Terror of slum mafia

TERROR OF JHUGGI & GUMIT MAFIA

NK SINGH

It is time for the City Government of Bhopal to hang its head in shame. What happened in the Capital last week raises serious doubts about its ability to govern. Bhopal Municipal Corporation’s anti-encroachment squad had gone to New Market, heart of the town, to remove encroachments by street hawkers. Even as the squad was clearing the pavements and streets, a small-time leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party reached the spot. He confronted the municipal authorities, forcing them to stop their operation.

As if this was not enough, the leader of the party that swears by rule of law, incited the hawkers whose goods were seized to attack municipal employees. The hooligans looted the seized goods, which had legally become government property by then, in broad daylight from the municipal trucks. Officers looked on shame-facedly. The armed police force accompanying the anti-encroachment squad was a silent spectator to the plunder.

Bhopal Municipal Corporation has hired the services of two dozen policemen, including an Inspector and a Sub Inspector, to provide protection to its operations. The City Government pays Rs 12 lakh every month to police department for their services. This money comes from the taxpayers’ pockets.

New Market has long been a classic example of soft governance. Half the streets are encroached upon by shopkeepers, who do their commerce on road, demanding it as their birthright. The remaining area is chocked by illegal vendors and hawkers. Roads are used for parking, not for movement of vehicles.

Goons rule when Governments are spineless.

Do I sound harsh? Please remember that it is not the first time that such utter disregard for rule of law has been displayed in MP’s Capital.

Last year one of the city MLAs, Surendra Singh, had attacked, along with his supporters, a godown of Bhopal Municipal Corporation in broad daylight. He brazenly instigated hooligans to loot the handcarts and kiosks that had been seized under anti-encroachment drive. The unruly crowd plundered the government facility and beat up municipal employees. The police force and the executive magistrate present on the spot remained mute spectators. Despite a police complaint, registered after days of delay, no action has been taken till now.

Surendra Singh has emerged as the patron-saint of a flourishing jhuggi and gumti mafia. He has turned the city of lakes into a sprawling slum of shanty towns, chocking its streets with handcarts and kiosks. Earlier this year he created a ruckus at Habibganj railway station to prevent removal of unauthorized kiosks that have grown like mushroom around the station, clogging its service lanes. The guy is benevolent with all kind of encroachments. Last year he rushed to protect a two storied restaurant built without approval. He has thrown his weight behind an unauthorised furniture market that is blocking a highway.

He and his fellow politicians are preventing construction of a third railway line because they would not allow shifting of illegal slums that have come up on railway land. Unauthorized mini buses operated by transport mafia have all but killed the Rs 400 crore BRTS system, launched with taxpayers’ money with such fanfare four years ago.

It has become a lucrative racket in Bhopal to erect illegal kiosks on main roads, choking the city’s arteries, and then demand alternative sites, thus legalising the encroachments. The sprawling gumtis and slums have become a goldmine for politicians patronising it.

Politicians would do anything, but anything, for their chanda and votes. And most officers seem care only about saving their jobs.

Law-abiding citizens suffer. They bore the brunt of this unholy nexus last year when Bhopal was inundated by unprecedented floods. It was a man-made disaster, caused by unauthorised construction, in violation of building bylaws, on nullahs and water bodies. The authorities subsequently demolished some of the structures responsible for floods and promised to take care of the remaining in due course. Those structures still stand. Some of the demolished buildings have, actually, come up again on the same spot!

Is it so difficult to enforce the rule of law?

Apparently not.

In Indore the City Government had launched a blitzkrieg against cattle mafia this year after illegal cattle-breeders stabbed to death a 25-year-old municipal employee during a drive for shifting of cattlesheds. Indore Municipal Corporation razed to ground mafia’s palatial houses, demolished their sprawling cattle sheds and arrested trouble-makers.

Last year, Indore police also arrested a BJP corporator, her husband and half-a-dozen other persons after an additional commissioner of Indore Municipal was slapped during a protest. Many politicians from the ruling party were not too pleased, but the administration allowed law to take its own course. IMC also successfully removed 70-year-old encroachments to widen roads in downtown Indore.

What you need is a spine to do that. And may be a little insulation from that phone call from burra sahibs in Bhopal.

Powers That be, my column in DB Post of 9 Oct 2017

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