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“Cities can be paradoxical places. In the mornings they buzz with commuters, in the evenings they come alive with diners and partygoers, at weekends the streets fill with shoppers and market traders. But amidst the hustle and bustle, the city should be able to provide some quite & green space for an individual, that’s what make a great city wonderful than other cities”... David Lammy
David Lindon Lammy
FRSA is an English Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament for
Tottenham since 2000 & has served in Shadow Cabinet which is like parallel
govt in UK. Ok, this is about cities from “Gora Man” i.e. a British who
has ruled our country for more than one fifty years & let’s see what our
rulers whom we worshipped for years has to say about villages & cities,
when the “Goras” left this country...
“Gandhiji wrote to Pandit Nehru: “The first thing I want to write about
is the difference of outlook between us… I am convinced that… sooner or later
the fact must be recognized that people will live in villages, not in towns; in
huts; not in palaces. Crores of people will never be able to live at peace with
each other in towns and palaces… While I admire modern science, it should be
reclothed and refashioned aright…”
Nehru, on his part, decided that it was the time to be honest and not
fudge the issue as he had done all his life. He replied from Anand Bhawan: “I
do not understand why a village should necessarily embody truth and
non-violence. A village, normally speaking, is backward culturally and no
progress can be made from a backward environment. Narrow- minded people are
much more likely to be untruthful and violent…”
Above lines I have used if from book India Unbound by Gurcharan Das
& its which is part of letter communication between the two Demy-Gods of
Indian Democracy speaks about our views regarding villages & cities &
unfortunate part is even after seventy years of freedom we are yet unable to
breech the gap between the two i.e. villages & cities! I always wonder what
difference it makes where a man lives in a village, agreed the difference will
be always there on the fronts of landscape, setup, environment as well luxuries
of life such as entertainment means but how there can be difference of the
fronts of basic needs like civic infrastructure such as drinking water, roads,
electricity, education & public health, which is very much in our country
& how Pune can be exception for the same! As even today in 20th Century when we refer villages even nearby
Smart City Pune, we look down at them for absence of the basic living infrastructure
in place or its available to only few & not all the residents of the
villages though its true even with bigger civic bodies’ also such as PMC or
PCMC yet on majority we can say cities have more better infrastructure than the
villages. If so, then why there was so much delay to merge the neighboring
villages in respective bigger city’s civic bodies is the question one will ask,
right?
Well, you must have to guessed about the topic, yes, it’s about
the merging of 23 villages around PMC (i.e. Pune city) existing boundary in to PMC,
in simple words no more these villages will be called as villages but now they
are part of the Smart City i.e. Pune & as usual such issue is going to make
jitters in many minds & media for individual's or group's for their own
reasons. Again no need to wonder about
the reason behind the jitters, it’s mostly money factor involved as this
merging is directly related to the land & land use in the villages which
now are, Pune. And right from taking the decision (read as delaying the decision)
to post action after the merging of them every decision is taken keeping the
eye on the money these village lands will spin. And again no harm in that as
practically land potential in Pune's existing limits is used to fullest (read
as saturated) so whatever potential for the development now is available &
which is the source of revenue lies in these 23 villages is a fact. And when I
say revenue it’s in the form of money generated by developing the lands &
it will be coming in three ways. One is, the governing body will get in the
form of development charges, taxes, premiums etc that’s a big income for local
body through the development of the lands in these villages. Second is the
housing turnover or say construction turn over as the lands here are cheaper
(read as, comparatively) than the existing city limit lands & more
home/shops/ offices will be constructed here generating money for private
industries also such as real estate & all allied industries with it. Third
is money generated from the development activities which will be carried out in
these areas such as roads, drainage, public buildings, water supply, power
grids & many such! Apart from these three direct ways of money generation
there is an indirect & more consistent way & that is the turnover the
activities of the establishments settling in these villages will be
generating such as people buying homes here & then spending in these
localities for their daily needs & which will be a big source of moment of
the money which we call economy. And with the merging of
these 23 villages PMC will be the largest Municipal Corporation in the State
making it a big power house as in today’s urban era, land is power & the
one who governs the land is most powerful entity, means the system which controls
these lands such as PMC or PCMC or PMRDA!
Now, you will understand why there is so much fuss about
inclusion of these villages & immediate fight over the DP is development
plan of these villages because of land is a treasure then DP is “sim sim”
for this treasure as its the DP which defines the land use as well future of
any land. No wonder every system wants this “sim sim” password of its own
generated & protected! And so the battle to gain control has started with "Lok
Partinidhi" i.e. People’s Elected Representives (are they really, is
another aspect) jumped demands for making DP by PMC, in these villages & as
there will be opponents soon jumping for the same! And on top of it PMC is
ruled (at present) by one political party & the villages were under control
of PMRDA which comes under State govt & which is ruled (again at present)
by another party or say parties, lol, that’s different story! Unfortunate part is in all this hohallah or say war of
gaining control on the 23 villages, the basic thing our rulers has forgotten
(as usual) that it’s not about the tag of a village or a town or a city, it’s
about people living in these areas as well about the people which will be
future residents of these areas (read as lands) is the thing we should be
focusing on! Have we not made enough mistakes on the front of development of
these villages or say entire city as whole? As first we didn’t plan for future (I
mean some fifty years back) then we differentiated villages, towns & cities
as per our convenience & not as per people’s needs living in these places
respectively. We divided these places on the basis of basic infrastructure
provisions & denying not just good life to earlier two, but taking away
opportunities to compete itself, from the residents of the villages & the
towns. And then we again separate them by marking boundaries on the paper like
the “Goras” did with us seventy years back which we call as partition; what are
we doing? Creating neighbourhoods, a society or are we creating, enemies’ camps
neighbouring each other! As all a common resident, may he be living in
a city or town or a village wants is, a simple, decent hassle free life &
that doesn’t includes asking for Sun & Moon but very basic needs daily
living needs from the city or a town or a village. Everyone should be
able to have his or her own legal home which will provide his family a shelter
with water, drainage & electricity & yes proper access road to it. The
families should have schools for the kids & medical treatment units &
yes some entertainment & when you provide all these then the jobs usually
follows & all this at affordable cost & in time, that’s all a common
man thinks about a good city or a town or a village!
It’s good that our above referred Demy Gods are not alive to see
today’s tug of war between our rulers over issues like who will control a
village or a city & who will make its DP or else they would have committed suicide!
Because when these Demy Gods fought for our freedom & gave us freedom decades
back, they didn’t fight for a village or a city but they fought with the “Goras”
for the people of this country which were living in the villages & cities
too! What an irony that the “Goras” whom
we threw away & got freedom has understood the concept of freedom & we
are still imprisoned in our own thought process which can’t differentiate
between land & the people! Unless we don’t
make a DP & execute it focusing the citizens may it be a village or a town
or a city, does it matter whether PMC makes it & execute or PMRDA does the
job, is the question people should ask; till then, Long Live The King (Whoever
he or she it may be)!
-
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..
Think
Green, Think Life
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