Chandigarh , August 9 : On the occasion of United Nations’ International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, group of eminent citizens and civil society organisations under the banner of “Save Chandigarh” organised a public deliberation and press interaction on the issue of involuntary displacement of original inhabitants which includes land owners, agricultural/ non-agricultural workers, rural artisans, schedule castes and other weaker sections of the society. A united appeal to the Union Home Minister was also made to act swiftly and stop misery of the original inhabitants of Chandigarh.
A detailed white paper titled, “Four years of Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh technology park” was also released to highlight the insensitive, unlawful and corrupt practices adopted by Chandigarh Administration under the garb of public purpose wherein thousands of families are forcibly deprived of their right to life, livelihood and honest living, just to feed to the greed of elitist few, i.e. cash rich industrial houses and real estate companies. The citizens’ white paper also highlighted the violations of the law, violations of the vision behind the concept of Chandigarh and violations of the basic concept of urban planning. Specific examples were given to highlight the incidences wherein many industrial houses in connivance with the officials got big chunk of land allotted in their favour and later on (even after lapse of 4 years) didn’t start any IT related activity. It is also alleged that more than half of the land in the so claimed IT park has been handed over to non-IT companies for purely commercial activity under the garb of public purpose. All such activities which are referred to as support systems for IT park by the Chandigarh Administration are actually the core activities and dominate the profile of the IT park. Activities dubbed as “support system to IT park” are Multiplex, Night Club, Malls, Shopping Centre, Commercial offices, restaurants and food court, 5 star hotels, elite housing project “Pride Asia,” etc.
Chandigarh’s first Indian chief architect, M. N. Sharma and senior associate of Chandigarh’s creator Le Corbusier said, “Such ill conceived projects are against the vision of Le Corbusier and Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. Le Corbusier was categorical in stating that the functions of city and the periphery should not be mixed otherwise chaos and anarchy are sure to follow. It’s also in gross violation of Punjab Periphery Control Act, Chandigarh inter-state capital regional plan 2001, Chandigarh inter-state metropolitan region plan, and surprisingly this IT park has been initiated without any feasibility study or social impact assessment. Not only this, it will also bring untold ecological and environmental problems for people of Chandigarh, which would be fully felt by all residents in another few years. Decay of a city is an irreversible process and what is happening to Chandigarh now is not development but fast paced decay which will lead to disaster.”
Social activist Hemant Goswami said, “Participative democracy and accountability are key ingredients of our constitution and that is why the Constitution has been amended by way of 73rd and 74th amendment to include Panchayats and Munciplaities to make it more participative. However the Chandigarh Administration did not follow even the basic democratic process, what to say of participative consultative government. Unfortunately a section of bureaucracy is projecting farmers and original inhabitants as anti-development and big corporates as agents of development. This is incorrect, farmers are the first pillar and the strength of India, they are as much part of the development of growth and progress of India, as the industry. Green areas are not only food basket but also lungs of our country. It is absolutely incorrect to give the land belonging to honest and hard working farmers to the richest of the rich people like Azim Premji of Wipro and Narayanamurthy of Infosys at subsidised price. Rajiv Gandhi could never have imagined that his thought on bringing a computer era will bring indescribable misery to farmers, ecology; and the future IT initiatives in his name would be built over the graves of farmers.”
Senior Advocate, H. C. Arora highlighted that the question was not merely limited to giving compensation to the farmers whose lands were forcibly acquired, but there was a larger question of his right to life and livelihood also which remains unanswered. “Right to life and livelihood is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 and right to profess any profession is guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution. The government should not resort to insensitive and inhuman way of land acquisition and displacement of farmers on flimsy public purpose projects but rather such methods should be resorted to only in rarest of the rare cases of public interest. The present action of Chandigarh Administration also grossly violates the National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy 2007.” Arora emphasised.
Hemant also highlighted that if the proposed plan of Chandigarh Administration to expand the third phase of IT park goes ahead, it will prove to be a doom for Chandigarh as around 50,000 fully grown trees which absorb 6 lakh tons of carbon dioxide and produce 5 lakh tons of oxygen would be cut to make way for concrete jungle. “To understand and work on Global warming we need not go anywhere else, it is happening right here in Chandigarh,” he added.