Manushi’s Campaign for Cleansing Governance
This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-127, Nov-Dec 2001)
In Issue No. 124 of MANUSHI we had published a report on the plight of street vendors in Delhi based on investigations carried out by MANUSHI as well as the facts that emerged during a Lok Sunwayi (Public Hearing) of street vendors organized by MANUSHI on June 25, 2001. A similar exercise was carried out for Delhi’s cycle rickshaw pullers and operators. The story of harassment, extortion and systematic violation of human and constitutional rights that emerged out of this process, received some amount of press publicity. The Prime Minister himself took suo moto notice of the grievances of these two groups of urban self employed poor and a New Policy was drafted by the PMO to free street hawking and the rickshaw sector from the deadly stranglehold of the License-Quota-Raid Raj. In a letter dated August 23, 2001, the Lt. Governor of Delhi was given firm and clear instructions that the New Policy reform must seek to eliminate the scope for rent seeking and harassment by the licencing and enforcement officials. Far from implementing the New Policy Policy with sincerity, the administration has used both overt and covert means to sabotage the New Policy…