--
“There is a message for all city
makers here. It is that with the right triangulation, even the ugliest of
places can be infused with the warmth that turns strangers into familiars by
giving us enough reason to slow down.”... Charles Montgomery
What a wonderful description of the spaces which we
call Public Place by none other than Charles Montgomery in his book,
Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design , where he wrote
the above words for urban planners! By the way I am sure not many know
about this name so, Charles Montgomery is an award-winning Canadian writer
and urbanist. Well known for his books The Last Heathen and Happy City,
Montgomery has adviced and lectured planners, students, and decision-makers
across Canada, the USA and England. And I am sure the decision makers in those cities as
well countries has benefitted by his advice or else we wouldn’t have
kept sending our officers as well decision makers to these places
all the time to learn a things about urban planning (what they learn from such
visits is another topic of sharing though). At the same time no wonder neither
our country nor any of our city’s names is included in the list which has taken
advice from Charles or else we wouldn’t have been dealing with urban mess we
have created under the name of Smart City around us!
Well, with hundred percent respect ( and faith too) in our urban
planners who unfortunately neither are decision makers nor that visionary
as Charles, that’s why I have used the term Urban Mess for us! And I am
saying "us", so I am considering myself as well my fraternity (real
estate & engineers) also, at blame for this use of terminology which might
(must) have offended many! And the guilty list includes not just Urban
Development i.e. UD dept but PMC/PCMC/ PMRDA, Town Planning, Police,
Judicially, MSEDCL (MSEB), PMPML (PMT) (along with their various arms such as
road, traffic, drainage, water supply etc), Telecommunication (BSNL, MTNL, do
they exists anymore!), MGNL (Pipe Gas), latest entrant is Metro rail & all
such along with real estate segment & media & Public i.e. Janata
Janrdan i.e. we the people. And I will put the decision makers regarding
urban planning at last i.e. The Govt which we can call as PM, Cm, Mayor or any elected
body who supposedly has to decide fate of any town, city or Metro
City! I am sure many will frown their faces (nose I meant) as how
come I can keep decision makers of the city last that to while blaming about
the chaos our cities have become, are they not the one who can make the
difference & decide wisely! Indeed that’s what the decision makers are
supposed to do i.e. decide wisely for the city & citizens but then for that
we the people have to choose the decision makers wisely, isn’t it? And then
after choosing if the said decision makers are not acting in the interest of
the city & the citizens who is going stand against them & make them
change their decisions, all the names in the list above, isn’t it? This is why
I kept the name of decision makers in last as first no more their interests
& our (read as common man) interests necessarily match & the outcome is,
delayed civic projects, poor public transport, poorest public health
infrastructure & the list goes on!
In all such poor list, one more thing has been forgotten
& that was & is, public places in the city. Well, there are gardens
around & many of them, thanks to the garden dept of the city but apart from
the gardens can you name any public places which will serve the citizens, such
as art gallery or convention centre or a museum or some big square where people
can gather & spend time or any recreation centre (not mall) or performing
place or an exhibition ground or say space. And then considering the size of
the city which now has been spread over 400 plus sq kms, you can’t have such
spaces in one corner of the city but they has to be evenly distributed in &
around the city, then only all the citizens can have their own public places or
say spaces! And now close your eyes (just a phrase) & think how many such
places you can think of or know around your work place or residence, I think,
one need not have to close his or her eyes also to answer this as most will say
“None’! And exactly this is why our planners or urban thinkers or policy makers
have created a terminology named Amenity Space when the DP (Development Plan)
of the new area (again don’t ask what old & new) included in PMC i.e. Pune
city. By virtue of this provision any land which was supposedly being developed
for any development then 15% of that land (if the land is bigger than 1 acre (approx
46,000sft) has to be kept physically open & handed over to the PMC as
amenity space! A noble thought which created many problems for the land lords
as well the developers as indirectly you are reducing the plot size by 15%
damaging its TDR potential as well there was 10% of open space mandatory too.
So the plot was reduced to 75% of its original size & if there is road
widening then blame your bad luck, is all I can say! And
anyways yet people (read as builders) accepted it as there was no other option,
you can’t fight with policy makers & expect to win, is the code word for
real estate! And so the developments kept happening & amenity spaces kept
on getting handed over to the PMC! These were prime lands as all around the
city & as I mentioned the objective was to create various public facilities
all around the city.
And now it’s these amenity spaces are the reason which is why I
used the quote of Charles as well created the blame list for urban mess! Now,
one will wonder when the public places objective has been achieved by the
planners & decision makers why I have to blame for! Well, because the
policies & its outcome never goes in hand as the execution of the
policies which fails & due to the decision
makers, that’s why all chaos on the front of our urban planning! Recently our
policy makers which by now we know mostly works on decision maker's moods (or
interests) came up about policy regarding the amenity spaces which are in
possession in PMC mean the city that out of hundreds of such spaces PMC will
sale or lease out to the private parties' (many will take read it as builders)
& obviously knowing our Smart City & it’s Smart Citizen, a public
cry has evolved about it. As I have been getting many what’s app
messages & online petitions, some against this policy & some for
the policy & letters to authorities that how this is illegal etc & some
letters how this will be beneficial (for whom) & sure this will go on for a
while till the decision makers make their mind & decide about it. Here is
why I said we all keep mum till something wrong happens & then we keep
shouting to correct it, how we love this game in Pune especially when it’s
about urban planning!
As if leasing or selling amenity
spaces to private parties is illegal then was it legal to take it in first
place from some other private parties, is the question I will ask! And I have
few more questions to ask for all of us about this amenity space, as why the
use & purpose of amenity spaces wasn’t defined while making DP of the new
city when you know you will be getting these spaces, rather right when you were
passing the proposals why at the time of handing over only the purpose of use
of every amenity space wasn’t defined, wouldn’t it be easy that way? Well,
we are not good when its vision agreed but then many of the amenity spaces are
in possession since last ten or more years why our policy makers didn’t
tried to put forward a proposal to create a master plan of all the amenity
spaces in possession & define uses or purposes of the same according to
need of the localities? Why the provision to build the so called amenities wasn’t
made on a single such amenity space in last ten years (or more)? In any
reservation land policy (to my little logical knowledge) when you take
away land from a private owner under name of reservation & later you don’t
use it but decide to sale it to another private person, then doesn’t the
original owner has first claim on such land? While giving away, I mean selling
or leasing such amenity space have our policy makers decided what kind of
amenity will be developed on such lands, has any such study or master plan is
in place or will it be at the wish & will of the buyer of such land to
decide use of the amenity space? And if it’s so then who will guarantee that
such use will be followed post construction, what infrastructure our civic body
has to keep control if the amenity spaces get misused? And if there is no
such policy & its will & wish of the private party to decide the use of
the amenity spaces then what guarantee is there that such purpose will act in
benefit of the citizens who needs that amenity space for some different
purpose? Why such amenity spaces are not being leased on revenue sharing basis
to other govt/semi govt organizations like MSEDCL, PMPML, BSNL (does it
exists?), MGNL, Metro (well, well) or State Transport , Police, Registrar Offices (revenue
dept), MHADA, Public Health Dept (At least this we should), Disaster Management
(yes there exists such dept); as all these depts' are always crying over not
getting enough spaces in & around city because of the souring land prices
& shield their poor services to the citizens behind this reason! And last but not least if you are
making a policy of giving up existing amenity spaces to private parties
anyways, then why not remove such conditions itself for sanctioning new
projects & create more amenity spaces a process which is still ongoing
every day for every new proposal?
I know few wise minds which are reading my sharing will smile to
themselves about my foolishness of asking above questions as the famous Galib
has said; "Kisase wafa ki ummid karte ho Galib, is shehar me to
parchayianbhi apani nahi rahi ab"! With due respect to Galib, it
means, "from whom you are expecting trust guys, as in this city even your
reflection in the mirror doesn’t looks like what you are! It’s a phrase I used
to explain the scene around us on the front of urban planning as when entire
policy process works in reverse way, i.e. first you decide something what
you are going to do anyway & then you start making policies & call it
as a planning, then the outcome is bound to be a chaos for many, which may not
be for a few & these few are the decision makers! I am not in favour of selling amenity spaces nor am I opposing the
policy to sell the amenity spaces, all I want to point out is it’s high time
for we the people to decide our city’s fate & then act accordingly! The
recent pandemic has exposed our weaknesses on many fronts right from less
hospital beds to lesser Doctors & trained staff to man power for handling
such panic situations & at the same time we couldn’t provide citizens safe
homes where they can maintain social distance & it was just one pandemic!
We are a failure to handle heavy rains & we are a failure to handle lesser
rains too! We were already in dreadful condition on traffic management front
& today if we are seeing clear roads that’s outcome of pandemic & not
our credit! And I am not even thinking about education or social fronts!
Guys, urban planning is not just few polices about some land, it's about people
& their lives, not lifestyle of just a few!
Amenity space's use realted policy
is just tip of the iceberg of our short sightedness as today we are not yet
recovered from the war with an unseen enemy & this won’t be the last war
even if we win, if at all something can save us as a society then it’s what we
plan today & execute tomorrow or else there won’t be day after
tomorrow, for sure; is all I want to share!
--
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 blogs to know about our philosophy at
Sanjeevani ! (Click the
links below)
https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-good-home-is-good-deal.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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