Speak up Delhi: Anti-encroachment drives & multiple warnings have failed to curb menace

Repeated encroachment drives and multiple warnings have failed to instill fear in encroachers in the national Capital. The lanes in most marketplaces are chocked by haphazard parking of cars and the very little space left for pedestrians and passersby is further occupied by hawkers and vendors. After several unsuccessful drives by the authorities, streets, and roads of the national Capital demand efforts from the general public to free them of encroachers.

Residents and visitors to the famous marketplaces such as Sadar Market and Chandni Chowk Market in Old Delhi, Lajpat Nagar, South Extension and Sarojini Market in South Delhi and Kamla Nagar Market in the North are usually forced to face severe traffic snarls. Some visitors also registered cases of theft and robbery with the police, while they are forced to stand in jams caused due to encroachment.

"I usually visit Sadar Market to make purchases for my shops in a nearby state. However, when you visit the market, you see hawkers and vendors have usually occupied the streets making the walking path very narrow and allowing pickpockets to rob your belongings," said Rakesh who was robbed of his mobile phone while passing through the occupied lanes of Sadar Market.

However, posh market cum residential areas such as South Extension have been facing a bigger problem as the landowners have occupied footpaths and even restricted entry to colonies.

"The illegal occupant has occupied almost 60 per cent of the entry from D block side of South Extension and we are now forced to use other entry. No official has taken any action. The encroacher is still using the public land like it is his own," said Deepa, a resident of K block, South Extension part 2.

The Municipal corporations of the national Capital have taken strict measures on encroachment. An encroachment drive has been carried forward, resulting in the seizure of at least 1,500 vehicles from around the national Capital as they were found illegally occupying public land.

Last year, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi had asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to provide data of encroached land and the results were shocking as of the 5,000 acres of vacant land, about 30 per cent was encroached.

VOICES

The government must look into the basics of the problem. For encroachment, must one see that if the authorities come on time and keep a check on government lands, there is no way that an individual can occupy any public land. However, for now the authorities have even failed work upon the complaints, leaving us to suffer. We have registered our complaints on numerous occasions about the businessmen occupying colony entrances but they have taken no action for our welfare.
— SK Mittal

Although I don't live in Delhi, but I visit this place every month. I am a trader and most of times I need to visit market such as Chandni Chowk and Sadar Market. But every time I enter Sadar, I feel that I have entered a cave full of cars and hawkers with very little space to walk around. I don't think the authority can remove them until and unless we stand against them.
— Girish Chitkara

Shopping in market places like Sarojini or Lajpat could be made very easy if these hawkers and vendors are removed from the footpaths. In case authorities find success in removing them, I am sure that would give a new life to these market places and also make them a lot safer.
— Jasmine

I have been living in Lajpat Nagar for over three years now, but not even a single day of my stay has gone without seeing strangers park their cars near my residence's agte. No one from the authority has take care about the fact that illegal car parking is not restricted to mere encroachment as it is also a safety issue. One can plant explosives in vehicles and park it in market places.
— Nancy

Everytime I go for shopping in any marketplace, I feel suffocated as the car parked on lanes makes it difficult to walk and situation gets worse when vendors and hawkers come into the picture. I feel there is a strong need to work on this issue as soon as possible, or else each each passing day will see increased number of encroachers on the streets.
— Mukeshh

Being a student I sometimes needs to travel in public transport such as buses, but whenever you stand in a bus stand, it becomes difficult as the hawkers have literally taken over these bus stand to carry out their business activities. I can somehow understand that they are poor and are not doing it create problem for us but then for their need, the citizens cannot suffer, and it is the government's responsibility to provide them space for business activities.
— Manisha

EXPERT SPEAK

Encroachment has been a big problem for a long time now. Although the Municipal Corporations have been working very hard to make Delhi free of squatters, but I feel the only way we be free of encroachment is when the general public comes into action. Many a times, shopkeepers tend to allow hawkers to stand on the footpaths in front of their shops by taking some rent. But then this wrong and this is where encroachment starts. We need to ensure that big marketplaces with higher footfalls are encroachment free as soon as possible because it is also about the safety and security of visitors.
— Yogendra Singh Maan, Director Press Information, North and East Municipal Corporation