‘The economy has to be opened up or people will face trouble’
Kushal Pal Singh, 88, on Thursday stepped down as chairman of real estate developer DLF Limited, and assumed the position of chairman emeritus. In a conversation with
he reflects on the evolution of DLF and creation of the millennium city of Gurugram on in which the company played a pioneering role, and talks about how to revive the economy hit by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). business. They said ‘If you apply your mind you can do it.’
Something happened to me. I took one or two days thinking ‘should I put myself into this area which is completely nationalised?’ There’s no bank that can give money. But DLF brand was big in the 50s. So I took the challenge. Because I couldn’t do two things, I sold Willard. And I set about myself, firstly, to get the laws changed, because they were wrong laws. That’s how Gurugram was born. only two low-key revenue officials who were like patwaris [book-keepers].
No. Frankly, I have not seen. I can tell you, and I hope I’m wrong, but to me it appears it’s going to be like the Spanish flu ... the numbers may come down, then they will go back again. It will carry on till such time you get a vaccine. And the good thing that our Prime Minister has done, is that he has inculcated a sense of discipline, voluntarily in all the people.
You cannot dictate to people to do something, but he carried the whole country with him. Once you get a vaccine, like for small pox, the diseases will go away. Till that time we got to learn to live with it, by taking precautions and safeguards
Frankly, and particularly dealing with townships and housing, migrants live in apathetic conditions. Why are people living in slums? It means that something we have failed to anticipate. India is a democracy. People are bound to move from rural to urban areas. I think our planning processes failed in recognising that you need to provide large- scale facilities for these millions of workers. That calls for revamping the entire urban infrastructure plan. Trust me, economic activity will take only when an entrepreneur finds it profitable. Government cannot push economic activity in areas which are not profitable.
Today, you see in the eyes of the migrant, one thing very clear, they are dissatisfied with the way they were living here. Now they’ve gone back to their villages. Okay, but now soon they will get dissatisfied there because they will have no jobs. When they come back here, there’ll be no job for them here also. So imagine the potential law and order problems which will follow.
So the only answer for it... (the) government must restructure the entire urbanisation now for the future generation. And results will come minimum after one or two decades. It won’t come in a few years. But at least our children, grandchildren, for them there will be a good future; otherwise this problem is going to massive in India. Migration from rural to urban areas will happen, nobody can stop it.