DQW Exclusive: All Nehru Place associations start signature campaign

Owing to the upcoming Republic Day, all Nehru Place associations have decided to reschedule its 'Nehru Place Bachao Bandh' from January 24 to February 1, 2012. In a run up to the bandh, the associations have also kick-started a 10-15 days long signature campaign so that more and more occupants of Nehru Place show their solidarity in writing to stop the rampant encroachment and improve security and cleanliness issues in the area.

To take up this cause, all Nehru Place associations have formed a steering committee consisting of representatives from all the stake holder associations in the area. This committee also held a strategy meeting on January 7th where it has unanimously decided, that if the concerned authorities (Delhi Police and DDA ) fail to redress the genuine grievances of Nehru Place occupants, then all the offices and staff will observe a bandh for a couple of hours in the morning on February 1st and protest peacefully to highlight the apathy of the authorities like DDA and Delhi Police towards the unenviable situation in Nehru Place. All the associations in Nehru Place including ADCTA, NIWA, EFSA, PCAIT, CMDA have pledged their whole-hearted support for this bandh. The key pending concerns of all the associations are security, fire hazard, unhygienic surroundings, overcrowding by unregulated hawkers, parking, etc.

According to Anil Sehgal, president, Nehru Place Improvement and Welfare Association (NIWA), "On the first day of signature campaign, we have received the support from 900 people located in Bajaj Capital, Siddharth, and Vishal Buildings in Nehru Place. But we are expecting more and more occupants to come forward for this cause, which has been delaying for the last many years due to the hand-in-glove situation between DDA and Delhi Police. He also stated, "We have been inviting attention of the authority from time to time but to no avail. We have recorded a correspondence giving video-graphed details of our woes to Delhi Police, DDA and LG offi ce, but it seems, these have fallen on deaf ears."

Mahinder Agarwal, president, ADCTA while addressing the meet said, "The menace of the unregulated encroachment is at a rampant. As per Supreme Court orders, only 114 hawkers were permitted to ply in Nehru Place, but with the failure of surveillance by DDA and Delhi Police, the size of these hawkers have grown multi-fold, upto 450. Today not only cartridges and pirated softwares are sold by these hawkers, surprisingly all other fake IT products are available at a cheapt price which has been affecting our business largely."

V Krishnan, secretary, PCAIT added, "Besides supporting Nehru Place Bachao Andholan, PCAIT has also decided to take a legal route for unregulated hawking." Although, many such steps have been taken earlier by each association at an individual level for the safeguard of Nehru Place. But, this is for the fi rst time that all the major associations have become serious and united for the upliftment of the area to this extent.