Chief Minister Sheila Dixit is well-ensconced in the third year of her term, but the challenges were many. Being the national capital, the pressure to provide services, public utilities and employment is felt much more deeply in Delhi than elsewhere. In the past three years, the Dixit government initiated steps to restructure public utilities and also embarked on a 'Bhagidari' scheme of government-citizen partnership. In this interview to T.K. Rajalakshmi, Sheila Dixit elucidates the initiatives taken by her government. Excerpts:
With three years behind you and two more to go, what would you say are the highlights of your government given the fact that you have had to cope with several pressures that go with governing the national capital?
Delhi has enormous problems... Every year, three and a half lakh people migrate to Delhi. Therefore there is pressure on public utilities, which should ideally keep pace with the demand. For example, there is a tremendous burden on housing and transport and we feel that it should keep pace with the demand. At the same time, at least one million people commute to work every day.
The city takes a lot of pressure in more ways than one. In the 1960s, it was fashionable to have home-based industries. Today, these industries contribute to environmental pollution. We had to do something about that.
There is an enormous amount of traffic on the roads and we had to switch over to the compressed natural gas (CNG) mode in recent years. Today, Delhi has the largest fleet of CNG-run vehicles in the country. But there is a lot of greenery too in Delhi. It is perhaps next to Chandigarh among the Union Territories. There is a green culture in Delhi.
On the power front, Delhi faces an enormous shortage, but we have managed well to bridge that shortage. Earlier, power cuts lasted seven to nine hours a day. Today, it is down to a maximum of one hour. We have made a determined effort to stop pilferage of power and we maintain an internal transmission system without raising the tariff too much. For the first time, the concept of a single delivery connection has been introduced to facilitate metering and to stop power thefts. This measure has been well-received, especially in the jhuggi jhopri (slum) colonies and unapproved and unelectrified colonies.
We have finalised the 330-MW Pragati Power Project which is expected to be completed by November 2002. Within two hours of assuming office this government liberalised the release of electricity connections.
As for water conservation, we have amended the unified building bylaws in order as to make water harvesting mandatory. We have commissioned water treatment plants, tubewells, underground reservoirs, booster pumping stations and laid new water main pipelines as well. Old, corroded pipes have been replaced and piped water is supplied to 133 unauthorised and regularised colonies. Under the 'Bhagidari' scheme, we have introduced rainwater harvesting and water conservation measures in nearly 100 residential areas with the help of the respective residents' welfare associations. There is a rainwater harvesting cell in the Delhi Jal Board and we plan to increase awareness among citizens about water conservation.
There is a feeling that public utilities are skewed in their distribution patterns and are not sufficiently geared to meet the challenges of a growing population. What is the level of preparedness of the Delhi government?
There is the problem of ever-increasing number of slums. As a result, a lot of wastage of power and water takes place, but it is also a fact that consumption levels have gone up. The use of microwaves and air-conditioners is increasing.
The problem of proliferation of slum clusters takes place when we are not able to procure land for housing for the least economically advantaged sections. In fact, in real terms, proliferation has not increased but the population density per cluster has gone up. According to figures given in the Economic Survey of Delhi, in 1901, the density was 274 persons a square kilometre. This increased to 1,176 persons a sq km in 1951 and in 2001 it was 9,294 persons a sq km. Delhi also offers the highest minimum wage in the country and has the highest per capita income. Given these trends, it is possible to see why people come to Delhi, bring even their relatives and extended family. There is a lot of migration to the city and it is going up.
What I am trying to do is to bring in a faster method of taking decisions and implementation. In order to achieve this we started the 'Bhagidari' system of governance in January 2000. This is something unique to Delhi. It is a process of delivery of solutions arrived at through dialogue between the citizens, resident welfare associations, non-government organisations, traders associations, civic agencies such as the New Delhi Municipal Council, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and public utility services. Until a month ago the BJP was in control of MCD but now with the Congress(I) in power the MCD's participation in the 'Bhagidari' system will be much more effective. We have made breakthroughs in three areas - the anti-crackers campaign, the anti-plastic bags campaign and the clean Yamuna campaign. Several localities have responded to issues such as augmenting water supply, repairing streetlights, changing sewer pipelines, repairing roads, installing electricity transformers and so on.
The restructuring of the public utility services such as power, water and transport is on the anvil. There is a lot of speculation that such services will become more expensive once they are privatised. How does your government perceive restructuring and why can it not turn around these loss-making utilities into profit-making enterprises?
By privatising public services we create competition. As there is an in-built principle of profit, performance will also be better. The question is why don't you want to pay for your services. Let me be clear that we are not privatising these services just for the sake of it. The power sector will be the first to be privatised, but only transmission and distribution. The regulator will not allow arbitrary increases in tariffs. In the bids that we invited for this we said that they should get 16 per cent returns, which is very good, but it should not be only by charging the customer but also by improving their own efficiency. It won't be at the cost of the customer only.
As for the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), we have not thought of privatising it, though some kind of privatisation is already under way. We are in the process of gathering data about the places in which we can lease out the DTC by bringing in drivers and conductors from private companies.
In the case of the Jal Board, we are not thinking of privatising it right now. A study on Delhi's water supply and sewerage system, with the assistance of the World Bank, is currently on.
In the wake of the CNG-induced crisis, people in Delhi were not exactly sure about who was responsible for the transport impasse, especially as both the Delhi government and the Central government appeared to be involved. The prevalent administrative set-up in Delhi, which allows for a distribution of authority between the Centre and the State, has been perceived as inconvenient. How do you see this problem?
First, the irony is that the Delhi government has nothing to do with the Master Plan for Delhi, which is entirely prepared by the Delhi Development Authority - an autonomous body that comes under the Union Ministry of Urban Development. Ideally, the Chief Minister of Delhi should be the chairperson of the Master Plan. Also, any laws that we enact should come under our purview and authority. There needs to be a better clarity of devolution of authority and responsibility. I desperately need land, MCD, DDA and planning. There are no infrastructural arrangements and neither are we empowered to create them. For example, we were told to buy CNG buses but the buses themselves are not available. CNG is not a tried and tested fuel, and CNG buses are far more expensive than diesel buses. Despite that we did everything that was required. The pipelines for the supply of CNG have not been laid as the land belongs to the Centre. We are helpless. In spite of all that, we have not let the crisis overwhelm us. There were no riotous crowds on the day of the transporters' strike and we managed to rationalise bus routes so as to cause the least amount of inconvenience to the commuters. It was a moment of crisis and we came out of it. A good deal of credit goes to the people of Delhi for seeing through the CNG crisis.
COMMents
COMMents
SHARE