The Myth And Reality Of Smart Cities And Governance

By Vidyadhar Date

09 March, 2016
Countercurrents.org

The much hyped, trumpeted Make in India event inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi in Mumbai last month was hollow. That was obvious and it became more obvious with two occurrences at the same time. A fire raged in the Deonar municipal dumping ground for several days heavily polluting the air and a huge fire erupted from the stage during a gala event held as part of the conference at the Girgaum chowpatty beach in Mumbai .. A number of so called VIPs and film stars had to run for their lives.

Numerous instances of negligence caused the two fires. That is why the front page advertisements of the conference in which Mr Modi talks of India having the skill, the talent and discipline to do something seem so contrived. True common people have the talent but it is the government which is the problem.

That there is a clear evidence of the collapse of administration is clear if one visits the eastern side of the Bandra railway station which is the gateway to the Bandra Kurla complex , the venue of the Make India spectacle. The complex is a major business and financial centre. This gateway is in a shameful state and this exposes all the ludicrous talk of smart cities and governance.

Mr Modi wants to spend nearly one lakh crore rupees for the proposed high speed railway link between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. But look at the hypocrisy and inefficiency. Look at the state of the Bandra terminus in Mumbai from where currently trains leave for Ahmedabad. There is not even a proper access to the Terminus . In fact, its access has become more difficult. You just cannot reach the place by public transport. A bus service to the terminus has in fact been stopped and one has to reach there either by a car, a taxi or an auto rickshaw. One cannot even walk because the whole road is filthy. A flyover has been built recently but it is serving little purpose as vehicles find it difficult to reach the area because of a huge traffic congestion.

This glass-roofed terminus itself is badly designed, environmentally unfriendly and unfriendly for users.

The area under the flyover has been handed over for car parking and the whole area is shamefully dirty and neglected. There is no point in blaming the slums nearby. There is simply no evidence of administration in the area which is more shocking considering that it is so close to the head office of the MMRDA, the metropolitan authority and the residence of the Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray whose party is in a majority in the civic body for the past several years.

Buses find it very difficult to reach Bandra east station because of congestion caused mainly by an excess number of auto rickshaws which are totally unregulated. Bus commuters have to wait in the most filthy conditions and amidst deafening traffic noise and fumes. A dirty drainage nulla flows right behind. It never seems to have been cleaned which is clear from the dark colour and the stench. Is this how you look after a gateway to a modern business and financial centre ? Have the politicians and bureaucrats no self respect ?

The road from the Bandra east railway station to Kala Nagar near the Bandra Kurla complex is in an utter mess which is a pity because it is named after Anant Kanekar, a left-wing writer, known particularly for his book on the Soviet Union whose titles translates as From the fog to the red star. Here there is a reversal , things have worsened, not become better.

A flyover built in the area has served to punish pedestrians and create space down below for unauthorized car parking and dumping of garbage on the road below. The Indian State is bound by an international convention to provide facilities for the mobility of the physically handicapped. But the State makes things tough even for the physically fit. There is still a lot of open space here which can be used as a bus terminal. But they just do not want to promote public transport even as they mouth empty slogans off and on. A bus depot has been created on a small plot of land and was inaugurated two years ago by Mr Aditya Thackeray, son of the Sena chief, who is the chief of the youth wing of the Sena but holds no position in the administration. The whole area is a disgrace to an administration claiming to represent efficiency and smart governance.

This is a city in which both the administration and the upper class and politicians are seen to be working against the interests of the common man. There are a few voices of reason and dissent though.

Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan said something very important in Mumbai in January this year.

He said India is a weak State. It punishes the weak while letting go powerful wrong doers. .

.Politicians and the filthy rich have grabbed most public spaces in urban India and things are getting worse. In Mumbai the BJP-Shiv Sena municipal corporators decided on a policy at a meeting in January which will enable this class to occupy more such spaces. This is a different kind of an occupy movement, the one in the U.S. a couple of years ago was a struggle to attack upper class domination. Here it is a class war of a different kind, here the rich have launched a war on the poor for urban land. Fortunately, the chief minister has called for restoring the public spaces to citizens.

The richest municipal body in the country is behaving like a beggar and with stupidity. . It claims it has no money to look after public gardens and playgrounds and so wants to hand them over to private organizations. What a shame. Strict action is also needed against elite clubs which have misused government land for profiteering while denying access to common people. The lease of many of them has expired or is expiring soon. There is immediate need to make these lands available to the public at least to some extent and the rent for the land should be steeply increased and the profiteering ended.

Comfort the rich and oppress the poor. At least some elements in our public administration seem to think this way. Otherwise, how does one explain the fact that a very popular, well behaved and useful street vendor in Mumbai for example is charged a fine more than Rs. 25,000 for towing away his wares while motorists get away with a meager fine of Rs. 100.

The civic body cannot tolerate the hawker’s presence but the corrupt administration dare not take action against car dealers parking new cars on roads for years together for sale. So a public road is used free by a dealer who would have to pay crores of rupees for use of such space normally.

While the poor face such exploitation motor cars which serve no useful purpose for non-users, are pampered though they obstruct so much public spaces, especially when they are parked for hours. On way to two very socially relevant conferences and discussions around Kala Ghoda recently I saw a board put up in the car park outside Jehangir Art Gallery announcing that parking here is free.

So while a poor vendor is fined thousands of rupees, rich motorists are encouraged to use public space free. A clear case of the poor subsidizing the rich. This has always been the case. There is no shortage of instances. At the exhibition on architecture at the National Gallery of Modern Art I came across this in a book on Corbusier and Chandigarh written by Charles Correa and others. In that an economist is quoted saying that the poor in the city subsidise the rich residents. One of the ways this happens is that though the rich consume much more water they pay for water at the same rate as the poor do though the poor use much less water.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, noted commentator, made an apt observation in his keynote address at a seminar on the state of the architecture profession at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai saying it looked as if the system was being run by contractors for contractors.

At the nearby Max Mueller Bhavan was held a brilliant multi media exhibition which among other things focused on the exploitation of the tribals of Orissa by the State and the mining and other industries and the assassination of Shankar Guha Niyogi, the distinguished activist, who led a massive movement of tribals and industrial workers in central India.

The installation was put up by Amar Kanwar, an internationally acclaimed film maker and artiste, Sherna Dastur, a graphic designer and film maker, and Sudhir Pattnaik, independent media activist. Pattnaik brings out a fortnightly news magazine Samadrusti which is the largest circulated fortnightly in Oriya and without corporate advertisement support.

If more and more such educated, committed people join in people’s struggles, India could become a real Republic.

As for the parking, all car parking is Mumbai is free for the past few months as the contract for parking lots has ended and the administration cannot make up its mind on how much to collect as charges in a revised scheme. The basic problem is that the government simply does not want to hurt the automobile lobby and car owners. In fact, it is almost servile to them. So, they have no guts to impose stiff charges on motorists but they are quick to intimidate, harass, threaten poor street vendors, extort money, impose heavy fines, destroy their belongings.

Recently, while I was walking on the footpath, I was stopped by a policeman at the exit gate of the Mumbai high court. A judge’s car with red light was coming and an ordinary citizen must make way for the VIP, it seems.So the cop did not want anyone to come in the path. I was not even going into the court premises, just walking straight along.

At the busiest of times very few people walk on this side of the footpath. I have been walking in this area for decades. Surely, the car would have no problem in negotiating an exit. But some of us like to assert our authority and hierarchy. Looks like a small incident but it tells us about our values.

I also saw a notice at the court exit saying this gate is only for Nyayadhish saheb. The word saheb again shows an attempt to extol the Lordship. One may describe someone as saheb out of respect. But how can the government or court machinery allow use of such words in official work ? We also need to do away with forms of address like His Lordship, His excellency etc.

The good part about the relatively new Pramod Mahajan garden in Dadar. It is big, over 10 acres, very clean, well maintained and has a lot of old trees. It is in the heart of Mumbai. There is nothing like it in the city except Ranicha Baug or Jijamata Udyan.

The not so good aspect of the Mahajan garden. And this really pertains to the criminal and callous nature of the administration. The access to the garden is very hazardous and dirty. Besides, few even in Dadar know about it, there is almost no signage.

The garden is between Dadar and Elphinstone Road stations, adjacent to the railway tracks , on Senapati Bapat Marg or the old Tulsi Pipe Road. The whole stretch of the road is lined with trucks or private long distance buses. There is virtually no footpath and with heavy traffic it is extremely hazardous to walk on the eastern part of the road. Mumbai and other cities are becoming extremely unlivable. No one wants smart cities. We need basic amenities. Even these are denied.

And yet the authorities pat themselves on the back and claim they are creating smart cities.

(Mr Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist and author of the book Traffic in the Era of Climate Change. Walking, Cycling, Public Transport Need Priority).