Some Setbacks and Some Steps Forward in Sewa Nagar
Our plan of making the existing squalor ridden hawker markets into vivid examples of model markets for street vendors and their customers, reducing their heavy burden of payoffs, and promoting civic discipline, urban planning and citizen participation through self governance, has gone through many ups and downs since we last reported about it in MANUSHI (see articles “Jadhu Pooja in Sewa Nagar” in issue No.127 and “Attempts at Collaboration with City Administration” in issue No.128).
One Step Forward? After the visit of the Additional Commissioner of Municipal
Corporation Mr. Ramesh Negi to Sewa Nagar, it looked like we had made a breakthrough with at least one important official. Even though Mr. Negi was moved to another portfolio in MCD soon after, he has helped us build bridges with other officials in the Corporation.
At the same time, there was a change of regime in Delhi. The Bharatiya Janata Party was routed in the Municipal elections and the Congress came back to power with a massive majority. We hoped that this would augur well for our work because the BJP Corporators and MLAs were especially hostile to any attempts at reform and improvement in the system, even though the New Policy for street vendors had come from BJP leader and Prime Minister…