ASIA-PACIFIC In the upmarket shopping area of South Extension, store-owners on Thursday scanned the streets nervously for demolition trucks. A Hutch mobile phone store in a basement has had its concrete roof pushed in by bulldozers; a poster in the window of UTI Securities says the brokerage has been “closed temporarily on the orders of the Supreme Court”. Television cameras await the wrecking crews at Ebony, a four-storey department store that sells jeans and western clothing to Delhi’s cash-flush teenagers.
For the literally tens of thousands of businesses operating illegally in residential or mixed-use areas, often in buildings that themselves violate a range of planning restrictions, these are terrifying times. A renewed Supreme Court-ordered drive to “seal” thousands of illegal businesses – either through demolition or closure – entered its second day on Thursday, raising worrying questions about India’s ability to manage the challenges of rapid urbanisation and near double-digit economic growth.
