Where slums grow faster than industry

Many an entrepreneur did bite the bait, set up units here but most of these never got going, their path dogged by low-voltage power, lackof motorable roads and sewerage, inadequate water supply and the absence of housing facilities for labour. But the town was reduced to a slum. Baddi, a tehsil of Nalagarh sub-division of Solan District, falls under two panchayats — Baddi and Saraj Majra.

Surprisingly, neither the district administration nor the Department of Industry took timely action to prevent construction of unauthorised structures and remove encroachments. A visit to the main market gives ample evidence of shops coming up on the roads and extending their reach right onto the pathways with racks displaying the wares.

And this has been so for years with the authorities sitting smug. And finally, when they did sit up to erase these ugly spots, the authorities faced agitations and encountered political pressure.

The government’s failure to provide for housing facilities for the labour in and around Baddi resulted in shanties and huts coming up at every conceivably vacant place all over the township. Having descended on the town towork and stay and accommodation just not available, the labour-class started building jhuggis whenever and wherever they found it convenient. The enormity of this can be gauged from the fact that about 6,000 labourers out of about 15,000 live in huts in unhygienic conditions in the town.

This has taken a heavy toll of the little civic amenities the town has in the name of drinking water, drainage and sewerage. Worse still, the jhuggi dwellers let their liquid house waste flow into the open, spreading insanitation and stink all around. The problem becomes acute during the rainy season when water begins to stagnate in scores of pools which become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other insects. “What’s more, the slums were becoming breeding grounds for small-time criminals. The life-style of the slum-dwellers was affecting the social milieu in the township,” remarked R K Rewari, chief executive of a large spinning unit.

When contacted, Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Nalagarh, Bharat Khera, in charge ofthe Nalagarh sub-division under which Baddi falls, told The Indian Express, “The administration is quite aware of the problems of Baddi. With a view to solving them, a master plan was being prepared. Hopefully, it will be ready within six months and shall take care of the problems faced by the residents, industrialists and the labour class.”

In the meantime, efforts were being made to check proliferation of unauthorised structures and jhuggis, Khera said. “Only last week, the Nalagarh Administration razed 32 unauthorised structures and encroachments. The administration does not propose to evict those who had built jhuggis on the land belonging to the Telecom and Health Departments. These would be automatically removed once these the departments started building complexes,” he added, disclaiming knowledge about shacks and jhuggis which had come up elsewhere.

A large number of residents this reporter spoke to wanted a notified area committee (NAC) to manage the affairs of the town. NAC could beformed for any urban or semi-urban place having a population of 10,000 while the population of Baddi was now about 30,000, they argued.

General Secretary of the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industries Association A K Chawla told this paper that the association had been demanding setting up of an NAC and a labour colony, for the last four years but to no avail. “Looks things will have to wait until the master plan is ready,” he added.