Two
ambitious projects seem to have lost steam in the last nine months: the
decision to develop 100 smart cities in India and to introduce bullet trains in
India. At least the 2015-2016 general budgets did not make any commitment to
substantiate the resolve. It must have come as a sigh of relief for Delhi. The
city, I believe, is not yet prepared for such a switchover. If fact no city in
India is qualified to become a smart city. However, I restrict myself to Delhi
since the city is India’s window to the world. If the government takes a
decision to go ahead with the ‘smart city’ project in the present situation,
the move would ruffle the peaceful life of the city. Key 'smart' sectors for a
‘smart city’ include health care, transport, energy, water and waste disposal
mechanism, not necessarily in that order. While commuting to and fro, I find
that Delhi fare badly on each front. Delhi appears to be the hot-bed of
diseases and pestilence. Like festivals we have a disease for every season.
Dengue after monsoon, Swine Flu in retreating winter, water borne diseases in
monsoon, Ebola anytime, heat-stroke in summer and deaths due to extreme cold in
winter. Delhi leads any other capital city, among the developing and developed
nations the world over, in outbreak of diseases.
Talking of civic amenities, the city is bursting at
its seams with the inflow of immigrants reducing every effort to a
naught. Illegal colonies outnumber legal colonies. Such illegalities are not
restricted to the poor. Even the well off are adept in such skills of
encroachments. While poor encroach the roads and pavements, the elite encroach
the available government land with the connivance of authorities. With
pavements becoming the dwellings for poor, the pedestrians move over to
encroach the adjoining parking space off the roads. Finally vehicles encroach
the main road resulting in congestion and traffic jams regularly. Nearly every
colony encroaches the adjacent vacant land and nearly every resident in a
colony extends his construction and encroaches the common space. Invariably
every shopkeeper encroaches any available vacant space near his shop and whatever
space is left, are encroached upon by small time shopkeepers who sell their
goods moving from place to place. Delhi without encroachment would appear
un-smart .Life in Delhi moves on with all such encroachment that has become a
way of life. Delhi encroaches upon smartly as it needs lot of guts to do so and
the city does it quite smartly. In
a place like Delhi where every inch is invaluable, the cost of the space that is
encroached upon will run into billion of rupees. That such
encroachment happen without any hurdle points to a very corrupt system.
The public transport sans the metro needs a
revamping. Even today the DTC runs decrepit buses, fit to be condemned. These
buses are high on maintenance but they still ply as it suits the authorities,
even if these buses are high on pollution, as well. The e-rickshaws, the Gramin
Sewa (bigger autos) and the mini-buses - all put a huge question mark on the
state of public transport in Delhi.
Talking of pollution, Delhi outsmarts all other city
the world over in terms of pollution. Newspapers reports have raised serious concern
on the level of air pollution in Delhi. Environmental pollution as well
people inhabiting the city with a polluted mind is issue of grave concern. The
spurt in crimes against woman is a strong pointer in this regard. Even here
they relish to encroach upon the privacy of women and become a self-styled keeper
of society’s morality.
It
is good the Government shelved its decision to make Delhi a Smart City. We need
to learn lessons in civility before we can really embark on any ambitious
project to make Delhi a Smart City.
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