Story of Delhi Slums: When You Shelve The Law, Only Law Breakers Benefit
All slums in India follow the same pattern:
A slum lord puts up hutments, and rents out them at extortionist rates to the poor who come to the cities in search of the employment, because crime and absence of rule of law in their own states have made sure that there are no jobs there.
But when the government tries to do something about this slum lord mafia, activists come howling to protect the "homeless." Of course now that the activists themselves are in power, they have issued blanket orders that this mafia has immunity from law. And as a result, mafia has gone on overdrive to grab more land:
"The government has directed civic agencies and district authorities not to allow any fresh unauthorized construction. The order follows complaints that the Kejriwal government's recent direction banning demolition was being misused by the land mafia to push for illegal constructions in the city." (from a news item in the TOI of today.) (The news item can be read here.)
The solution of the problem of housing for the poor in our cities is repealing of the Rent Control laws, and allow FSI of at least ten. Rewarding the mafia will only lead to more of mafia, not less.
That is the problem with Socialists. When their policies bear bitter fruits, they enact some laws, bring out some more foolish policies, and the problem gets kicked down the road by few more years, only to come back with a vengeance, in more vicious form.
Slums are chiefly the result of two Socialist policies:
1. Rent control act and limit on FSI.
2. Socialism, and Socialism induced breakdown of rule of law in the rural areas, killing commerce, businesses, and as a result jobs there.
Till these two policies are reversed, slums will continue to grow.