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Friday, July 23, 2021

Pune's Wonderful Jokes!

“Jokes are hilarious only when you take them unreal and dreamlike, otherwise it becomes painful. So I always live otherworldly.”... Saket Assertive.

Ok, I don’t know who this guy is but I read his above quote somewhere & found it very amusing especially as the joke word’s definition has never been described so wonderfully ever at least I haven’t came across till now! And when it's a joke how we can keep our beloved Pune city away from it as Punekar's love to crack jokes (check social media) especially about other cities or places or people but what about the jokes this city cracks everyday on its citizens, well if you don’t believe, here are some classic examples! We all definitely know about the Seven Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal our pride is one of them but what happens when the jokes become wonders, confused? I don’t blame you but our Pune city also has some wonders which have become a joke actually & will share why I say so (as I can see angry faces after reading this start). When I say wonders turn into joke then before I further express myself let me tell you I don’t want to rub anybody wrongly especially of the system which we call govt as it includes each of us in some way yet the hard fact about these wonders becoming a joke remains! As the very purpose these structures has been built (well some never has been build) & few of them we only demolished after building, this is what makes them wonderful jokes (wonders plus joke), I know its a bad joke but this is my sharing so let’s move on! (Cycle on rent, Citizens Help Centres, PMT etc are few more jokes)

Ok, here is a list of seven wonders of this city which became a joke (there are many others but I have to choose just seven) & they are HCMTR, Z-Bridge, Cycle Track, BRT, River Front Development, Domestic Airport & Ring Road! Now if you don’t know any of these seven things then you are not Punekar though you can read as you may laugh more loudly then, after reading it! All these are name of structures or developments or policies regarding Pune city (as some ended just as policy on paper) & let me again tell you, this is not to criticize the system but to make people aware as indeed Pune has been blessed with some real good things for it’s citizens & that’s why the city has become a dear place to live across the country & the same system which runs this city definitely deserves applauds for this achievement. But then to become the best you have to analyze our wonderful jokes (read as failures) & not just the goody goody things, right? This is why I took on the topic of wonderful jokes in the making of the city, so here we start...

HCMTR i.e. High Capacity Mass Transport Route

In the development plans some 30 years back (please don’t ask what is a development plan) a thought has been incorporated thinking about increasing traffic load in the city centre & diverting this traffic without bothering the city roads. So an elevated route or say over bridge or in common terminology flyover has been planned which will start from one end of the city & will reach to another end of the city (end means PMC limit then). This has been planned so the vehicles which don’t want to enter the city will use this route & without disturbing city traffic they will pass from space (sorry, too much sarcasm) i.e. overhead by using this flyover, super na? So, this some 30 plus kilometre length flyover has been incorporated on the development plan of the city but now after thirty years not a single meter length of it has seen daylight, means not constructed. Reasons are, budget provisions & its technical feasibility & many more, so I included HCPTR in the list of seven wonderful jokes as even today there is reservation for it & its original route or track has been changed more than the years it has been taken birth on paper & outcome is choked up roads all in & around city!

Z- Bridge

This is a unique wonderful joke as it has come in reality & has survived demolition also (till now). Well, this is a two-wheeler’s (only) bridge connecting old & new Pune city & why it’s called as a Z bridge because it runs more distance parallel to the river Mutha (is it still a river, is another question) than crossing it! If you don’t understand what it means then visit it by yourself & you will know & anyway it’s more famous for being a cozying place for couples than carrying vehicles across it! Again with due respect, there always are problems in making plans to develop an old city with a new one but can’t there be some other options or ways to spend the money on structures which later become useless, is something we should ask, is what I feel.

Cycle Tracks

The city once known as bicycle city because of the maximum numbers of citizens using bicycles as a sure mean of commuting across the city for daily chores, its a real sad joke that now has been made the joke named Cycle Tracks! Approximately some fifteen years back all along the footpaths (read as, on the footpaths) there has to be dedicated cycle tracks means a space only for bicycles is some Good Samaritan planner thought & our Mananiya's i.e. elected members of PMC happily accepted the idea of the planner. What followed was a wonderful joke as first the place of bicycles has already been taken by two wheeler vehicles (approx 30 lakhs of them) courtesy our poor public transport & then we had cycle tracks but no bicycles or bicyclers to use them. And the most cycle tracks become places for trade for every sort of commodity from sun glasses to paw bhaji eaters & what now. There were signage also nicely designed all along these cycle tracks though no provision to see that they are being used for bicyclers as well at many places the cycle tracks abruptly used to end in main traffic road making it impossible for the users to drive with feel of safety & comfort & the basic purpose was defeated & the concept got tag of a wonderful joke!

BRT i.e. Bus Rapid Transit

Bus Rapid Transit or something like that (who cares), again a great effort (or thought) to strengthen public transport of the city & that included giving dedicated space on the road for public transport busses (PMT, another joke) which failed miserably! This joke was continued for more than decade trying, experimenting, executing, planning, publicizing & what now by every agency related to it & we all even the common citizens are part making BRT as a wonderful joke! As if the system executed it badly then we the people added fuel in it by pushing our private vehicles in these dedicated lanes reserved for PMT i.e. public transport vehicles defeating the very purpose of it! At the same time crores of rupees has been spent on making these bus dedicated lanes, even narrowing the already narrow lane & the best part of the joke is now on the grave of the BRT we will be making columns as the “mai baap” rulers (govt) realized that the BRT lanes are obstacles for the Metro Columns (New joke in making) & most part of BRT has been scraped away literally including physical demolishing of BRT stations also at some places! As well there were countless accidents which took many lives due to BRT routes & for which the citizen’s reckless attitude is also equally responsible!

River Front Development

If you are not Punekar then let me tell you this city has two rivers also which flows right through entire stretch of the city & joke is we have to tell the visitors that these are rivers, such is the condition of these two rivers i.e. Mula & Mutha! Again not one agency but the entire city is responsible for deterioration of our rivers as we never considered them ours or else we wouldn’t have polluted, encroached, choked the rivers the way we have done. Time & again many govt agencies as well Central Govt’s Ministers also have been announced giving funding for river front development & many plans also have been made but till today just like the HCMTR not a single kilometre length of any of the river has beautified is the harsh reality! But everybody, even the NGO’s takes great pleasure in discussing this issue & making presentations about how beautiful our rivers can be but just on paper, thus making it a perfect joke for the city!

Domestic Airport for Pune

This joke competes with the last one i.e. Ring Road for 1^st place but just there is some space or land supposedly to be reserved or declared for its development & on paper, so it has to settle for 2^nd place! Right from why one more airport is needed when we have one already to where we should build the new airport to govt (None other than Hon CM in various govts) declaring location of the airport to forming a body for making of the airport everything has been don’t yet nobody is sure about when this airport will become a reality or where it will be located! And the scene is even being so much developed on Industrial, Educational & Information Technology fronts yet Pune remains a village in comparison to other similar cities in the country or world just because of not having a good airport which will fulfil the need of commuting people to Pune & Punekars to other cities!

The Ring Road

And lastly the 7^th wonderful joke, the Ring Road, rather I am not sure to call it as Ring Roads as there are two Ring Roads to my knowledge & if one is cancelled (read as scrapped) I don’t know which one is scrapped & which one is alive, that earns this development as No. 1 wonderful joke for Pune! Just like HCMTR, the thought process behind the Ring Road is to divert all the vehicles which want to travel towards south or north or east coming from west i.e. Mumbai without bothering Punce city & so much this idea fancied our rulers that two ring roads have been declared, the joke started right from there! And then years passed, alignments of the ring roads changed so did the governing bodies for the execution of these roads & changed even the widths of the ring roads also! Today the scene is, just like the airport, nobody knows which ring road is final, from where it will be going, what will be its exact end & start (on paper), what will be its widths & what rules will be applicable around this road for the development & who will be responsible for the execution of the ring road! But the best part is that the ring road is always in the news or say spotlight & that makes the ring road getting No 1 place for wonderful jokes of Pune city!

Friends, I am seriously sorry if I have been rude or biased or criticizing but let me tell you there are many such jokes in our city & I understand that working in a public body, in a country like ours, is not an easy job. And this sharing is not to show how the govt (or the system) is useless but it’s to make aware of the mistakes we have made & improve ourselves. And I am saying “We’ & that includes me also as what is the govt but each of us & unless we all collectively contribute positively to all such developments, they will always end up as a joke, please do mind it!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

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

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

Think Green, Think Life

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

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Villages, City & People!

“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 20^th 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..

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

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

Think Green, Think Life

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

Sunday, July 4, 2021

City, Citizens & Amenity Spaces!

“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!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

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

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

Think Green, Think Life