There are villages in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. But they are quite out of the ordinary. For they are neither ‘villages’ in the conventional sense, nor do they have facilities like the capital’s metropolitan neighbourhoods. Unsurprisingly, the people living in these villages are not happy with the political dispensation and promise to send a tough message in the upcoming Assembly elections on February 5, 2025.
The Delhi Panchayat Sangh (DPS), an organisation of Delhi’s villages, has called a meeting on February 1. DPS chief Than Singh Yadav told Down To Earth that a letter of demands has been prepared on behalf of the villages of Delhi. The meeting will decide as to which party is willing to fulfill these demands and the members will accordingly throw their weight behind that group’s candidates.
The demands raised by Delhi’s villages are not new. They are similar to those of villages across the country that are included in municipal bodies due to increasing urbanisation.
The difference is that while farmers and village residents in other states don’t get land title through ownership schemes, in Delhi’s villages it is the ‘Lal Dora’ — a legacy land classification system specific to Delhi indicating the village abadi (residential) areas — that is responsible.
Village residents also want all villages included in the capital to be exempted from house tax, conversion and parking charges. Also, villages should be kept out of building bye-laws. There are Gram Sabhas for these villages and they decide the Shamlat land (commons) of the village. But after joining the municipal body, the village Panchayats lose this right. This is a source of heartburn for Delhi’s village residents.
“We want Gram Sabha land to be used for the development of villages, such as parking lots, Baratghar (marriage hall), sports complex, pastures for animals, etc,” said Yadav. He added that this land is under the Municipal Corporation, which uses it for its own purposes.
Agricultural land acquired years ago, and still lying vacant, should be returned to farmers, said Yadav. Also, agricultural land of the Gram Sabha should be excluded from acquisition. The villages’ demands also include building houses for the rural poor and landless.
DPS wants that villages should be listed in the commercial category to provide employment to rural youth; the circle rate of agricultural land should be increased to Rs 10 crore; villages should be developed as ‘smart villages’ on the lines of ‘smart cities’; the main roads of villages should be widened to 100 feet’; there should be 100 per cent reservation for village children in public schools built on village land; and village youth should be guaranteed 50 per cent reservation in government jobs and services.
According to the 2011 Census, 369.35 square kilometres of the total 1,483 sq km area of Delhi is rural and 1,113.65 sq km is urban. The entire rural area has been divided into 5 community development blocks. The rural population of Delhi was 419,000, according to the 2011 census. But there is not a single Gram Panchayat in Delhi.
In fact, in the year 1911, the British declared Delhi as their capital instead of Calcutta and issued a notification in 1915 to establish New Delhi and included 65 nearby villages, which were located in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), into the city. In this way, the process of converting villages into cities started in Delhi.
After the independence of the country, the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act came into force in 1957 and under Section 507 of this Act, the process of declaring the villages as ‘urbanised’ started. Gradually about 357 villages in and around Delhi were included in the Municipal Corporation and Gram Panchayats were dissolved.
In 1993, through the 73rd amendment to the Constitution of India, provisions were made to strengthen the Panchayats. Being deprived of this, the village residents of Delhi put pressure on governments.
In 2004, the then government formed the Delhi Rural Development Board in order to assure the village residents that their interests would be protected.
But the Board had not benefitted the villages of Delhi in any way, alleged Yadav.
It remains to be seen whether the villages of Delhi are able to convey any concrete message to politicians in this assembly election to get their voices heard.