JOIN USThe Supreme Court’s observation that pavements are meant only for people to walk on, and the Delhi Police and EDMC’s joint anti-encroachment drive notwithstanding, squatters are back in business on Vikas Marg.
Three days into East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s massive drive, hawkers, vendors and small-time businessmen have set shop again. The perennial parking problem of the area remains as bad as ever and residents and shoppers are limping to manoeuvre through the chaos at
Vikas Marg.
On Monday, the Delhi government’s District Task Force reached the stretch between Laxmi Nagar intersection and Karkari More with seven cranes and several personnel. In a four-hour drive, they towed away 36 vehicles and challaned six that were parked on pavements. Officials said the drive will continue till Saturday.
Unfortunately, its effect seems to be waning already. Kiosks selling mobile phones and SIM cards have reappeared, books and pamphlets are being sold from the pavement again and clothes shops have extended their Sales and Discounts counters to the main road!
As much as being beneficiaries of these, shopkeepers have made peace with the permanent chaos and congestion. Ramkishan Bhan says, “The police run these drives in the morning. By evening the stretch is full again. And how do we ask these poor people, coming from such far off places, to leave? Just as we are making a livelihood through our shops, they are also earning their bread and butter through these shanties.”
Residents of the area, though, raise objections citing traffic and filth. Pradeep Goyal says, “They have no sense of cleanliness. All the wastepaper is dumped right on the street. Then it makes its way to drains and clogs them leading to water logging in the monsoon.
Look at the slush on the sides of the road,” he points out, “Firstly, there is no space to walk. Then you have to walk so carefully so as not to slip.”
There is no solving the parking problem. Cars belonging to shopkeepers, shoppers and the army of coaching institutes lined up on Vikas Marg, still crowd
the pavement.
Vinod Kumar Gupta, vice president of Vikas Marg Traders’ Association, says, “Every market in Delhi has a dedicated parking area. Only our market lacks that facility.
Who do we blame? Sometime back we started a pass system for the shopkeepers but even that didn’t work out.”
Shoppers and those who have offices in the area say it’s a gamble with life to negotiate Vikas Marg. “You can never tell when a bike or cycle will hit you,” says Vidyut Kumar, “I have myself escaped accidents by a few inches in the past three years. I don’t see the face of Vikas Marg changing in this lifetime.”