Cafés, pubs and shops: Living spaces choked in South Delhi

The mushrooming of commercial spaces - crowded bars, fancy gyms, designer studios and tony coffee shops - in South Delhi's Defence Colony, Greater Kailash and Lajpat Nagar is throwing the lives of its residents into disarray.

From encroached roads and illegal parking to overcrowding to rowdyism during the night hours- there is no end to the woes of people living in these colonies.

Residents complained to Mail Today about parking problems, drunken brawls and loud music. The owners of the shops, however, contend they have procured proper licences for their commercial activity.

ROOT OF THE PROBLEM

The problem has its genesis in the unbridled expansion of commercial spaces in the Capital with blatant disregard for building bylaws over the last two decades - leaving the residential areas starved of open spaces.

Many buildings in Delhi's upscale colonies are used for dual purposes, with a shopping outlet on the ground and first floor and residential on the second. 'Conversion Charges' are paid as tax for different land-use. While in most cases the buildings have managed to change the land-use, in others, rules are flouted. And no one notices anything until the spaces are encroached upon.

Over time, the land-use of several roads and localities has been changed through government orders and in many cases, like these neighbourhoods, even the residents are unaware of it.

Kokila Rangachari, 71, who stays with her husband on the second floor of a building in D-block, Defence Colony, has been fighting the increasing commercialisation of the locality over the past few years. She has written several letters to municipal authorities so that she can lead a peaceful life in the house that belongs to her father.

"I have been living here for decades. In 2002, we gave out our three-floor property to a builder and began living on the second floor. It was entirely a residential area at that time. The builder had constructed all floors keeping residential use in mind. However, in 2006, when the government converted 2,500 roads into the commercial category, the area saw a boom in business activities," she says, adding that her house is a residential property where commercial activities cannot be undertaken.

Rangachari is having sleepless nights after learning that yet another bar is coming up in the lane she lives in. "These settlements attract a large number of footfalls, which leads to chaos and drunken brawls," she says.

When contacted, the businessman who owns the concerned building, said that he has done everything within the legal framework, and with proper paperwork.

"My property is entirely commercial. We have all documents to substantiate that. Residents do have issues with the bar coming up, but we have all No Objection Certificates (NoCs) and licences in place, whether it is Excise, MCD, Police or Fire," he said.

Meanwhile, the Defence Colony RWA has written to the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) pointing out that there has been a "sharp deterioration in quality of life."

"With higher commercialisation, the residents are the ones who suffer and not the ones running the commercial businesses since they themselves stay in other residential societies amid lush green surroundings," said Sapna Chaudhary, 56, who was born and brought up in Defence Colony.

Explaining the land use categories - residential, mixed-land and commercial -Congress councillor Abhishek Dutt says, "In the residential area, no commercial activity, even if it is running a small-scale business from home, is permitted. In mixed-land, two-thirds of the building can be used for commercial purposes and the upper portion for residential. Whereas, if the land is categorised as commercial, it means that any commercial activity can take place in that building, provided it has proper licence and documents."

ENCROACHMENT CENTRAL

To assess the ground reality, Mail Today visited all the three South Delhi areas that have seen rampant commercialisation. It was found that one-time conversion charges on mixed-land that property owners pay to run commercial activities has led to multiple problems for the residents.

"It is an issue for entire Delhi. Various RWAs and activists from across the Capital have united to raise it with civic authorities who are hand-in-glove with the owners in allowing mushrooming of commercial activities," said Rajeev Kakria, a member of RWA, Greater Kailash Part-I.

Those living in Lajpat Nagar are equally worried. "As the width of road outside our apartments is really narrow, it often causes parking problems," said Prerna Vashishth (46), a resident of Lajpat Nagar Part-I who works in an MNC as an analyst.

"Visitors to showrooms, restaurants and gyms park their cars outside the building or wherever they get space. Often they park their cars outside the main gate of a residential building. It blocks our way and if we raise an objection, they threaten us. Forget about arguments with the owner of the car, even the drivers behave like owners and threaten us," she said.

AK Jain, former commissioner (Planning), Delhi Development Authority, told Mail Today, "A bar cannot be opened on mixed-land. There are places where by fabricating documents or using other means, they have attained permissions and licences. But they are all illegal. These bars should be sealed immediately and strict action taken against the owner and the authorities who gave permissions in the first place," he said.

Mail Today's repeated attempts for a clarification from the South Delhi Municipal Corporation did not get a response.

Requesting anonymity, an official in SDMC said, "Businessmen are rigorously misusing the mixed-land laws by making commercial space even on the top floor. Be it rooftop restaurants or bars, their owners have either attained licences from concerned authorities by bribing them or are running these illegally without documents."

On mixed-land, any commercial activity cannot take place on the second floor or above, he added. Sealing of unauthorised commercial establishments returned to the National Capital after a decade in December 2017 after the Supreme Court, while reviving the powers of its 2006 committee on sealing, observed: "The blatant misuse of properties in Delhi for commercial purposes on such a large scale could not take place without the connivance of the officers."