Sir, Thank You for your thought provoking column. I do not find any intellectual vision in any sector from our political leadership, except for telecom,IT,Space and Nuclear Energy. Last six decades had been wasted, just treating(by putting iodex lotion)symptoms only with 5 year plans, rather than 20 / 30 years plan guided by reserch. We as a nation have failed ourselves by just voting political parties and letting them to enjoy their wishesand fancies. And though, your last paragraph ends with optimistic hope, I doubt, if our leaders are serious on empowerment and education of the mass, the key to people's democracy and people guided (& controlled) reform.Hope, this nation awakens for its better future and peace after death.
I usually agree with TVR, but this time I would have to point out that saying LA has the most flyovers and yet has the worst traffic does not prove anything against flyovers. One should realize that the problems would be worse if there were fewer flyovers. Flyovers are not just train overbridges, they avoid delays at traffic stops. You could drive from NYC to LA without hitting one traffic light. How is that possible? Flyovers and highways. And that is the solution to India's urban decay - make it possible to live far from city centers. In the US the opposite problem is now felt - no one wants to live in the cities.
Yes Ms Patkar is fasting for a good cause - govt must fulfill thier part of the bargain, by properly resettling and rahabilitating those dispalced. And just because one has known only farming for 40yrs, doesn't mean they canot pump gas, bus tables, waiters, laboueres in construction, garbage collectors, lansdcape/horticulture workers, factory workers..the list goes on and on. What's required is opprtunity, which come from economic development, and which can only happen when govt stops being the problem and start being the facilitator and enabler. In sum, govt as the problem must cease.
I thought Mr.Shenoy is talking about Bangalore. Here there is a locality known as Koramangala. A few of us constructed our houses some 30 years back. It was place for monkeys, snakes and wholesale manufacturing centre of mosquitoes. A few months back the unauthorised shops in the residential areas were targeted for demolition through Court Order. The same cinema - a small percentage of traders organised well to prevent the demolition. The Judge retired - a sigh of relief and the business is as usual. Can you look at Tamil Nadu? A well developed township at every 30 or 40 kms. Public Administration should be controlled like a corporate office so that planning and execution stages are properly controlled, Road cutting Board, Electricity Board, Water Board and now Flyover board all work independantly.
the problem is that eventhough india is a democratic country, people themselves are not taking part in nation building exercise. let us think about ourselves. How many of us may be imagining or have ideas about how this nation is to be built in various fields? our people are somewhat united only in one part of nation building. that is how our cricket team is to be constituted. otherwise there is no forum or media where people are discussing about nation building. lot of clubs are there where cricket is played. but nowhere nation building activities are taught. everything is left to politicians. so these are bound to happen till all people are suffocated unto death.
Government should come up with a metro act, where top 30 metros in the country must come directly under centra; government and not under state govt. An Urban Controller and City CEOs ( IAS officers) are rqd to run the metros.
Sir, is it possible to build well planned cities from scratch, making them better examples of cities. given that,it is almost impossible to improve the current metropolitan cities, because of the neta-babu nexus.
The writer has diagnosed the problems of urban India strictly from the point of view of metropolises. There is not even an oblique reference to the small and medium towns (SMTs), known as Nagar Panchayats & Nagarpalika Parishads. Even with 74th Contitutional Amendment (or as inserted in Part IXA of the Constitution), the ills and travails of these towns have been completely ignored. In effect they are languishing in abject negligance. Nobody even seems to be talking of these towns. All of World Bank and ADB funding is meant for metros alone.
It is time we start thinking of these towns. The Part-IXA of Indian constitution has to be implemented in both letter and spirit. The proposed NURM has also not sought to address the problems afflicting SMTs.
