Annexure - 2
History of the Sewa Nagar Pilot Project
And
Attempts by the local mafia to capture it by Force & Fraud
The Sewa Nagar model hawker market was envisaged as an experiment to evolve a practical mechanism for implementing the National Policy for Street Vendors with integrity. Manushi tried providing a model of how civic discipline can be enforced; our cities can be rejuvenated and beautified without forcibly throwing out the poor; and security of livelihood provided for self-employed poor while enhancing municipal revenues
The project is based on Supreme Court sanction taken by former MCD Commissioner, Mr Rakesh Mehta in 2003 and funded through the MPLAD fund of Mrs. Ambika Soni. Each vendor contributed towards the cost of a redesigned stall and the Sewa Nagar rejuvenation fund. The project involved upgrading the civic infrastructure that included new pavements, park plazas, drains and other sanitary arrangements, etc. Manushi designed low cost yet aesthetic new stalls for project members. (For a pictorial history of the Sewa Nagar Pilot Project see www.manushi-india.org)
Each vendor voluntarily signed an oath (Shapath Patra) on Rs. 10 stamp paper agreeing to abide by the following disciplines:
‘Pay a monthly rent of Rs.390/ to the MCD through Manushi; Pay Rs.50 per month towards the salary of the Safai Brigade specially hired to maintain a high level of cleanliness in the project area; Stay within the agreed-upon Sanyam Rekha, and promise not to build any extra structures outside the stall area; Promise neither to sell nor rent out the allotted stall. Those who violate these disciplines are liable to have their membership cancelled and the stall sealed’.
Ever since the Sewa Nagar Pilot Project was sanctioned we have faced the wrath of the local gangsters for two main causes:
A). Since membership of the project gave them legal protection vendors who are members of the Manushi pilot project stopped paying the monthly hafta. The local mafia was outraged at this.
B). Manushi refused to give in to threats, violent attacks and blackmail tactics of the local mafia including intervention by well known political leaders, who wanted a certain number of stalls to be handed over to the local dons who are believed to play a "helpful" role in elections.
As a result, new civic infrastructure was repeatedly damaged and the new pavements, drains and stalls were time and again vandalized during and even after construction. Manushi members were repeatedly subjected to violence, intimidation and life-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 Hon’ble Court refused to grant stay. But the mafia dons keep filing more and more bogus objections to harass and tire us out.
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 interest rates ranging from 60% to 120% per annum. Due to the absence of credit facilities many vendors are under their debt. Even when they pay hefty installments, the debt keeps mounting because the interest rate is astronomical. The money lending mafia began to surreptitiously take over the stalls of some of the indebted vendors by making them sign off their rights on Rs 100 denomination stamp paper.
When these illegal transfers of stalls came to the knowledge of Manushi, we requested the Deputy Commissioner of Central Zone to seal the stalls sold out or given out on rent. Therefore, 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 area, the market value of each stall and the combined value of the entire pilot project area is today worth several crores. Each stall already commands a black-market price of Rs.5-10 lakhs 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 comes to power. Therefore, they are able to get the patronage of political leaders of all hues who are all united by common interest – to ensure that the livelihood of vendors stays captive in their grip so that they do not dare resist paying bribes and do their bidding at election times.
Since April 30th, none of us can enter that area without risking our lives. I myself have twice narrowly escaped being lynched by them. I have been threatened with gang rape and worse if I dare pursue the matter further. Some of our members have been brutally beaten up and face serious life threats. They have been warned not to dare enter the market or they will be killed. Other members are also being threatened daily, roughed up, terrorized, fleeced and forced to sign all kinds of bogus complaints to sabotage the project. We are being implicated in fraudulent criminal cases and subjected to soul destroying harassment.
The message of the mafia is clear: they want Manushi to withdraw from the market so that the mafia 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 our members and against the forcible takeover of project property through force and fraud. We cannot protect public property without active support of government agencies. However, while the corrupt among officials, politicians and policemen gang up easily to grab public assets, 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 the police at the than level.
It is a telling commentary on the state of our law and order machinery that a project:
Sanctioned by the Supreme Court,
Strongly supported by the former Commissioner MCD,
Funded by the MPLAD Fund of a senior minister in the Congress Government,
Strongly backed by the present Deputy Commissioner of the concerned Zone.
Managed by a well known and conscientious organisation like Manushi in the heart of South Delhi in the vicinity of elite colonies like Lodhi Estate and Defence Colony can be taken over by a bunch of local criminals with such ease, simply because the police cannot and will not stand up to the might of goondas and politicians provide them active support. This is how small time criminals graduate to becoming Dawood Ibrahims!
Larger Significance of the Sewa Nagar Project
We bring the plight of Sewa Nagar project to your attention because the fate of the National Policy is linked with the fate of this pilot project. If the Government appears too weak to resist the takeover of a small pilot project from criminal mafias, it cannot possibly save hawking zones in the rest of the Delhi and other cities from being similarly grabbed by criminal mafias
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