The Tribune... Regional Vignettes

Regional vignettes

Chandigarh, Saturday, July 11, 1998

Every fortnight we bring you
special features on a city
from the region:
..Focus on Gurgaon

From Guru’s gaon to jet-setters’ home
FOR a town whose only claim to fame for centuries was that it was a place that the troops from Delhi marched through en route to Rajputana, Gurgaon’s present status as the most sought after urban destination in North India speaks of the remarkable progress that it has made...
Industry’s favourite haunt
If the Indian Government ever needs to show off an enterprise which it took over and made a success story of it should point towards Gurgaon...
Some eminent residents of Gurgaon
K.L. Poswal, Air Chief Marshal S.K. Mehra, Rao Birender Singh...
Chaos, mismanagement and confusion
Gurgaon was generally referred to as not one, but two districts — the distant, backward Mewat area and the bustling area in the south of the national capital...

From Guru’s gaon to jet-setters’ home

By Lalit Mohan
FOR a town whose only claim to fame for centuries was that it was a place that the troops from Delhi marched through en route to Rajputana, Gurgaon’s present status as the most sought after urban destination in North India speaks of the remarkable progress that it has made.It is said that the town was so named because it was the gaon (village) gifted to the Guru (Dronacharya) by Yudhishthar. The Kaurava and Pandava princes had learnt their archery lessons there. The area around the large tank off the Railway Road has even been identified as the likely location of the royal academy. Nobody, however, knows why the city lost all traces of its academic character and its name began to sound like a centre producing jaggery! The Bhajan Lal government did try to rename it ‘Gurugram’, but the attempt misfired.The earliest documented reference to the area dates to the Mauryan period when it constituted a part of the great empire. Whenever any invaders reached close to Delhi, ripples of their activities were felt in Gurgaon. During the Pratihara rule, the region was under the control of the Tomars, until they were overthrown by Visaladeva Chahamana (Chauhan) around 1156 AD.For most of the medieval period, the Gurgaon region experienced turbulence as and when invaders or rivals fought over Delhi. But it remained a little more than a footnote to the history of the capital.In Akbar’s time Gurgaon village was a part of Dastur Jharsa, which was included in Suba Delhi. After the demise of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, the entire region around the capital was torn between several contending powers and the local tribes kept nibbling at the shrunken empire.
During the period when the Marathas held sway, the area was controlled by French generals Perron and Bourquin, known to the locals as Piru Sahib and Louis Sahib. “Their rule seems not to have been over-trammelled by law,” records an East India Company Gazetteer of the last century and adventurers of all persuasions had a field day. In this era of plunder and pillage, in 1793, Begum Samru’s husband, Sombre, obtained rights to the parganah of Jharsa, now a part of the expanded city.
The British came on the scene in 1803, after the Treaty of Anjengaon, when the possessions of the scindias south-west of the Yamuna passed on to the Company. Gurgaon became the administrative headquarters of the district in 1816 and included most of what has now become Faridabad and Rewari districts.
The district Gazetteer of 1884 records: “The station of Gurgaon consists of the public offices, the dwellings of European residents, the Sadar Bazar, and the settlement of Jacombpura, which was laid out by a former Deputy Commissioner, Mr Jacomb, in 1861, for the accommodation of government servants. The population in 1881 was 3,990. It is 2½ miles from the Gurgaon Road station of the Rajputana-Malwa railway, 20 miles from Delhi, and is connected therewith by a metalled road shaded by fine avenues of jaman trees.
“The place was first occupied by some troops of cavalry, who were posted to watch the army of Begum Samru of Sirdhana, whose principal cantonment was at the village of Jharsa, a mile to the south-east; and the civil offices were removed there from Bharawas in 1821, when the British frontier was advanced by the acquisition of Ajmere territory.
“The centre of the station is occupied by a well-designed public garden, and the roads of the settlement as well as the approaches from Delhi, Sohna and Rewari are adorned with good avenues of sissu and nim trees which are now an ornament to the country. The principal public buildings are the district offices, police office, jail, church, dispensary, sessions house, dak bungalow, school, parwaris school, post office, tehsil and two sarais.
“Gurgaon is well known for the excellence of its spring-water and the salubrity of its climate, and is on these accounts resorted as a sanitarium for the invalids. The Sadar Bazar is a street of good brick-built shops, and a trade in grain is springing up, but is not yet well established. There is no Municipal Committee (local citizens may be forgiven if they get the same impression even today!).
“The village of Gurgaon-Masani, situated about a mile away, is worthy of mention only as the site of the temple of Sitla, the goddess of smallpox, which is held in great repute throughout this part of the country and is visited by pilgrims from the Punjab, N.W.P., and Oudh to the number of fifty or sixty thousand annually. The offerings, which amount often to Rs 20,000, were formerly appropriated by Begum Samru, but are now a perquisite of the proprietary body of Gurgaon village.”
During the 1857 uprising Gurgaon was attacked by rebels of the 3rd Light Cavalry who had come through Delhi and the Collector and District Magistrate, W. Ford, had to flee. The Mewatis took advantage of the vacuum and tried to control the district headquarters, but were, before long, killed, along with the Gujjar, Ahir and other chieftains, by Brigadier Showers’ troops. Villagers from Dharuhera to Taoru were mowed down by his merciless onslaught. “The Nawabs of jhajjar and Farrukhnagar and the Raja of Ballabhgarh were executed, and their states confiscated.”
Apart from these “Thirteen villages and parts of five other villages were confiscated for various acts of rebellion and murder, besides four estates which had belonged to Tula Ram and Gopal Deo; and the history of the mutiny may now be closed with the record of one of its results, the transfer of the district with the rest of Delhi territory from the North-West Provinces to the Punjab in the beginning of 1858.”
Even though Gurgaon had been a district headquarters for over half a century, the census report of 1881 showed that it was its smallest town. Nuh with 4,219 people was slightly larger. Hodal and Firozpur Jhirka had over 6,000 people each. Farrukhnagar, Sohna and Palwal were larger still and Rewari with a population of 23,972 was the biggest of all. But even in those dreary days there must have been some attraction for this sleepy mofussil town because the District Gazetteer shows that T. Roberts had five postings here between 1877 and 1883 as the Deputy Commissioner!
After the 1857 uprising was quelled, Gurgaon reverted to its somnolescent state. There was the odd political hiccup relating to local politics, but the most significant occurrence was the arrival of refugees from West Punjab in 1947, and the reciprocal departure of the city’s Muslims. Special camps were set up to accommodate the immigrants, and in due course became permanent residential localities, bringing a quantum jump in the town’s population.
But the growth in the aftermath of the Partition was nothing compared to the expansion that started in the 1980s. When space was needed to take in the overflow from south Delhi, Gurgaon was considered the most suitable place. The proximity to the airport helped. The town is now being projected as the home for the jet-setters of the next century. Offices of large corporations are moving in as most of their executives and staff are opting to reside in Gurgaon. The pollution and exorbitant rents are driving people out of Delhi.
But is Gurgaon ready to accept the new influx?.

Industry’s favourite haunt
IF the Indian Government ever needs to show off an enterprise which it took over and made a success story of it should point towards Gurgaon. Because the city is the home of Maruti, by far the largest car maker in the country from whose assembly line comes their entire range of models, in hundreds of thousands every year. Without doubt the collaboration with Suzuki helped, but this company has steered clear of most of the ills that plague the public sector and given the old and the new private sector rivals a run for their money. And it has spawned six joint ventures, about 20 ancillary units and over 100 vendors in Gurgaon alone that gave the industrial areas the nucleus that was needed to put the town on India’s industrial map.
It is also the home of several units of the Hero and Anand groups, and of Carrier Aircon, Sona Steering, Perfetti, Sunbeam Castings, Modi Alcatel, Duracel, Hughes Software, Bharati Telecom and several other big guns of the Indian industry. In all, the city has about 2,500 ‘functioning’ factories. For a population of barely 300,000 that is not bad going at all.
But there are some dark spots also. One of the sickest public sector units, Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals (IDPL), is located here. This company, once one of Asia’s largest medicine makers, has not paid its 7000-odd workmen in different factories (535 in Gurgaon) their salary since February this year. The payments promised to 200 employees who took voluntary retirement in January 1997, and on which they based their future plans for livelihood, has also not been made. The organisation that met the plague panic in Surat head on by producing and rushing tetracyclene supplies in double quick time has, through years of mismangement, been reduced to a unit that produces only Mala contraceptive pills. Its marketing organisation has totally collapsed. The staff, which once took pride in their company, are now reduced to wondering where their next meal will come from. And the Union Government, which owns it, is unable to provide any answers.

To be sure, neither circumstance is of Gurgaon’s making. But if the town’s business thrives on Maruti and its ancillaries, it must also respond positively to the problems of the workers in one of its largest industrial enterprises. Unfortunately, unlike Faridabad, labour here is weak and unorganised. And the local industry could not care two hoots what happens in IDPL. Not one of the several business chambers or associations has voiced any concern over the plight of these workmen.
Industry may, of course, perceive weakness of labour organisations as an advantage. This is a debatable point. But certain other plus points Gurgaon certainly has, making it a favoured destination for commerce and industry.
For people working and living here it is simply a good place to be in. The rents are lower and the environment is far less lethal than in Delhi. This goes for commercial space also. An executive in Pepsi says, “When our company was headquartered in Delhi, we were miserable. It used to take me 90 minutes to commute back and forth from the office. Everybody in the family was suffering from cough. I used to get into a fight with my neighbours over parking. Water supply was erratic. Now I live in Gurgaon. It takes me just a few minutes to get to the office in Corporate Park. The rest of the family misses the bustle of Delhi’s life, but we will get used to it.”
So, companies from Pepsi to GE Capital, from Bluestar to Coke are all shifting offices, and staff, to Gurgaon. And being units with far-flung businesses, they find the proximity to the airport a major advantage. There is a premium on the time of every senior executive and whatever is saved is a gain to the company.
At the same time Gurgaon is not too far from Delhi in terms of driving time. The road does not go through crowded areas of the capital. The communication links are no worse than in any other city.

Moreover, Gurgaon’s industrial development is proceeding according to some sort of a plan. The industrial areas are being clearly demarcated, and reserved, for non-polluting, high-tech units and, at least, plans have been drawn up for support facilities. The Udyog Vihar will be served by large commercial complexes. For exporters, the airport is only a 10-minute drive.
No wonder, therefore, that the Japanese had a serious look at Gurgaon for setting up “their city”. And, little wonder, also that they eventually abandoned the idea. For, this is the flip side of Gurgaon. The government any investor has to deal with is a constant factor, which does not change with a new set of ministers coming in.
If one set sends in the “green brigade goons,” another makes the payment of speed money mandatory and a third clamps down prohibition before realising that business investors could care no less about anyone’s fads and fancies.
And specific problems also remain the same. Electricity tops them all. For the last few years people in the town have been living from one promise to another. Now it is being said that shortly the 25 mw private sector power plant at Sihi Sikanderpur, the first of a series, will become operational and after that Gurgaon’s worries will be over. One gets a feeling of deja vu when such announcements are made, but sometimes things may actually change.
Until they do, there are other matters of concern as well that merit immediate attention. The local Chamber of Commerce and industry says in a press note, “Access to a smooth road begins and ends with National Highway 8.” The feeder roads in Udyog Vihar, Pace City and Electronics City exist only on paper or as potholed tracks. They are supposed to be maintained by HSIDC and HUDA (in sector 18), “but their activities are confined to issuing show cause and penalty notices” to factory owners.
Industry remains in the dark about why the streetlights in these localities do not work. The sewage, as in so many other newly developed areas, residential or otherwise, has no clear destination. Industrialist O.N. Khanna says of Sector 18, also known as the Maruti Industrial Area, “For the last two years the sewerage is blocked. As and when a complaint is made, the workers bring the pump and drain out the water on the roads, thus damaging them. It seems there is complete lack of control and supervision.” He has also complained to the authorities of the piles of rori dumped on the roadside for repairs.
But business entrepreneurs also see these problems as being common to all cities of India and, attracted by the town’s specific advantages, continue to make a beeline for Gurgaon. If the Change in Land Use fees had not been hiked from Rs 2 per square yard to Rs 40, the influx of capital would have been even larger.

The new commercial complexes are better placed because they are located in privately developed areas which, all said and done, are better maintained. All space in DLF’s gleaming, glass enclosed, state-of-the-art Corporate Park, next to Garden Estate, has already been taken up. Now Unitech is putting up a similar complex — 5 lakh square feet of covered area built on an eight-acre plot — closeby. All other colonies also have massive commercial complexes, either complete, or nearing completion, or about to get off the drawing board, though occupancy levels are generally quite low at present. But the space is there. And if their upkeep is not allowed to slacken (the Qutab Plaza already seems to be going the Nehru Place way), there is no reason why Gurgaon should not become the clear favourite for business in North India. — L.M.

Some eminent residents of Gurgaon
* K.L. Poswal, member of the Rajya Sabha and former Home Minister, Haryana.
* Air Chief Marshal S.K. Mehra, former chief of the Air Force.
* Rao Birender Singh, former Chief Minister, Haryana.
* Admiral Tahiliani, former chief of the Navy.
* N.N. Vohra, former adviser to the Prime Minister.
* J.N. Dixit, former Foreign Secretary of India.
* Justice D.S. Tewatia, former Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court
* Air Chief Marshal N.C. Suri, former Chief of the Air Force.
* M.J. Akbar, Editor. The Asian Age.
* Air Marshal (retd) Denzil Keelor who earned laurels in the 1965 war with Pakistan.
* Arundhati Ghosh, India’s chief negotiator at the CTBT talks in Geneva.
* K.C. Aryan, well-known artist who runs a one-man museum of rare tribal artifacts.
*State Ministers Dharamvir (PWD), Jagdish Yadav (Forests) and Rao Narbir Singh (Cooperatives).
* Sita Ram Singhla, BJP leader and Chairman, State Bureau of Public Enterprises, Haryana.
* Dharambir Gaba, MLA and former the state minister.

Chaos, mismanagement and confusion
GURGAON was generally referred to as not one, but two districts — the distant, backward Mewat area and the bustling area in the south of the national capital.And now it appears that Gurgaon is also not one, but two towns. There is the 180-year-old, decrepit hub of the district, and there are the new, swank, privately developed colonies and the twain seldom meet.
Somewhere in between are the Haryana Uraban Development Authority (HUDA) sectors — new, but administered by the government agency.The actual administrative structure is even more complex. The old town comes under the municipal council which should be obvious from its pathetic civic conditions. The HUDA sectors lie both within and outside the municipal limits. Those within pay house tax to the municapility and all that the civic body does is to pay Rs 5 for every streetlight to the HSEB.Then there is the Udyog Vihar, under the aegis of the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC), which is supposed to look after roads, sanitation, street lights water and electricity. Village lands jut into it at numerous points like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
The new private colonies such as DLF, Sushant Lok, Palam Vihar and South City are, for the present, being maintained by their developers, who are supposed to provide essential civic services. But these colonies are also a part of the villages on whose land they are built. Their residents are registered as voters for the panchayat election. Their number is growing and it is conceivable that one day they may outnumber the rural folks.Five years after they get their ‘completion certificate’, the administration of these colonies is to be transferred to some government authority. So far not a single new settlement has received this certification. None has sought it and neither has the administration pressurised them to complete the projects they were licensed to execute. The builders are, understandably, not keen to let go of lucrative common areas and facilities. And the government, on its part, has also not created any specific authority to take them over, The future governance of these areas is in limbo.
A part of Gurgaon village, from which the town derives its name, lies within the jurisdiction of the panchayat and the rest of it is in the domain of the state government. Then there are the unauthorised colonies like New Palam Vihar for which no one is responsible.Because of these administrative and geographical divisions, residents of different segments live in their own world, quite oblivious of what is happening in the other parts. Gurgaon lacks psychological integration. Most people who stay in the new colonies commute to the Capital for work and seldom cross the National Highway 8 to see what life is across the road.
This sentiment is, by and large, reciprocated from the other side. The old town residents have little clue about what goes on in the new colonies. Their problems, too, are of a different nature and magnitude.Piles of garbage, cesspools of stagnant water, fused street lights unregulated traffic — are all a feature of the urban milieu in India and Gurgaon is no exception. But one expected better administration at HUDA’s new urban settlements considering that they were planned to be model colonies. So far their record has been far from perfect.Illegal encroachment on government land is a problem common to most of HUDA sectors. Although once in a while drives are mounted to clear the encroachers, no one seems to ask the question — why are these unauthorised structures permitted to come up in the first place? The lack of civic facilities is even more noticeable in a new sector like 21. Manhole covers have already started disappearing, congress grass grows wild sheltering snakes and leading to a variety of allergies and the roads are nothing but a series of potholes.
Under the Haryana urban development laws, the property buyers are supposed to pay External Development Charges (EDC) to private developers who, in turn, pass them on to HUDA. These charges are supposed to pay for the major roads, water, sewage, buildings for police or post offices, and so on. Most of the money so collected has already been received by the government aurthority. But the facilities it is obliged to provide are not all in place. The water channel is stuck across the highway. There is no proper storm water drain, the lack of which could lead to the inundation of large parts of the new habitation east of the Highway during heavy monsoon rains. And the major roads are in a poor condition.
One such road is the small stretch that passes through Sikanderpur village. This is the most commonly used route to Delhi. It is like an artery for the people living in the new colonies. There is a sign at theborder that proudly informs the traveller that he has entered Haryana. Actually the sign need not be there. The state of the road makes it clear.
There was a time when it was said that the Sikanderpur stretch of the road lasts from one monsoon to the other, and then has to be relaid by the PWD. These days it lasts only from one shower to the other, if it is repaired at all. For the moment nobody is paying any attention to it. And the situation is likely to get worse as more and more people, attracted by a better quality of life, move into these areas. The population of the new localities, estimated to be around 20,000, may hit the six figure mark in another five or six years. And all of them commute on this route. This road is vital to the development of Gurgaon.
A by-pass around Sikanderpur village, about which one hears a lot, has acquired paramount importance.
The private developers, too, need to pay greater attention to the colonies they have promoted. It is not enough to say that we are “the finest address south of Delhi.” With the collective effort of the government agencies and private builders, Gurgaon has the potential to become the finest address in the entire country.
But having the “finest address” is also no good if reaching there is a problem. Apart from the condition of the busiest road to Delhi, transport as a whole remains one of the weak points of Gurgaon. There is no meaningful rail link with the Capital because the railway station is as far from most new sectors as South Delhi is. And there are no convenient points in Delhi where one can disembark. Faridabad is much better served in this respect. The bus service is desultory. And no taxis and three-wheelers ply regularly as they do between Delhi and Noida. Gurgaon scores over other townships around Delhi, and even the Capital itself, in many respects, but if it has any one major minus point compared to the others, it is this.
- L.M.