[sustran] Mega hoax JNNURM and Mumbai

[Vinay Baindur]

http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/editorial_mega-hoax_1320899



Opinion

Advanced Search
Home > Opinion > Editorial

*Mega hoax*

Monday, December 7, 2009 0:28 IST
Email
Print
Share

India is at that very seminal crossroads between becoming urban and
remaining rural. Our economy is growing and changing, but when the chips are
down it is agricultural growth which gets us out of the woods. However, the
number of urban poor is growing. The darker side shows that we are suffering
the ills of every kind of economy -- industrial, services, agricultural,
global and protected.

Yet, in all that, it is certain that the way forward is through
urbanisation. This is a natural progression in human history and old wives'
tales about bucolic paradises are just that -- stories. Dr Ambedkar, whose
52 death anniversary was observed on December 6, believed that a village was
"but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow-mindedness and
communalism".

While the great man was undoubtedly correct, sadly the same can be said to
be true today of Indian cities as well. Not only are we seeing resistance to
social progress and change, we are also seeing narrow identity politics
raising its head everywhere, even in our most progressive cities.

However, the biggest hoax which is being played on India today is in the
unbridled, unstructured and unplanned growth of its cities. Last week,
Mumbai was rated as the best mega city in the country. The award was given
under the aegis of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission,
which hands out money to cities to improve their infrastructure. Mumbai
presumably wins because it has taken the most money from the government. But
the infrastructure growth in Mumbai is currently chaotic, uncoordinated and
extremely slow. Quality of life is abysmally low and we cannot compete on
any international parameters. Mega city this may be in size, but not in the
way it looks currently or how it forces people to live.

Most Indian cities mirror this chaos, with some exceptions like parts of
Hyderabad and the National Capital Region. Interestingly four locations in
Maharashtra -- Greater Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Nagpur --
won awards. The rest were shared by Ahmedabad, Visakhapatnam, Surat,
Chandigarh and New Delhi.

Clearly, we need to rethink our urbanisation strategies and understand that
what we require is coordinated and planned growth. We have to rescue
ourselves from the nexus between politicians and developers and the
impossible restrictions of bureaucratic bullheadedness. Otherwise, we might
hand ourselves any number of awards, but they will all be empty and bogus.