Nehru Place torn apart

Nehru Place, the largest IT retail hub in India, witnessed its worst ever demolition drive ever since it has come into being. Two bulldozers, 200

policemen, and several CISF men, accompanied by DDA officials began the drive at around 11 am Tuesday 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. 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 CNS 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, 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 eight hours the rampage continued. "I have been in piracy for years now. How is piracy still thriving despite the raids and

everything?" a pirated CD seller 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 five 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, informs 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 says grinning, "Some of them are

stashed away in the adjoining shops, there are other hiding places besides." 

Without naming names, AK Sehgal, President, Nehru Place Improvement and Welfare Association, informs 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 repeated 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 against this tomorrow. Nehru Place will be shut. The police station will be

gheraoed." Ask the shopkeepers, and they are too shocked to even comprehend a

contemplative action. Of course, associations like the Delhi Computer Traders Association, or the Nehru Place Improvement and Welfare Trust would

react. Incredulity apart, there are bound to be backlashes as soon as the exact extent of the damage is assessed.

SUDARSHANA BANERJEE



NEW DELHI