Urban legends, revisited

Jan 11, 2007: The 400-room Rashtrapati Bhavan was sealed yesterday by the Delhi administration after it was found that the building violated several by-laws and had been built on the ridge, a natural forest reserve...

AMONG Delhi's social circles, there are few topics that propel a cocktail group into more furious debate than that of sealing. Ironically, the discussion is most virulent among people who are least affected by the issue. And yet, as the Supreme Court hears a fresh plea by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) seeking to defer the sealing drive today, we need to step outside the drawing room and survey the reality of urban India.

In levels of squalor, inefficiency, noise, disorder, visual pollution, decay and waste, few places in the world — including strife-torn Baghdad — are less hospitable than the Indian City. Just look at the statistics: 400 families move into Mumbai every week. Workers in Mumbai commute from as far off as Baroda, spending 6-8 hours a day between home and office. In Delhi, average commuting time has increased from one to two hours within the last decade. Compare this to 15 minutes in Singapore and 10 in Budapest. In cosmopolitan cities like Manhattan, you can walk/cycle through parks to pick up groceries; take your office break in a tree-lined plaza. The integration of work, home, play is so spontaneous that an active workday still leaves time for a variety of social activities on offer in the city.

Is that the intent behind the mixed-use debate in Delhi? In the race to make Delhi a world city, the bureaucrats seem to be missing some of these less quantifiable values of urban life. A city with global aspirations continually forgets to remind itself of the needs of its long time residents — the millions facing chronic shortages of clean water, air, and power supply. People, who want to send their children to neighbourhood schools, walk in parks without fear of molestation, and occasionally eat at a Chinese restaurant. Is that too much to ask?

... contd.

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