Speaker 1: In this episode, we talk about the Dharavi Redevelopment project
Speaker 1: and a major challenge that is keeping it from moving forward.
Speaker 1: We also talk about the Supreme Court reconsidering the University
Speaker 1: Grants Commission regulations aimed at preventing cast discrimination in higher
Speaker 1: education institutions, and why it has put the government in
Speaker 1: a politically difficult position. But first we talk about a
Speaker 1: report that has revealed some concerning findings about railway stations
Speaker 1: in India. Hi, I am Aherikananda and you are listening
Speaker 1: to three things in an Express News show. For those
Speaker 1: of you who have visited a railway station recently, you
Speaker 1: may have noticed that many stations still lack some very
Speaker 1: basic amenities, including adequate seating, toilets, fans and proper signage.
Speaker 1: And last week, confirming this, the Comptroller and Auditor General
Speaker 1: tabled a report in Parliament revealed that more than eighty
Speaker 1: nine percent of the railway stations it audited lagged such amenities.
Speaker 1: The audit, which covered four years from twenty to twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, also highlighted complaints about poor cleanliness, inadequate water
Speaker 1: availability and a lack of medical assistance. Now, when we
Speaker 1: spoke to the Indian Express's Rich Mishra. He told us
Speaker 1: that this is particularly concerning because under a provision introduced
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three, railway stations are required to
Speaker 1: provide passengers with what are known as minimum essential amenities.
Speaker 2: That means a railway station should have some basic facilities
Speaker 2: I mean that is mandatory like drinking water, tabs, seating, urinus, latterans,
Speaker 2: waiting hall, water coolers, fanclock. These are almost fifteen and
Speaker 2: sixteen kinds of facilities that has to be at a
Speaker 2: railway station.
Speaker 3: And what the findings are. The findings are very concerning.
Speaker 2: It says that there are just eleven percent of this
Speaker 2: station who have complete minimum essential amenities, I mean only
Speaker 2: eleven percent has all kinds of basic facilities that are
Speaker 2: required to be there at a railway station.
Speaker 1: He says. India's railway stations are broadly divided into two categories,
Speaker 1: suburban and non suburban, and this audit focused on non
Speaker 1: suburban stations, which are generally larger and catered to a
Speaker 1: significant number of passengers. Out of nearly five nine hundred
Speaker 1: non suburban stations across the country, the CAG audited five
Speaker 1: hundred and twelve.
Speaker 2: Also, which is much more concerning is that there are
Speaker 2: some of the very top stations of the country who
Speaker 2: have very high revenue and much more passenger football, like
Speaker 2: they have revenue over seven hundred and ten corode and
Speaker 2: the footfall ranges between one point zero three corode two
Speaker 2: more than eleven corode. Even these stations who have so
Speaker 2: much revenue and so many passenger football they even lack
Speaker 2: to these phasic facilities. And some of these stations this
Speaker 2: is very famous, like New Delhi also have this problem.
Speaker 2: Howdah Nizamudin which is in Delhi, Sekondarabad Station, Chennai Central, Ahmadabad,
Speaker 2: Chatapavaji Mahaj Terminus which is one of the biggest stations
Speaker 2: of the country, and Bengaluru, Surat and anand Vihar. So
Speaker 2: even these biggest stations does not have complete basic facilities
Speaker 2: and despite having much more revenue, much more passenger coming
Speaker 2: onto this station, they do not have these facilities.
Speaker 1: And he says that if we look more closely at
Speaker 1: the report, we find that of the five and twelve
Speaker 1: stations audited one eight eight lad even basic facilities such
Speaker 1: as drinking water taps, wedding halls were not available at
Speaker 1: the twenty one stations.
Speaker 2: There were deficiencies in number of the urinals at one
Speaker 2: hundred and eleven stations. And also whenever we visit at
Speaker 2: the railway station, you would have seen that the railway
Speaker 2: boat have mandated that there is this certain area which
Speaker 2: has to be covered, the platform of the area which
Speaker 2: has to be covered. The CAG have found efficiency in
Speaker 2: that as well. Apart from this, a sixty stations did
Speaker 2: not have a clock. One twenty eighth station had deficiencies
Speaker 2: in number of water coolers and dust beans. So these
Speaker 2: are the very basic things that railway stations did not have.
Speaker 1: But besides this, the CAG also assessed hygiene and cleanliness
Speaker 1: at these stations and found several lapses, including in the
Speaker 1: maintenance of water coolers, waste collection, pest and rodent control,
Speaker 1: and the upkeep of toilets and bathrooms. And more concerning
Speaker 1: was the fact that water samples from coolers at several
Speaker 1: major stations tested positive for ecolie.
Speaker 2: In drinking water. The presence of equal lie is a
Speaker 2: warning that seaways or animal or human fecal contamination might
Speaker 2: have entered in the water. So that is a very clear,
Speaker 2: you know sign, and the presence of equo lie Bacteria
Speaker 2: in drinking water can lead to a number of diseases
Speaker 2: to the passengers, so that is a very concerning thing.
Speaker 2: And some of the stations that have named they is
Speaker 2: that a Comber two Palakar junction Hadrabamaras terminus Biani Road Kalinna.
Speaker 2: These are the stations where equoli was found in the
Speaker 2: drinking water. And also the auditor has said the CAG
Speaker 2: has said that chemical analysis of drinking water was not
Speaker 2: conducted by health inspector at one seventy nine stations in
Speaker 2: eleven jones and was not carried out as per prescribed
Speaker 2: periodicity twice a year at seventy seven stations in six zone.
Speaker 2: And not only this, I mean there is this a
Speaker 2: clear protocol, uniform drinking water protocol which prescribed a detailed
Speaker 2: number of parameters that has to be tasted related to
Speaker 2: the drinking water. And the CAG said that none of
Speaker 2: the stations, none of the five hundred and twelve stations
Speaker 2: that they had short listed, they followed all of these parameters.
Speaker 2: It's a very clear sign of the carelessness that passenger
Speaker 2: have to drink these contaminated water and.
Speaker 1: These conditions and lack of amenities were found despite the
Speaker 1: fact that over seven hundred Coro rupees was spent on
Speaker 1: maintaining sanitation at railway stations during the four year period. Now,
Speaker 1: another problem highlighted in the report is one that unfortunately
Speaker 1: remains common in public spaces. This is the lack of
Speaker 1: facilities required for passengers with disabilities.
Speaker 2: There is a law at the national level that you know,
Speaker 2: every institution, every government institution, even the private ones, their
Speaker 2: structure should be a disabled friendly that includes stations as well.
Speaker 2: So what the CAG have found that some of the
Speaker 2: very key facilities that is important for the disabled people
Speaker 2: is like standard ramp with railing. It is very difficult
Speaker 2: for them to you know, frequent the station without having
Speaker 2: these facilities. So what the CAG have found that forty
Speaker 2: four percent of the station that they inspected were lacking
Speaker 2: the facilities like standard rampi railing. Fifty five percent of
Speaker 2: these stations did not have a separate earmarked parking lot
Speaker 2: for the disabled people. Thirty two percent of these stations
Speaker 2: did not have non slippery walkway, which is very very important.
Speaker 2: And second, fifty eight percent of these stations did not
Speaker 2: have drinking water tap on alternate water booth at each platform.
Speaker 2: So I mean it is mandatory for the railways to
Speaker 2: have these facilities because without these facilities at the stations,
Speaker 2: it would be very very difficult for the differently able
Speaker 2: people to go the station and you know, to board
Speaker 2: the train.
Speaker 1: Now he sees the last time the car conducted an
Speaker 1: audit of passenger facilities at railway stations was back in
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, but nearly a decade later, the National Auditor
Speaker 1: found that many of the same deficiencies still persisted, despite
Speaker 1: repeated assurances from the Ministry of Railways that these issues
Speaker 1: would be addressed.
Speaker 2: One of the main reasons for this problem of not
Speaker 2: having even basic ammenities at the railway station is less
Speaker 2: monitoring of these services. So I mean railways have system
Speaker 2: in place. There is zonal level committee which is called
Speaker 2: Zonal Railway User Consultative Council and another is Divisional Railway
Speaker 2: User Consultative Consoles. So these committees they have this power
Speaker 2: of monitoring all of these facilities and they are responsible
Speaker 2: to ensure that every station should have at least complete
Speaker 2: basic facilities and both committees zonal and divisional levels they
Speaker 2: are required to meet at least three times in a year.
Speaker 2: But CAG have found that none of the division, that
Speaker 2: none of the zone and none of the division met
Speaker 2: you know met as per the prescribed periodicity that means
Speaker 2: three times in a year. So since the committees are
Speaker 2: not meeting on time, all the works related to passenger
Speaker 2: amenities are not being reviewed or not being properly monitored.
Speaker 2: And you know that is why there are a number
Speaker 2: of places like CAC said that they're not just eleven
Speaker 2: percent of the station have complete facility. So this is
Speaker 2: one of the main reasons that you know, monitoring is
Speaker 2: not being done on time. And the CAG report also
Speaker 2: shows that the budget which was earmarked for the customer
Speaker 2: amenities were underutilized during these period of twenty nineteen twenty
Speaker 2: to twenty three, twenty four. So the underutilization ranged between
Speaker 2: thirty six percent to fourteen percent during the period. And
Speaker 2: also it requires answers from the railways that why are
Speaker 2: they not expanding the budget allocated for the customer amenities.
Speaker 2: One reason for this period could be for some years
Speaker 2: could be a COVID pandemic, because there were two years
Speaker 2: between this period which was there was a heavy tool
Speaker 2: because of COVID pandemic. But what happened during the other years.
Speaker 2: So these are the key things that railway have to answer.
Speaker 1: Indeed, it says that after the report was stabled in Parliament,
Speaker 1: the government swung into action and Union Railways Minister Ashwiniweshno
Speaker 1: directed the ministry to take corrective measures including installing a
Speaker 1: new tank to tap water filtration system at around twenty
Speaker 1: thousand locations.
Speaker 2: So now this filtration system tank to tap, meaning it
Speaker 2: will monitor the water cleanness from the tank and to
Speaker 2: the tap from where passengers fill water. And also now
Speaker 2: the railwayboat has decided to monitor the water level quality
Speaker 2: at the board level in Delhi. So they have said
Speaker 2: that you know, there will be a scheduled cleaning and
Speaker 2: maintenance of a storage tank now and the progress and
Speaker 2: water quality report will be published periodically so that people
Speaker 2: also can see it and the whole thing will be
Speaker 2: monitored at the railway board level. So now the railway
Speaker 2: is essentially saying that every station of the country, the
Speaker 2: water quality of it will be monitored at the central
Speaker 2: level in Delhi. But the timeline is not yet sure
Speaker 2: that when they will do it. But the water filtration
Speaker 2: system has been ordered for twenty thousand locations at different
Speaker 2: railway stations.
Speaker 1: And next we talk about the Dharavi Redevelopment Project, one
Speaker 1: of India's most ambitious urban renewal exercises involving not only
Speaker 1: rebuilding Dharave itself, but also finding alternative land to rehabilitate
Speaker 1: residents who will not receive freehousing at the original site.
Speaker 1: And so a section of Tarave residents who are not
Speaker 1: eligible for freehousing within Tharave are supposed to be relocated
Speaker 1: to theonar On land that is currently part of Mumbai's
Speaker 1: oldest and largest landfill. But before any homes can be
Speaker 1: built there, a portion of this landfill has to be cleared,
Speaker 1: treated and certified safe and that work has not even begun.
Speaker 1: So to understand why has the deunor cleanup been delayed
Speaker 1: and what does this mean for the larger Dharavi Redevelopment project,
Speaker 1: my colleague H speaks to the Indian Expresses Pratipachar, who
Speaker 1: covers the city for the paper.
Speaker 4: They understand that the original deadline for the cleanup of
Speaker 4: the landfill was January this year, so why are we
Speaker 4: more than six months past that deadline and yet the
Speaker 4: actual remediation work hasn't even begun.
Speaker 5: So last year we did an investigation saying that how
Speaker 5: the decision of you know, relocating the citizens to active
Speaker 5: landfill was against the stipulated norms of the Central Pollution
Speaker 5: Control Board of India and it also contradicts the set
Speaker 5: environment rules that are the established government environmental rules sed
Speaker 5: by the Government of India. In the investigation, we had
Speaker 5: also flagged that the administration, the state government and all
Speaker 5: the parties that were involved, they did not carry out
Speaker 5: any environment impact assessment before allocating this land for housing project.
Speaker 5: So after the investigation came out, the government put out
Speaker 5: at tender, the BMC put out at tender saying that
Speaker 5: the way that is being piled up on those lands
Speaker 5: will be cleaned up through a scientific process called bioremediation,
Speaker 5: and the BMC had set up a three year deadline
Speaker 5: for completing this cleanup task of bio remedation.
Speaker 3: After that this housing tenements were to be built over it.
Speaker 4: And your recent investigation highlights how five of the seven
Speaker 4: clearances are still pending and several crucial applications weren't even
Speaker 4: made until months later. So why this delay?
Speaker 5: Yeah, So, basically, like I said that the BMC had
Speaker 5: set up a three year deadline for cleaning that land,
Speaker 5: and in the tender document they had also mandated that
Speaker 5: all the government permissions that are required for cleaning up
Speaker 5: that land should be acquired within a six month period
Speaker 5: from the date of issuance of war order. So technically
Speaker 5: that six month deadline was supposed to get over in
Speaker 5: January this year, they were supposed to acquire all the permissions.
Speaker 3: However, the MS records show that only like most of the.
Speaker 5: Applications were filed after the January deadline got like, only
Speaker 5: one application was applied before the initian deadlanded, which was
Speaker 5: the Consent to establish the Permission for City Consent to
Speaker 5: establish certificate that was supposed to be filed with the
Speaker 5: State Pollution Control.
Speaker 4: Board and to THEE. Interestingly, when you spoke to the contractor,
Speaker 4: they said that initially they believed environmental clearance wouldn't be
Speaker 4: necessary at all because landfill reclamation is itself environmentally friendly.
Speaker 4: So how do we read that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, while speaking with us, the incl which is the
Speaker 5: contract that they had told us that we didn't know
Speaker 5: these many permissions would be requiring.
Speaker 3: They were saying that only them, which.
Speaker 5: Is the Marashtra Coastal Zone and Management Authority, they had
Speaker 5: told them that you will need from the Mangrove Cell
Speaker 5: of the state government. You will need a Wildlife and
Speaker 5: Forest NOC since that places an eco sensitive zone, and
Speaker 5: as well as you need a clearance from the Ministry
Speaker 5: of Environment, Forest and Climate Church which is THEFCC of
Speaker 5: the Union and Ministry. As well as you need a
Speaker 5: legal clearance of the Bombay HICO because so this whole
Speaker 5: process is located and the eastern fringe of Mumbai just
Speaker 5: adjoining a water body which is a thanic creek and
Speaker 5: that is a like buffer zone for flamingos. So for that,
Speaker 5: so this many environment permissions you have to have in
Speaker 5: your place before you start the work in general, so
Speaker 5: this is where the administration I wouldn't say it was
Speaker 5: a miscommunication.
Speaker 3: I would say like they were not aware about it.
Speaker 5: They did not know that the many rules were required,
Speaker 5: because I feel the process of floating the data was
Speaker 5: a little bit happherzart Riton.
Speaker 4: Given that Donar is an environmentally sensitive site, talk about
Speaker 4: how difficult is it to clean it up.
Speaker 5: So the area which needs to be cleaned up or
Speaker 5: bio remediated is sprayed across one hundred and twenty four
Speaker 5: acres and it is a huge land person in the
Speaker 5: instance above the Mumbai and this place accounts to around
Speaker 5: almost nearly two crore one point eight five four metric
Speaker 5: tons of legacy waste, which is ninety nine years of
Speaker 5: legacy west that has been lying there, and the BMC
Speaker 5: had set up a three year deadline to clean it up,
Speaker 5: which is very ambitious because this process of bioremediation can
Speaker 5: only be carried out on drcism, which means that when
Speaker 5: there is no rail now.
Speaker 4: Bioremediation is an eco friendly process that essentially uses living
Speaker 4: organisms mainly bacteria, fungi, plants to clean up polluted environments.
Speaker 5: But in Mumbai you have already four months of rainfall,
Speaker 5: so out of the thirty six months which is three years,
Speaker 5: you have twelve months are already gone in rainfall.
Speaker 3: Like for those twelve months you cannot do anything.
Speaker 5: So you have only twenty four months or which equals
Speaker 5: to two years in your hand. So in those two
Speaker 5: years you are supposed to, you know, take away that
Speaker 5: west and process it and again.
Speaker 3: Clean that landfill and give it back.
Speaker 5: So this was a very ambitious target and initially the
Speaker 5: BMC had set up a three year deadline.
Speaker 3: But however they had taken. It seems that it's been
Speaker 3: almost a year and they are year two.
Speaker 5: I mean start the construction, because I remember the tender
Speaker 5: was floated in June last year and we're in August
Speaker 5: right now, and till date they have received only two
Speaker 5: of the seven permissions that were required.
Speaker 3: Five are still painting.
Speaker 4: And so what have the authorities said, like, where do
Speaker 4: they place the responsibility in this delay?
Speaker 5: So the authorities have clearly said that they did not
Speaker 5: know about it, and the process of clearing through all
Speaker 5: this legal ramifications would take a lot of time.
Speaker 3: That's what they are maintaining. That is the standard they
Speaker 3: are maintaining.
Speaker 4: And to deep say, even if these clearances come through
Speaker 4: and the waste is successfully cleared, can this land serve
Speaker 4: as a habitable site for thousands of people to live on?
Speaker 3: So there are multiple aspects to it.
Speaker 5: So there are the CPCB rules, and the CPCB rules
Speaker 5: have certain things. Because the CPCP rules clearly states that
Speaker 5: you cannot build a house or a see construction of
Speaker 5: housing units or hospital schools, any place that involves human
Speaker 5: interaction or human involvement in that place could not be
Speaker 5: built in a closed landfill. And there is a time
Speaker 5: period that has been given, like you have to keep
Speaker 5: that place shut for at least five to fifteen years.
Speaker 5: After that you have to carry out environment impact assessment.
Speaker 5: And if you see that there are legged which is
Speaker 5: like a chemical that spews from you know, accumulated waste,
Speaker 5: these things are there, then you have to again shut
Speaker 5: it down for five years, and then again you have
Speaker 5: to open it and then have to again carry out
Speaker 5: a baseline study. You have to carry out your groundwater study,
Speaker 5: you will carry the study of the soil components. And
Speaker 5: only after all these studies and all these places pick
Speaker 5: their boxes, then only you can build housing tenements over there.
Speaker 5: So it's a very long process of you know, securing
Speaker 5: environment permissions, securing clearances.
Speaker 4: Right and as you mentioned that twenty twenty nine deadline
Speaker 4: seems highly unrealistic. So what about the families who will
Speaker 4: be displaced? What happens to them?
Speaker 5: Meanwhile, So the taharavid De government project has a seven
Speaker 5: year deadline from the day the master plan was released.
Speaker 3: The master plan was released last year, so which.
Speaker 5: Is the deadline for the derivative project for all the
Speaker 5: houses to come up is twenty thirty two.
Speaker 3: So they have set a twenty twenty nine deadline.
Speaker 5: So unless and until that place can be cleaned up,
Speaker 5: they can't start the.
Speaker 3: Construction of houses. And unless and until they start the
Speaker 3: construction of houses, the.
Speaker 5: People who are already living in the Hrave Islam they
Speaker 5: can't be evicted, but they can't be relocated. So which
Speaker 5: means that this whole clean up process is going to
Speaker 5: delay the entire Dharavi redevelopment project in our way.
Speaker 1: And in the end we talk about the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: reconsidering the controversial University Grants Commission or UGC regulations aimed
Speaker 1: at preventing cost discrimination in higher education institutions. These are
Speaker 1: rules that have put the government in a politically difficult
Speaker 1: position by drawing objections from both upper cost groups and
Speaker 1: sections of balet and OBC communities. The Internet Expresses Ananta
Speaker 1: Krishnaji and deep Taiwantivari report that the controversy centers on
Speaker 1: Regulation three one C, which defines cast based discrimination as
Speaker 1: discrimination on the basis of caste or tribe against members
Speaker 1: of scheduled casts, scheduled tribes or other backward classes. Petitioners
Speaker 1: have argued that this excludes students and faculty from the
Speaker 1: general category from specific protection against cast based discrimination. At
Speaker 1: the same time, the broader definition of discrimination covers unfair
Speaker 1: or differential treatment on the ground of caste against any stakeholder.
Speaker 1: The issue acquired a political dimension, particularly with the Uttar
Speaker 1: Pradesh elections next year. The rules initially triggered protests among
Speaker 1: sections of the upper castes, who argued that the explicit
Speaker 1: reference to SC's sds and obsses amounted to exclusion of
Speaker 1: general category students. But after the Supreme Court stayed the
Speaker 1: regulations and revived the twenty twelve framework, there was concern
Speaker 1: within the RSS and BGP ecosystem that the issue would
Speaker 1: also generate disquiet among Dalet communities, particularly in Uttar Pradesh.
Speaker 1: Its impact was recently also felt in bunky Per Assembly
Speaker 1: bipoles in Bihar, where the uppercast dissatisfaction over the UGC
Speaker 1: issue was seen. Among key reasons for bgp's laws. The
Speaker 1: BGP has been seeking to consolidate support among Dalits while
Speaker 1: retaining its traditional uppercast support base. The UGC controversy therefore,
Speaker 1: has created an unusual situation in which objections to the
Speaker 1: same set of regulations are emerging from opposite ends of
Speaker 1: the cast spectrum. Also, the Bench had orally observed that
Speaker 1: the government must constitute a committee of eminent jurists to
Speaker 1: look into the issue. The court said there might be
Speaker 1: instances of economically well of students within a cast harassing
Speaker 1: others within the same cast and sought to know how
Speaker 1: the regulations addressed such a scenario. The CGI had mentioned
Speaker 1: that this kind of situation can be exploited by the
Speaker 1: mischievous elements in the society. Another Krishna and Deepiman report
Speaker 1: that the regulations stem from a twenty nineteen petition filed
Speaker 1: in the Supreme Court by mothers of Pyle Karve and Rohitwamula,
Speaker 1: who died by suicide over alleged cast based discrimination. In
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen and twenty sixteen. They had sought the enforcement
Speaker 1: of robust anti discrimination mechanisms across higher education institutions. You
Speaker 1: were listening to Three Things by the Indian Express. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was edited and mixed by Surish Babar and produced
Speaker 1: by Ichas Sharma and me Niharikananda. If you like the show,
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