several hundred shops which have faced the bulldozer, runs into crores.

The official agency in charge of the drive is the Delhi Development Authority(DDA). Ajay Chauhan, one of the engineers in charge, maintenance, DDA, informed that the glow signs outside were illegal, and that several notices had been repeatedly served to the respective shop owners, but without avail. However, none of the twenty odd shop owners contacted by CNS in the four hours that it accompanied the demolition drive, had received any notice to the effect. All of them dared the DDA to produce even a single such issuance of prior warning. Information within the DDA is conflicting as well. Ravindra Kumar Gupta, executive engineer, DDA, under whose area Nehru Place is part, said that the drive was intended to evacuate the hawkers and the vendors who thrive illegally. But what about the glow signs being broken? Why were the air-conditioners ripped apart? "It should not have happened, it was not intended to happen." Quiz him further and he is suddenly very busy. According to yet another highly placed official with DDA, the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, is scheduled to visit the Lotus Temple on February 1, and the cleanliness drive, which includes the areas adjoining the Lotus Temple as well, is to present Vajpayee with a pretty picture. Ironically, the hawkers and vendors were back within fifteen minutes of the bulldozer moving to another wing of Nehru Place, pirated CDs, refills for cartridges and peanuts displayed with equal vehemence once again.

It is interesting to note that Nehru Place was under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, and has only recently been handed over to DDA. According to one of the pirated CD vendors, the DDA was not making as much money or any money on the side. All the more interesting is the fact that no legal notice, order or sanction approving the demolition was forthcoming in the 8 hours the rampage continued. "I have been in piracy for years now. How is piracy still thriving despite the raids and everything?" he questions back.

Kapil Bhatia, of Computerland, sums up the helplessness of the resellers. "The police themselves are supporting this. The company whose products we stock is a global giant and too big to involve itself into such localized feuds. We will bear the Rs 5 lakh or so loss, and negotiate ways to ensure that this does not happen, or at least there is prior information." Yet another pirated CD dealer, who gave his name as Dharmendra, informed CNS that they could see the police coming, and the wooden booths were tucked away strategic moments before the carnage began, and are all unharmed. How can some 100-odd wooden booths disappear in minutes, only to resurface minutes later? Dharmendra grins, "Some of them are stashed away in the adjoining shops, there are other hiding places besides."

Without naming names, A.K. Sehgal, President, Nehru Place Improvement and Welfare Association, said that even as the drive was on, one of the joint directors of DDA was calling repeatedly to call an end to it. "If he had not intervened, the drive would not have trickled out to the adjoining jhuggis." Again, ironically, the plants or borders adjoining the Microsoft building are almost intact. A couple of flower pots were broken down nonchalantly as the angry mob repeatedly pointed out that the structures there were illegal as well. Sehgal too repeats the same refrain. "Why have a demolition drive that meaninglessly destroys the resellers while sparing those with deeper pockets."

What now? "We will have 5000, no, 10,000 people protesting this tomorrow. Nehru Place will be shut. The police station will be gheraoed." Ask the shop keepers, and they are too shocked too even comprehend a contemplative action. Of course associations like the Delhi Computer Traders Association, or the Nehru Place Improvement and Welfare Trust will react. Incredulity apart, there are bound to be backlashes as soon as the exact extent of the damage is assessed.