Gurgaon
The bubble bursts

Due to lack of vision, poor planning, gross mismanagement and a lackadaisical attitude of leaders as well as administrators, the city of dreams has turned into an urban nightmare, writes Sunit Dhawan

The rise of Gurgaon as a "millennium city" from a small town of Haryana, once referred to as the state’s backwater, is a typical rags-to-riches story. Though, of course, not with a happy ending, as it has turned into a tale of woes for its residents.

Hyped as a model city of modern India, Gurgaon houses offices of more than 200 Fortune-500 companies and contributes a major chunk of revenue to the state’s exchequer.

Maruti played a crucial role in Gurgaon’s turnaround to its present form. A large number of MNCs followed, setting up their offices and other facilities in the city, fuelling its progress.

Proximity to the National Capital as well as an international airport were the other major contributing factors for the transformation of this once-backward town into a metropolitan city boasting of swanky malls, posh offices, trendy commercial complexes and a lot more.

However, along with the phenomenal progress came its side-effects. Thanks to lack of vision, poor planning, gross mismanagement and the lackadaisical attitude of the leaders as well as administrators, the city of dreams has turned into an urban nightmare.

The "millennium city" has become a victim of haphazard development. Facing an excessive population pressure and over-exploitation of natural resources, it is experiencing a depleting water table and other reserves.

With the city’s growth came "vices" like corrupt government functionaries, toll-tax extortionists, unscrupulous colonisers and parking mafia, who vied with each other to milk the juicy city.

As a result, the condition of more than two million residents of the city is no better than that of any sleepy far-flung town, lacking infrastructure and development.

Lest one is awestruck by the glitter of its chic malls, high-rise office towers or trendy marketplaces, it should be noted that the people here have to bear long and unannounced power cuts, shortage of water, nagging traffic jams, parking blues, pitiable infrastructure, bad roads, improper garbage disposal, malfunctioning public offices and unresponsive government officials.

In fact, a first-time visitor is shocked on arrival at the bus-stand, which presents a picture of poor hygiene, neglect and mismanagement. A visit to the mini-secretariat reveals non-functional lifts, stinking toilets and grossly inadequate facilities. The situation is no better at the local tehsil office, court complex or civil hospital.

The health facilities are also grossly inadequate for the rapidly increasing local population. The residents are left with no other option but to be fleeced by private hospitals.

There is hardly any public transport to speak of; driving through the city roads can test one’s patience and persistence. Traffic snarls are frequent owing to bad planning, and there are instances of "legitimate" wrong-side driving where no right turn has been provided for at crucial points. For example, if one has to turn right from the Hero Honda chowk, one either has to go up to the Khedki Daula toll plaza and take a U-turn from there, or drive on the wrong side of the road from Rajiv Chowk.

This practice has been going on for years, yet no solution seems to be in sight. A flyover over the Hero Honda chowk could have made life much easier for the local residents and commuters, but the authorities concerned seem to be least bothered.

As most of the agricultural land around the city has either been bought by colonisers and other property sharks or acquired by the government, most villages on the outskirts have turned into slums. The lack of a proper sewerage system further compounds the problem.

The multiplicity of authority in Gurgaon also complicates the functioning of government departments and gives the officials enough excuses to pass the buck. Corrupt government functionaries, including politicians as well as officials, try to make the most of it during their respective tenures, giving scant attention to public welfare.

Thanks to their callous approach, the residents of the "millennium city" do not even have the basic amenities, though the authorities claim to have spent hundreds of crores on the local development. There is not even a single state-run university or a reputed professional college in the district despite the growing requirement for a sound educational infrastructure in the area. The existing government colleges are functioning in a typical sarkari manner, without taking in the specific needs and aspirations of the local students. Many local industries, especially the small and medium enterprises, have also become victims of official apathy.

So much so, that captains of the local industry have alleged that the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSSIDC), meant for promoting industry in the state, was harassing industrialists, especially the owners of small-scale units.

At a meeting held in connection with the revision of the state industrial policy under the chairmanship of the Haryana Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary (Industries) and attended by the HSIIDC managing director, several industrialists and entrepreneurs maintained that small units were being forced towards closure due to the highhandedness of the HSIIDC officials and excessive red tapism.

"Instead of making efforts to develop Gurgaon as a world-class cosmopolitan city, the successive governments in the state as well as most administrators appointed here have treated it as a goldmine," says R. S. Rathee, president of the Gurgaon Citizens Council.

"The annoying fact is that there is neither any roadmap for improving the infrastructure of the city, nor any resolve on part of the administrators to make it a better place to live in," he says, adding that despite contributing nearly 46 per cent of revenue to the state exchequer, it lacks even basic facilities like adequate water and power supply, motorable roads, a properly functioning sanitation, clean and well-equipped bus stand and waste-management system.

The general feeling among the local residents is that the quality of life in Gurgaon is totally in contrast to the false image of the city being projected in official brochures.

State leaders try to appoint their hand-picked officers in the district, who can help them in furthering their vested (read financial) interests.

With such apathetic people at the helm of affairs, it becomes imperative for the local people to play a proactive role in checking the rot that has set in.

Because if the lackadaisical approach is allowed to continue and no worthwhile efforts are made to check this downward trend, the process of development may be reversed and with a collapse seeming imminent.

MCG — Money Collector of Gurgaon The “millennium city” has become a victim of haphazard development Established with an objective to improve civic amenities in the cyber city, the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has miserably failed to deliver. During the two years of its existence, the MCG has focussed more on filling up its own coffers than ensuring the provision of services it was meant to provide. The chronic inefficiency of MCG officials and rampant corruption prevalent in the civic body have proved a boon for the encroachers, unethical builders, parking mafia and other wrongdoers, and a bane for the law-abiding citizens. A number of local roads and streets continue to be in a bad shape, most frequented public places like the local bus stand and civil hospital lack basic hygiene and civic amenities, and there are encroachments galore across the city. Needless to mention, most projects undertaken by the MCG are going on at their own sweet and slow sarkari pace. The only difference MCG has made to the city is the imposition of House Tax and adding to the already complicated multiplicity of authorities. In full two years, the MCG has even failed to completely take over the provision of essential services, like water supply, sewerage, roads, parks and streetlights in most areas under its jurisdiction from other government agencies like HUDA, Public Health Department and PWD, what to speak of improving these services. The officials concerned hold the lack of clear-cut demarcation of the authority and responsibilities of their departments responsible for their non-performance, though they fail to pinpoint where the buck eventually stops.

Tale of two cities The Delhi-Jaipur National Highway No. 8, which passes through Gurgaon, largely bifurcates the city into two halves: Old and New Gurgaon. While the old city seems similar to any other town of Haryana, the new Gurgaon looks like a foreign locale. However, despite being poles apart in terms of quality of life and infrastructure, the residents of both Gurgaons have their own sets of problems. The old-city residents face difficulties like erratic water and power supply, unsatisfactory sanitary conditions, potholed roads, encroachments, improper disposal of rainwater and so on. On the other hand, the residents of new Gurgaon are more concerned about the security aspect, traffic congestion and parking problems, air and noise pollution and nuisances like liquor vends cropping up in their vicinity. — SD