Honey, I Shrunk the City! (Fursungi & Urali Kanchan Demerging)

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“It is always easy to create an ordinary city; what is difficult is to create an extraordinary one, peaceful and restful one, smart and tidy, artful and cultivated one, in short, a livable one!!... Mehmet Murat ildan

Contemporary Turkish playwright, novelist and thinker Mehmet Murat ildan was born in Elazığ on May 16, 1965, in the Eastern part of Turkey. This guy is awesome as when the topic is about city plus society then he is to the perfection than my Urban Planning goddess i.e., Jane Jacob & his above words about cities is evidence why I said say! Though it’s always difficult how we define a good city or bad city as right from weather to culture to cleanliness to safety to infrastructure to jobs, so many aspects are involved in defining a good or bad city. Yet by me, a good city is a place where you want to make your permanent home, where you may travel around the world but after some days you want to return to that place, it’s a place where you can have your me time in any corner of that city rather it’s a place where everyone has something for him or her! And trust me I too have been around the world & there are very few such cities , Pune is indeed one such though I myself have been born in Nagpur region yet let me tell you Pune has everything for being a good (read as ideal) city from culture to safety to infrastructure (lol!) but! This but always comes in the way in making Pune a perfect city in compare to other such places at world level (not at our country level) & that’s because of our Mai-Baap govt which mostly works for some people!

That way you will what’s wrong in govt working for people, isn’t our constitution itself says, govt of the people, by the people & for the people! Indeed, govt is for the people but when it comes to urban planning, it works only for few people & if you think I am exaggerating then you can check not just history of urban planning but present too & for this a recent salvo is demerging of two of Pune’s villages i.e., Fursungi & Urali Kanchan, from PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation) after nearly five years post their merging in PMC! Again, most will say, what’s big deal in demerging of two villages from a city big as Pune & it’s part of Urban Planning, why so fuss & any ways they have been included just five years back & locals were also opted for demerging of these villages etc! The problem is not about just merging or demerging, sure, that’s govt’s authority to decide but then any authority is like a sword, all it depends on why you use that sword for, to kill someone or to protect some life! If you are thinking I am going on Marvel’s philosophical lines then let me tell you I am not as when the govt uses its authority for wrong decisions then that’s not done & demerging of these two villages is a wrong move because a city growth has to be monolithic & cohesion, imagine if all your body grows but just one leg or one hand doesn’t increase in size like other body, will you call it a right growth? Same is here, the decision of merging the 36 (may be 32) villages which were on all around the old boundaries of PMC was taken to make the growth of city in right way & proportionate & suddenly demerging these two villages is a big blow to urban planning of entire city is what my point!

And then all die-hard Punekars, do I need to remind you the term “Dhankawadi” which now is part of PMC but when it was a village right on the fringe of old Pune boundary it’s because of the illegal constructions & poor infrastructure, anything which is shabbily done or backward is still called as ‘Like Dhankawadi” in Pune!  Sorry Dhankawadi residents but this is a fact & you guys also know it & do ask the Dhankawadi residents whether they have been benefitted after becoming part of PMC or not, there only lies the answer of this demerging decision’s wrongness or rightness! And the joke is it’s been declared that these two villages now will be made as Nagar Parishad, great thanks for not again making them Gram Panchayat! As if this enlightment, that PMC hasn’t done any infrastructure works here, took five years to realize then do take a look what was the scene before five years in these villages & let me know! All over the State Nagara Parishads are failing & that’s because of revenue as well limited scope of works as in urban planning or development, the larger is volume the cheaper or say easier is the development as the cost gets divided on that many numbers as well area. PMC has already published figures that in last five years nearly Rs 500 cr amount works has been carried in these two villages & that may not be sufficient as per the demand of the villagers but the collection in terms of taxes as well development charges was only some Rs 200 cr for this time span. So, the additional Rs 300 cr which these two villagers have enjoyed were paid by rest of Pune, are these two Nagar Parishads going toe return this money of Punekars? At the same time has any thought been given how there will be revenue generation & sustainability of these Nagar Parishads & what if after next five years again these villages decide to get merged in Pune, what will be our call then?

I think, all around the world urban planning aims at merging the settlements which helps in plan in much better way, social as well physical infra which includes network of roads, water lines, drainage lines & many such. If we create pockets with individual identity & budgets & policies then to connect these pockets will be like connecting two cities which isn’t easy job, planning wise as well on administration level. Imagine giving Pune’s reservation TDR in Aurangabad or such policies & then you will realize how hard it will be to have two separate bodies working adjoining. Already Pune has Cantonments right within the PMC limit & the clashes between the authorities keeps on going all the time & we are creating more power centres which is not good for city development & worst for real estate! Today when a real estate firm is working in Pune region it has to deal with five different policy makers PMC, PCMC, PMRDA, Collectorate (town Planning) & Cantonments & now we will as Fursungi & Urali Kanchan Nagar Parishads in it, needless to say with its own interpretation of the UDPCR! And joke is, each of these local bodies have different versions of urban planning, agreed there is UDCPR (Unified rules, lol) but implementation of UDCPR is done differently by every local body as per their convenance. The best example is road cutting charges & fire premiums & road hand over premiums & the list is ever growing!  Why can’t be there one single governing body when it comes to development plan & infrastructure developments as when the citizens don’t have to take any pass or has marked these boundaries on the ground, is the question we should ask! Agreed when two towns are differentiated by geographical boundaries such as distance or mountain range or a river then it’s easy to differentiate between such cities but when one plot is in one city & adjoing plot is in another city then why to keep these tow as different cities, is something even a five-year child won’t do but our govt seems to have lower IQ when it comes to urban planning!

Instead of this merging-demerging game, lets focus on development of entire Pune region, strengthen its infrastructure such as public transport (PMPML especially) & solve the water, drainage, public health (btw, it’s this side of the city which is worse hit by Dengue) & garbage issues at whole is the need of the time. Fortunately, we have education & production & service industries in private hands & they are growing, all we need is a right & fast approach (action plan) for urban planning which only the Govt can have & that’s why high time for the other people (other than the few people) to make the govt realize that’s it’s for all or majority of the people which the govt must work for! To conclude, long back I have watched a wonderful sci-fi movie (Disney, who else) “Honey, I shrunk  The Kids”.  The story was, by accident a scientist shrunk his own kids by size & then his & his wife’s desperate efforts to get the kids back to the normal size, which eventually they do. Mai-Baap Govt, do mind it was Disney movie which usually ends on a note “and they lived happily ever after” but Urban Planning is not a Disney movie, today by demerging two villages, you are actually shrinking the city & it’s not an accident, so please think before you shrunk your kids as you may never will be able to get them back in normal way & the guilt will be on your account only, mind it!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at You 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/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.html

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