Common
Cause organized a Press Conference on Wednesday, January 16, 2008
at 3 p.m. at the Press Club of India, Raisina Road, New Delhi –
110001 to focus media attention on the plight of Sewa Nagar Pilot
Project, which was launched by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi
in partnership with Manushi Sangathan, an NGO headed by the noted
author and public activist, Ms. Madhu Kishwar. The Pilot aims to
demonstrate the viability of a self- governing vendor market as
envisaged in the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, 2004.
Considering an imminent threat of take over of the Project by the
local mafia and the repeated attacks by criminal elements operating
in the Project area with impunity on Ms Kishwar and her associates
the situation calls for an immediate and effective response by the
civil society.
A presentation on the Sewa Nagar Pilot and its significance was
made at the Press Conference by Ms Madhu Kishwar. The Press Note
released at the conference is reproduced here.
January 16, 2008
PRESS NOTE
Saving the Sewa Nagar Pilot Project from Imminent
Takeover by Criminal Elements
Since its inception in 1980, Common Cause has been
ventilating significant public causes and striving for a lasting
improvement in the quality of governance. Of late, Common Cause
has been concerned with the legal – administrative environment
in which millions of urban street vendors earn their livelihood
by supplying the goods and services needed by a large section of
the urban population. The chaotic conditions in which urban street
vendors are forced to operate expose them to exploitation by the
civic authorities, the police and the political establishment. They
also suffer extortion and violence at the hands of criminal elements
enjoying the patronage of local politicians and the police. The
lack of discipline on their own part also earns the street vendors
the hostility of other road users and local residents.
There has been a long struggle to devise a policy
frame which would allow this important economic activity to be carried
out in a lawful and systematic manner, without occasioning inconvenience
to other road users and the neighborhoods. The National Policy on
Urban Street Vendors, which was formulated in 2004 and revised in
2007, represents an important landmark in this quest. Ms Madhu Kishwar,
the noted scholar and social activist, has been a key participant
in this policy intervention. She has also come forward to demonstrate
the feasibility of the concept of a self-governing vendor market
through a pilot project launched by the Municipal Corporation of
Delhi at Sewa Nagar, near Defence Colony in New Delhi, with the
express permission of the Supreme Court of India. Supported by the
volunteers of Manushi Sangathan, an NGO headed by Ms. Madhu Kishwar,
the Project met with a remarkable success, thanks to the willing
cooperation of the street vendors of Sewa Nagar. It has won national
and international acclaim as a model which demonstrates the feasibility
of the concept of using public spaces such that the urban poor are
able to earn their livelihood by providing the goods and services
needed by a majority of urban consumers, without posing a hazard
to public order, health and hygiene and aesthetics. The Sewa Nagar
Project has also enjoyed the blessings of the Prime Minister, the
Lt Governor of Delhi and top functionaries of the state and civic
administrations.
The very success of the Pilot Project has, however, made the local
criminal elements, backed by certain sections of the enforcement
agencies and the political establishment, more determined to sabotage
the experiment and capture the vendor market, since its commercial
value has gone up phenomenally in the last three years. There is
a concerted effort to discredit the Project by subverting its discipline,
to intimidate the project personnel through physical violence, canards
and false cases, and to dispossess the allottees of vending sites
of their stalls. Violent attacks have been made on Ms Kishwar and
her key associates, but the perpetrators have been allowed to go
scot-free.
There is an urgent need to focus and sustain media attention on
the significance of the Sewa Nagar Project and its trials and tribulations.
Besides the threat to the person of the architect and prime mover
of the Project, the main issue involved is that of the sustainability
of a civil society initiative for imparting a pro-poor bias to the
policy for utilization of public spaces Another question that needs
an answer is why the sanction of the Apex Court and the patronage
and collective goodwill of the highest national, state level and
civic authorities have not been able to neutralize the nefarious
designs of the local criminal gangs acting in league with certain
sections of the political establishment and elements of the enforcement
agencies. Also at stake is the fate of the National Policy on Urban
Street Vendors, which has the potential to benefit millions of poor
vendors across the country and their families, by allowing them
to operate with dignity and in harmony with their environment, without
the threat of extortion, expropriation and ejection.
Battle for Rights of Street Vendors Turns Life Threatening
for Manushi
As per MCD’s own guestimates, there are over three lakh street
vendors and mobile hawkers in Delhi. But less than 3,000 persons
have managed to secure vending licenses from the MCD and that too
after prolonged legal battles in the High Court and the Supreme
Court. The illegal status of more than 99% vendors makes them easy
targets of extortionist mafias, who cause an income loss of at least
Rs 500 crore per year to Delhi’s street vendors by way of
bribes and confiscation of goods, while subjecting their victims
to systematic blackmail, terror and human rights abuses.
A key argument offered by municipal agencies and the police for
not legalising the status of street vendors is that street hawkers
obstruct other road users and spread chaos and squalour. To combat
this official prejudice against vendors, Manushi offered to take
the responsibility to show by example how:
• Vendors can be accommodated in the city in an aesthetic
and orderly manner.
• Security of livelihood and avenues for upward mobility can
be provided for the self-employed poor by giving them access to
space for developing their entrepreneurial skills.
• The existing system of payoffs and protection rackets run
by politically connected mafias who indulge in routine human rights
abuses to extract bribes can be replaced with a fee based access
to market space. This should enhance municipal revenues and curb
the growth of criminal mafias, who prey on the urban poor.
Each project member voluntarily signed an oath (Shapath Patra)
on stamp paper agreeing to abide by the following code of conduct:
- Pay a monthly rent of Rs.390/ to the MCD through
Manushi;
- Contribute towards the salary of the Safai Brigade
specially hired to maintain cleanliness in the project area
- Stay within the agreed-upon Sanyam Rekha, (Line of Discipline).
Hawkers who do not observe this discipline are fined Rs. 100 per
violation of Sanyam Rekha. Habitual violators have their membership
of Manushi Sangathan suspended or cancelled. Such cancellation of
membership is duly informed to the MCD, which is free to evict those
vendors.
- Promise not to build any extra structures above or outside the
stall area
- Promise not to sell or rent out the allotted stall.
The violators are liable to have their membership
cancelled and their stall sealed. Manushi also took the responsibility
for redesigning the rehdis and vending platforms to improve their
functionality, cleanliness and aesthetic appeal, ensuring that vendors
pay for the cost of new stalls and rehdis and also ensuring rent
compliance by all the street vendors who opt to become part of the
model market project
Legal Sanction for Model Market Project
A major breakthrough in the development of the pilot
project occurred after the MCD got a pro citizen Commissioner, Mr.
Rakesh Mehta, who strongly backed this project. The MCD Commissioner
approached the Supreme Court to allow the M.C.D. to undertake two
pilot projects, one at Sewa Nagar and the other near the CGO Complex
in collaboration with an NGO which would try demonstrating by concrete
example how vendors could be accommodated in the city landscape
in an orderly and aesthetic manner. It would also create a model
for rejuvenating our cities, without throwing out the poor, who
would, in fact, become tax payers and contribute to the city’s
maintenance and infrastructure development, rather than be seen
as a nuisance and liability. The petition filed by the MCD in the
Supreme Court argued forcefully that the existing tehbazari system
had facilitated massive extortion rackets and widespread human rights
abuses. It admitted that the restrictive licensing policy had proved
a dismal failure in controlling the number of vendors in the city,
which keep increasing with the overall rise in population of Delhi.
Therefore, there was a need to evolve a more realistic system of
licensing. The petition also informed the Court that if the pilot
projects proved successful, they would provide a model for creating
hawking zones all over Delhi. On April 10, 2003, the Supreme Court
gave a go ahead to MCD to execute two pilot projects for the two
Pilot Projects.
An Agreement was signed and registered between MCD
and Manushi for the Sewa Nagar and CGO Complex Pilot Projects on
April 7, 2004. Mrs. Ambika Soni, M.P., supported the Sewa Nagar
project with a grant of Rs 25 lakh from her MPLADS fund to build
the required civic infrastructure in Sewa Nagar, viz. new pavements,
stall platforms, park plazas, drains etc. Dr. Karan Singh, M.P.,
sanctioned Rs 10 lakh from his MPLADS fund for the CGO Complex project,
but the local police made it impossible for Manushi to execute the
project despite clearance from the Security Wing of CGO Complex.
The MCD Commissioner could not do much about it because the land
was temporarily under the charge of the CPWD. They were hostile
to the project and kept postponing the transfer of that area to
the MCD.
It is noteworthy that Manushi has executed and administered
the project for four years without taking any grants from the government
or any donor agency. The entire planning administrative, advocacy
and legal expenses have been met with donations from Manushi’s
friends and members of the pilot project.
The Sewa Nagar project started in October 2004 amidst violence and
repeated assaults from the police and local extortionist mafia for
the following reasons:
• Since membership of the project gave them legal protection,
the vendors stopped paying monthly bribes. The local mafia was outraged
at this.
• Manushi refused to give in to the threats, violent attacks
and blackmail by the local mafia despite intervention by well-known
political leaders, who wanted a certain number of stalls to be handed
over to“their men” who play a “helpful”
role in the elections.
As a result, the new civic infrastructure was repeatedly damaged
and the pavements, drains and stalls were time and again vandalized
during and even after construction. Manushi members were repeatedly
subjected to violence, intimidation and threats to make them abandon
the project. When the terror tactics failed, the mafia approached
the High Court for a stay order on the basis of bogus and flimsy
allegations. The High Court refused to grant a stay. But the mafia
dons keep filing more and more bogus objections to harass and tire
out Manushi.
Unable to grab stalls through violence or blackmail,
the local mafia developed a new strategy. Some of them are involved
in extortionist money lending at 120% rate of interest 120% per
annum. For want of institutional credit facilities, many vendors
are under their debt. Even when they pay hefty instalments, the
debt keeps mounting, because the interest rate is astronomical.
The money lending mafia began surreptitiously to take over the stalls
of some of the indebted vendors by making them sign off their rights
on stamp paper.
When these illegal transfers of stalls came to the
knowledge of Manushi, it requested the Deputy Commissioner of Central
Zone to seal the stalls sold out or given out on rent. On January
4, 2007, eleven stalls were sealed by the MCD. This firm action
aimed at the mafia unleashed a new and more deadly wave of violence
and terror against Manushi.
The reason for the violence is understandable. Due
to the transformation of Sewa Nagar from a slum-like hawker market
to a neat and well-developed shopping area, the market value of
each stall has increased manifold and the combined value of the
entire pilot project area today is worth several crores. Each stall
already commands a black-market price of Rs.5-10 lakh, depending
on its location. The local politicians and their mafia associates
are not willing to allow an ordinary vendor to have usufruct rights
over a property whose market value is rising fast, given the short
supply of commercial space in Delhi. They are being ousted one by
one through force and fraud. These criminal elements join the bandwagon
of whichever party that comes to power. Hence, they are able to
get the patronage of political leaders of all hues. They are all
united by common interest – to ensure that the livelihood
of vendors stays captive in their grip so that they dare not resist
paying bribes and that they do their bidding at election times.
Since April 30, 2007, none of the project personnel
can enter the project area without risking their lives. Ms Madhu
Kishwar herself has narrowly escaped being lynched to death on three
occasions. She has been threatened with gang rape and worse if she
dared pursue the matter further. The most active among the project
members, Mehboob, Ishwar Lal, Rajkumar, Shahid and Yaseen, who had
played a vital role in organizing project members and bringing about
civic discipline in the area, were brutally beaten up in a series
of violent incidents starting April 19, and driven out of the market.
They were warned not to enter the market or else they would face
death. Other members are also threatened daily, roughed up, terrorized,
fleeced and forced to sign all kinds of bogus documents and petitions
against the project without even being shown the text. All the above-mentioned
persons remained without work, without income for nearly seven months
till Manushi managed to organize a measure of police protection
through the intervention of the Lt Governor and the Prime Minister
of India.
Since this group of anti social elements began illegally
to takeover the stalls of vendors through fraud and violence, the
Deputy Commissioner MCD Central Zone categorically ordered the removal
of a Tempo stand, which serves as the hub of illicit activities
in Sewa Naga. The minutes of the MCD meeting held on June 6, 2007
contain the following direction:
“It was decided that since the Tempo Stand has
become the hub for anti social elements out to forcibly
takeover the project property and stalls,
determined action should be taken to get the unauthorized Tempo
parking and the illegally constructed office of the Basoya Tempo
Stand removed from the project area. After getting it removed with
police protection, the local police should be informed that the
Basoya Tempo Stand should not be allowed to reoccupy space
in the Sewa Nagar area.”
Following this decision, two clearance operations
were carried out with police support. But within the hour, the tempos
returned to the same spot near the park plaza. The Deputy Commissioner
then wrote a long letter to the Police Commissioner, detailing why
it was important to ensure the permanent removal of the Tempo stand
from Sewa Nagar. He requested the Police Commissioner to:
• “Book and charge sheet cases against
those who have indulged in violence against law-abiding vendors
and office bearers and staff of Manushi Sangathan for performing
legitimate functions under the MCD project. The charge sheets should
include attempts to illegally take over MCD property, threats, blackmail,
extortion and coercion against vendors and Manushi Sangathan (for
which ample evidence has been provided to Kotla police station)
and for booking false cases against Manushi Sangathan with a view
to harassing and coercing the organization into abandoning the project.
• Enforce the permanent removal of the unauthorized
tempo and private taxi stand operated by Basoya brothers whose removal
has been twice executed by the MCD.”
The LG had clearly instructed a few months ago that
CCTV cameras should be positioned in Sewa Nagar to keep the local
anti-social elements under check. Unfortunately, the cameras have
not been installed so far. There have been more incidents of violence,
attacks, robbery and coercion at Sewa Nagar. In a letter dated December
18, 2007, the LG’s Office has issued written instructions
to the Police Commissioner that CCTV cameras should be installed
at the earliest possible. To quote from this letter:
“The LG is of the view that installing CCTV
cameras in the areas pointed by Madhu Kishwar cannot brook any delay.
This facility will help in giving a boost to setting up the projects
contemplated to locate vendors meaningfully not only in Sewa Nagar
but in other areas of Delhi. On this issue specific directions have
been received from PMO. …The LG is of the view that the criminal
activities of the Bhagat-Basoya group must be curbed with a firm
hand so as to ensure that their activities are not an obstacle to
the functioning of the Pilot Project for setting up Street vendors
in Sewa Nagar.”
Unfortunately, the police have so far resisted the
installation of CCTV cameras.
The message of the mafia is clear: they want Manushi
to withdraw from the market so that they can take over the project
stalls and other assets unhindered. Manushi has filed a Criminal
Writ in the High Court on May 22, 2007 to seek protection for the
lives of its members and against the takeover of project property
through force and fraud. Manushi cannot protect valuable public
assets without the active support of government agencies. While
the corrupt among the officials, politicians and policemen gang
up easily to grab public property, it is difficult for the honest
among them to be as assertive, because mafia elements have acquired
a vicious grip over the instruments of governance, especially at
the cutting edge of the enforcement apparatus.
After each incident of assault, the Bhagat - Basoya
gang have filed patently bogus criminal cases against Madhu Kishwar
and other Manushi members, subjecting them to soul-destroying harassment.
The latest example is the misrepresentation in the media regarding
the assault on Kishwar and Manushi staff member Sheeshpal-- both
of whom were brutally beaten up in Sewa Nagar on Decemeber 31 at
12.30 in the afternoon, simply because Kishwar was taking photographs
of the continuing presence of the Basoya Tempo stand and of other
illegal activities in the project areas.
That very night they attacked and looted the shops
of Ramsingh, Manoj and Angoori Devi in order to dissuade the vendors
from giving evidence against the mafia. These vendors were specially
targeted because they had earlier dared to complain against the
violence and terror of this gang.
The Bhagat - Basoya gang has filed a blatantly false
case in the Magistrate’s Court claiming that a 65 year old
woman of their family was run over by Kishwar’s car leading
to a fracas between the two parties. They have also falsely alleged
that Mehboob and Ishwar snatched the gold chain of their mother.
The fact is that Mehboob and Ishwar were at the office of the Electricity
Board in Nizamuddin at the time of the incident. Unfortunately,
Midday carried this falsehood as a news report on January 4, without
verifying the facts with Manushi or even the police. Midday has
also refused to publish the protest letter and clarification sent
by Manushi. This is not the first time that the Bhagat - Basoya
gang has planted falsehoods against Manushi in the media, with Midday
and small time Hindi papers lending them a helping hand in spreading
falsehoods.
Against this backdrop, a key purpose of this press conference is
to explain the facts of the case and place the relevant documentary
evidence before the media.
Following the violent attacks of December 31 on Kishwar
and Sheeshpal, four members of this gang—Babli Baosya, Ajay
Basoya, Mahipal Basoya and Bhagat Singh-- have been served with
externment notices In addition, the above mentioned four persons
along with other gang members, viz. Roshan, Kamruddin, Shiv Kumar
and Shakeel, have been made to furnish bonds of Rs 50,000 each for
apprehension of breach of peace. Several of them were earlier taken
under Preventive Detention on December 12, 2007, because they were
planning a riotous demonstration on with the help of Panthers Party,
which has no locus standi in the matter. It remains to be seen whether
this newfound alacrity at the level of the local police can be sustained
in the time to come.
It is a telling commentary on the state of our law and order machinery
that a project -
• Undertaken by the MCD with the sanction of the Supreme Court.
• Strongly supported by the Prime Minister of India,
• Funded by the MPLADS fund of a senior minister in the Congress
Government,
• Backed by the present Deputy Commissioner of the Zone concerned.
• Endorsed and appreciated by senior leaders of both the Congress
and the BJP, ( Mr. L. K. Advani and Dr Harshvardhan, among others)
the two national parties that rule Delhi;
• Managed by a well known and conscientious organisation like
Manushi in the heart of South Delhi and, in the vicinity of elite
colonies like Lodhi Estate and Defence Colony,
- should come so close to a take over by a bunch of local criminals,
simply because for months on end, the police did not stand up to
the might of goondas and the politicians who provide them active
support.
Action came to be taken only after the express intervention
of the Prime Minister and the Lt Governor of Delhi. Kishwar has
been provided round the clock police security due to repeated
attempts on her life. The fact that the police has requested Kishwar
not to go anywhere near Sewa Nagar without the Kotla police station
making additional security arrangements for her in itself proves
that the situation is still volatile.
.
Larger Significance of the Sewa Nagar Project
We bring the plight of Sewa Nagar project to national
attention, because the fate of the National Policy is linked with
the fate of this pilot project.
As per the mandate of the National Policy for Street
Vendors, the MCD has announced that it will be allotting 3, 00,000
tehbazari licenses and vending sites in Delhi. Given the severe
shortage of commercial space in Delhi, these vending kiosks are
seen as prized assets. At a modest average of Rs 10 lakh per vending
kiosk/stall, 300,000 tehbazari sites represent assets worth Rs 30,000
crores. If the Government appears too weak to resist the takeover
of a small pilot project from criminal mafias, it cannot possibly
save hawking stalls and kiosks in the rest of the Delhi and other
cities from being similarly grabbed by criminal mafias. The process
of applications and selections so far adopted by the MCD for grant
of tehbazaris has the making of a humungous scam.
We demand that:
• An empowered independent Commission headed
by the Lt. Governor of Delhi should be set up to institute a rational,
honest and accountable system for legalizing the status of street
vendors and to prevent extortionist mafias and vested interests
from capturing vending spots in hawking zones.
• A citywide computerised database should be
created by a credible and independent agency to identify those who
are actually operating on the streets, their exact location and
numbers as a first step towards determining who qualifies to get
tehbazari rights
• Appropriate punitive action against criminal
mafias who are out to destroy and grab the pilot project and permanent
removal of their illegal Tempo Taxi stand and other illegal businesses
and addabazi in Sewa Nagar.
• Installation of CCTV cameras in the project
area to keep the local criminals at bay and provide safety of life
to project members and to prevent the take over of project stalls
and other assets by mafia elements.
Newspaper articles on the project can be accessed from the following
links.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/18/stories/2008011852300400.htm
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Unique-market-a-failed-project-now/262396/
http://www.delhiscoop.com/story/2008/1/17/1940/47997
For more information clickhttp://manushi-india.org
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