Can cities get rid of encroachments?

Indian cities are getting crowded and congested. In absence of formal affordable options to stay and do business in cities, poor migrants are encroaching on public land. Encroachment is a problem widespread in residential colonies, industrial and institutional areas, marketplaces, footpaths, public parks, water bodies, heritage and cultural sites, green belt areas, or say wherever people can find a usable piece of land for raising houses or doing businesses. People have even raised illegal structures alongside drains and railway tracks, under over bridges, on flood plains, wetlands, and near dumping sites. Cities need to get rid of the encroachments. The recent anti-encroachment drives in many cities of North India have drawn attention to this decades-old problem. However, there are several questions around the methods of handling the situation. The million-dollar question is how urban local bodies are going to get rid of encroachments and what is the right way.

Encroachment is a common problem in our cities. It is everywhere. Some people have encroached land because they can’t afford to buy or pay rent; people migrating to cities without any arrangement of their accommodation erect illegal houses and make slums. Others need extra space outside their property. They encroach footpaths outside their homes to park their bikes and cars, they capture space outside their commercial property for displaying goods they sell and services on offer, manufacturers use vacant public land to dump their industrial waste. It does not stop with individuals. Even the Resident Welfare Associations or community groups encroach public parks.

Growing urban issue of encroachment
Encroachment is prevalent everywhere and it is affecting the quality of life in cities. Many of us have experienced snarling traffic on busy roads because people park their vehicles on roads. People cannot walk on footpaths because the pedestrian pathways are either encroached by street vendors or people living nearby have illegally captured the space for personal use. Children in many cities are deprived of playing in public parks as the resident welfare associations or group of people in a locality have made it their personal property and have put locks on the doors of parks.
“All major Indian cities have turned into slums. This is a sad story going on for 75 years and we are celebrating the 75th year of Independence next year. Look at any city, Chandigarh might be an exception but there are problems in Chandigarh as well. That is happening everywhere. Let us rise to reality and think how the problem has to be resolved,” said Justice AM Khanwilkar. He was on the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India along with Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar. The Bench refused to allow 5000 hutments to continue on a railway land in Gujarat. The bench had said, “Railways cannot be let off the hook of their responsibility. It is not just the state government’s responsibility… The time has come for the corporations to take the responsibility of removing the encroachment.”

Delhi at the centre of encroachment drives

The courts have been strict on removing encroachments from cities in the past too. The Delhi High Court asked civic authorities in Delhi to consider airlifting 108-ft Hanuman Statue in central Delhi for clearing encroachments around it. According to PTI news report, the bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar added that entire skyscrapers have been airlifted in the United State. The mindset of people in Delhi could change if civic bodies could “at even one place show that the law was being enforced”, the court said, while hearing a petition seeking the unauthorised constructions in Karol Bagh, where the statue is located, be removed. The court said that enough opportunities had been given to municipal bodies of the Capital to enforce the law, “but no one wants to do it”.
Apart from the lack of compliance by local bodies, there are issues on the part of community as well. Delhi has been at the heart of recent encroachment drives by urban local bodies. After the controversial Jahangirpuri incident of clearing encroachment by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), other local bodies of Delhi (South and East) also followed the suit. To monitor and look into the matter of encroachments on the Public Works Department’s roads, a nine-member Standing Committee on Public Utilities and Civic Amenities was formed. As per the statement of the Committee, encroachment of pedestrian roads by hawkers/vendors is a major reason for traffic chaos in cities. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation, in a meeting with the Committee, said that there is a proper provision for the removal of permanent encroachment under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. It added that in order to remove temporary encroachments at commercial places, continuous drives at various places need to be done. Recently, there have been various discussions around the actual intent of encroachment drives in cities. Some have been labelled as politically motivated actions, while the local bodies have been defending these drives terming increased encroachments by hawkers, street vendors, informal migrants, etc.
The information rendered to the Committee also showed that a Special Task Force has also been constituted, by the Supreme Court of India, presided by the Vice Chairman, Delhi Development Authority. The Force was tasked to monitor permanent encroachments in the city, along with field functionaries of Delhi Traffic Police and concerned officials of the local bodies. The report of actions taken by the Special Task Force under these drives was also handed over to the Urban Development Department, Government of NCT of Delhi.
Even after such actions and continuous removal of encroachments by the concerned authorities, there has been little impact at the ground level. The illegal encroachments were found to shift from the places where the drive was conducted and were found to be mushrooming at some other place in the form of temporary or permanent structures, as per the statement of Task Force. Such incidents completely nullify the very purpose of these drives. However, with a boom in urbanisation in India, cities like Delhi have seen a steep rise in urban population and “due to lack of proper planning, more than 63 lakh people in Delhi live in unauthorised colonies, jhuggis or have done something which does not conform to original maps”, as per the statement of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi Legislative Assembly. Removal of all illegal encroachments from cities is not an overnight process. It has to be a long and steady process, where the local bodies have to think about the rehabilitation of people who are at the receiving end of these anti-encroachment drives.

Administration actively demolishing encroachment

Anti-encroachment drives of ULBs have been in full swing recently. Other states have also followed suit and have begun to come down heavily on people encroaching upon government lands. In May, 2022, the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority freed almost 50,000 square feet of land owing to these anti-encroachment drives. The cost of land was estimated to be `100 crore, which was illegally occupied by four colonies. In the same month, Indian railways also cleared various encroachments in West Bengal and other states after the directive of Supreme Court to clear all illegal buildings. Protests were also held post these drives, where people blamed the Railways for their wrong-doing and said that they used to pay a lease rental against the property.
Number of ULBs in India are battling to make themselves financially sustainable so that they don’t have to turn towards state or central government every time the civic body plans its development schemes. The scale of encroachment such as the one cleared in Greater Noida is worrisome, as the local bodies are deprived of whatever little resource they have. As the urban population grows day by day, it will become more and more difficult for civic bodies and administration to manage these mushrooming illegal urban hamlets. It’s like preventing water to ooze from cuts as the container is getting full slowly, if you cover one leak, water flows from another.
The answer to the question ‘Can our cities get rid of encroachments?’ is not that simple. The issue of compliance with municipal guidelines and laws has to be addressed from both sides, i.e. authorities and community. The local bodies have to work for the welfare of people and try to engage with the community to come on the common ground. Simultaneously, people and other urban stakeholders have to keep in mind the municipal guidelines while planning infrastructure. The encroachment drives have to be followed by the resettlement of community with the help of NGOs or other civil society organisations, so that the resettlement is done by analysing the livelihood opportunities of the region. The issue needs to be handled by engaging experts and stakeholders so as to design solution prioritising planning. We need to create better, safe and sustainable urban
space for all.