City, Citizens & Amenity Spaces!

 

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“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government”... Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, musician, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He had previously served as the second vice president of the United States under John Adams between 1797 and 1801. No wonder with such clarity about government’s objectives of the leaders which eventually became rulers also, USA flourished so fast in 18^th & 19^th centuries becoming world’s number one country in so less time! And though I must say in compare to most of the city’s (towns) in our country Pune is far better on many scales yet when we want to develop then we must compare to the cities better than us & not worst than us, right? And when its city we are comparing then the first thing comes to the mind is what amenities the city provides to its residents? Well, here many will say whether this question in itself is rational, as city is not some builder & citizen isn’t a client who has bought his home or place or office in the city by paying money to the city makers or rulers, so how we can expect amenities from the city? Logical, but then we haven’t understood the concept of the city & citizens in the first place are what I will say!

Confused, ok, a city is very much like a company or even say a builder’s company in itself & if I see many frowning faces on this sentence then let me explain then you can freely frown or smirk! If you study urban development or planning all over the so called developed societies (I am not saying countries) then they all have a system which controls any town or city or say the society which ensures the better life style of the citizens of such society or settlement. Long back we used to call it as “Panchayat” (not the elected member’s Gram Panchayat) & later it’s been called as City Council (in developed societies) or Municipal Corporations in our terminology. In nutshell there always was & is a governing body of few chosen wise members (citizens) which dedicatedly decides & executes the policies for the citizens, again the target is better life style of the citizens.

And when we say better life style it doesn’t mean just good water supply, roads, drainage or power supply but it means public health, social outlets, education & law & order too, these all are in a way amenities! All above such are the aspects of any society or say needs & when a city offers all these things more than other cities to its citizens only such cities flourishes & prospers, just the way a good builder’s company, which makes good homes from the client’s perspective, makes profits & grow! This is where a city is just like a private company & this is what the city rulers must understand or else slowly the citizens starts leaving a city which doesn’t gives them what they want from the city & such many examples we know in the form of the States as well many Districts or Regions (I won’t take names) from where people (read as their citizens) have migrated & settled in Pune or such cities or regions.  And this is why the amenities which the citizens of any city needs have to be thought & made available for the city rulers & in time.

Ok, now if you have understood the concept of a city, citizen’s needs & amenities then there was news which as usual created a hohallaha in media & it was about one decision regarding provision of amenity spaces in the development control rules of our Pune City. The news said govt has abolished the provision of keeping amenity spaces up to the plots size more than some five hectors (approx 2 lakhs sq ft) only. The main reason behind the hohallah was in the new merged villages Development Plan (read as old new merged villages) like Baner, Balewadi (just example) for plots more than ten thousand sq ft, amenity space of 15 % of plot area was supposedly to be reserved & handed over to local body i.e. PMC, this provision is now removed. Well, I am not saying whether this move is wrong or right neither I was saying the earlier decision of keeping 15% amenity space in any plot above ten thousand sq ft was right or wrong! My concern is when we define some piece of land as amenity then it must be used for the purpose it has been reserved as & for that a master plan with its execution has to be in place for all such amenity spaces which we have marked earlier & hereafter, which is not a case right now. Rather there was one more news in media that local body’s’ (PMC & PMRDA) are auctioning the amenity space in their possession to the interested private parties for development of such amenity spaces! I don’t know it’s true or not but what’s use of reserving the lands if we are again auctioning them in open tender, instead why not ask the original developer itself to build as per your needs or the purpose you have been thinking of for the particular amenity space, such & many basic question needs to be answered is what as a citizen I think is important!

And then there is another news of a PIL i.e. Public Interest Litigation (Pune is full of such) for amenity spaces & open spaces in the New, New merged villages (Lol, I meant latest 23  villages) in PMC to be handed over to the PMC by PMRDA, a tussle between two planning authorities. Well, let’s understand one simple thing, the city is growing & growing fast just like a growing toddler which keeps out sizing its clothes every year & parents has to buy new clothes in time for the kid. It’s not who is going to develop the amenity spaces i.e. builder, third party, PMC or PMRDA but citizens wants amenities. Every day I see footpaths are being used for open gyms, beautification, sitting benches, libraries, bus stops & what not & at the recent Pandemic has shown our weakness of public health infrastructure & on other side we are yet debating what to do with the amenity spaces we have in our possession or say defined them already, pathetic lot we are as a society, aren’t we!

Let’s make a dead line to decide what we want as an amenity & then decide who will do what via an arbitrator or appointing of a committee of sensible brains (sorry very difficult job) & give the city what it needs most for better living of its citizen. Frankly high time we as a planner or say rulers, understand that Pune is good or even best for living but we are not the only place to live & if we want to be on success track of being a best city to live then this tag doesn’t comes at free of cost! We need to work out what will be the future hurdles to maintain the tag of being best & execute on that plan today only or else with the pace we are working, one day there will be amenities but no citizens to enjoy them, mind it!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/01/post-lock-down-real-estate-home-buying.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way(Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com