This is the second post in a series on “AAP Delhi Manifesto 2015”
AAP has changed the paradigm of governance in Delhi and has constantly sought to innovate in framing policy. Delhi Dialogue was our initiative to obliterate the walls between government and the people. Whilst our vision is outlined in the 70 agendas of Delhi, an important running theme across all policy interventions is the following motto: “Big Change without Big Spending”.
Delhi has a budget of Rs. 36,700 crores with a planned expenditure of around Rs. 16,700 crores. We devolve around Rs. 3500 crores to NDMC, the trifurcated MCD and the Delhi Cantonment Board annually with their collective spending pegged at around Rs. 13000 crore. We will ensure that these civic bodies and municipal agencies function with synchronicity and accountability. However, we know our limitations and realize that the only way to deliver our promises is to look for innovative solutions, spend efficiently and raise revenue.
Our manifesto has spelt our vision to raise revenue via job creation, employment generation, startup promotion, business incubation and effective tax collection, whilst also detailing our agenda items and focus areas where we’re committed to spend the government’s political and financial capital.
However, manifestos, blueprints, and agendas, at least for us, are a work in progress. They are constantly evolving and subject to feedback. So, before I blog more about the actual manifesto: here are a few innovative ideas that we are still considering.
Affordable Housing
In Delhi, the Congress has treated slum-dwellers like a vote bank. And the BJP has always attempted to break their homes, despite making tall promises of giving them homes. One party promises them homes in 7 years which is shamefully late whilst the other builds castles in the air of a “Right to Shelter” when they didn’t do anything about it in 15 years. The Delhi Development Association has given up its eminent domain on land to the profiteering builder whilst forgetting its responsibility to the people.
The Aam Aadmi Party stands by the people of Delhi. AAP promises affordable housing to the people of Delhi, but not in thin air or without a plan.
For example, after a detailed investigation into the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), AAP has found that over 200 acres of land in Delhi is currently vacant and hasn’t been utilized by any government or land owning authority in Delhi. When the AAP government comes to power, we will immediately commission low-cost housing to be made here and these flats be sold to the EWS and middle class of Delhi. Sample plots include areas like Kasturba Niketan, Sawda Ghewra and Balaswa, which are much coveted in their respective constituencies. This is one of the many interesting solutions we propose. Land scarcity is a myth that has been propagated in Delhi. Our research shows that there are many hidden tracts of land in plain sight. If only someone looked. I will blog more about this.
Bottomline: AAP will ensure that affordable housing will be developed in sufficiently large numbers so that in the future, slums will not need to exist. However, as the process continues in Delhi, we will not break slums or JJ cluster and will conduct their in-situ development and rehabilitation to ensure at least a basic standard of living.
Office Space for Professionals
And now for something completely different! Startups and new businesses face a common problem of finding affordable office space in Delhi. The requirement of a registered office space even for professionals in IT and IT enabled services ends up being a prohibitive cost for new innovative startups. We will solve this problem using two interesting solutions:
- We will create 3 million square feet of incubation space across Delhi. This will be based on the Plug ’n’ Play model of startup incubation, where startups will be provided office space, furniture and basic amenities including Wi-Fi. Companies will be allowed to come, work and incorporate their companies in these areas. We will consider utilizing existing defunct industrial areas by changing land use norms, and also attempt to make office space in spare land that we’ve been able to find in research on DUSIB, MCD and DDA.
- We are considering allowing IT and IT-enabled service professionals to be given the same rights as lawyers, doctors and CAs to set up their business at home after permission from their local Mohalla Sabhas.
Let us know what you think about these ideas. The Dialogue with Delhi has just begun!
My Experiments with Politics and Policy In India 
Hey Roshan,
Congratulations on AAP’s victory. It was good to see that the party focused on winning the elections by sharing it’s reformation and development plans, rather than finding faults in the other party.
I sincerely hope you guys set the benchmark for how governance ought to be done.
I had 2 questions-
1. Is there an action plan for tackling petty corruption e.g. in RTOs, getting a gas connection etc.?
How would someone be able to report such incidents?
2. Office spaces:
We are a small company of 5 people. We started our journey in Delhi and had rented a residential space in Shahpur Jat. This is because we are a bootstrapped business and affordable commercial spaces aren’t available to us. There are other small businesses in the same area. We faced problems of water supply, parking, lack of an ecosystem for startups. Also, the rents are quite steep.
In November, we moved to Noida for 3 reasons
1. A better ecosystem. There are other SaaS companies here and we also have occasional meetups. There is accessibility to talent in the software space.
2. Lower maintenance costs
3. We have a commercial address now.
My questions are as follows-
1. Who would take care of the day to day management of the incubation spaces?
2. An important part of the ecosystem, I believe, is interaction with schools and colleges. I think this also plays a role in attracting good talent. How would this be facilitated? Could you also think of creating spaces in college campuses?
3. Another problem for businesses starting out is managing routine things like accounts, HR policies. Would there be a support team in these incubation spaces to help startups with these?
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Cheers,
Abhiram
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Its naive to say that the space scarcity in Delhi is artificial, its real and its there especially where I live in South Delhi and I am sure its there in other places too, and its exacerbated by the fact that so many illegal colonies have come up without any planning. Not only does it destroy the resources, it also leads to secondary problems like traffic snarls, crime, parking etc.
No one is going to leave their JJ cluster in say South Delhi and move to an obscure part in outer Delhi and even if they do, there is no guarantee others wont come in and settle down in the JJ clusters again or in new clusters and again ask the government for rehab. AAP needs to complete a survey of Delhi and declare all additional illegal colonies as subject to immediate removal.
Would love to understand other interesting solutions you guys have, I believe this is one of the keys to making Delhi a world class city, irregular and unplanned development are like cancer which destroy amazing cities from within.
Also, do you guys have any plans on improving implementation of laws ? Its amazing how many cars we see everyday breaking the law with impunity. There needs to be fear of the law for any real development to take place.
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