Vision of Life; by Sanjay

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked..

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2023/01/defining-good-home-real-estate-in-2023.html

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

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html

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Think Green, Think Life

Monday, December 18, 2023

Green-Belts, Rivers & Understading Sustainable Development!

“I came to realise how important it is to maintain a distinction between business and policy. If businessmen start making policy, we invite politicians to start making business. By instead empowering politicians with the right information to make balanced decisions, we create more forceful advocates for the results of our collaboration.”
… Lucy Jones.

Lucile M. Jones is a seismologist and public voice for earthquake science and earthquake safety in California & is adviser to many real estate firms, infra projects for seismic aspects of the business development! No wonder. She can so clearly differentiate between business & politics & their respective roles in making policies, I wish there should have been many such Lucy Jones here, especially in Pune, our lives would have been a lot easier (only if we have listened to such advice). Please ignore the in-bracket sarcasm as that’s inherent part (of-late) of me, courtesy policies & chaos on the front of the city & when the subject is town planning or land use or environment or business then more of it! Needless to say, the reason of using Lusy’s above mentioned quote (and sarcasm) is recent row (read as hohallah) over so-called illegal structures in the green belt along the river side (shall we still call that part of land a river, again sarcasm) & blue-line red -line debate of the rivers Mula-Mutha which flows right from the Pune city at entire length of the city. Here many Punekars will ask are they rivers any more or by what definition we can call them rivers but unfortunately there are those Punekars also which still considers them as rivers & fight for its protection, I mean whatever has remained of the two rivers. And there are far more Punekars who doesn’t understand a bit about rivers, blue line, red line, green belt but has their opinion on all of these (well, that’s what makes you a Punekar) & problem is most of the times media & even Mai Bapp govt also is part of this category of Punekars, is my main cause of frustration which I use for sharing!

If the introduction is enough then let me tell you the green belt is a land portion of the shore of river, Mutha in this case which runs parallel to the river bed & as per DP, i.e., development plan of the city is supposed to be used to maintain biodiversity around the rivers or river. Let me explain this concept first, for ages the rivers when they uses to carry fresh water & land was not as costly or sought after the way it is today then along the river beds there was ample of biodiversity in the form of vegetation which included many types of trees, shrub, grass which was hope to many species of birds, insects, rodents & which was in a way boon for the life in the river water thus making this entire portion of land along with river water a life cycle! And to protect this life cycle some great minds (read as town planners) thought that if they make such lands as green belts with no development allowed here, not even agriculture, then such biodiversity will remain safe! But they haven’t thought about our greed & population & its needs which are swallowing every piece of land especially in & around cities like Pune which are urban growth centres. And leave apart green belts we have even shrunk the rivers itself & killed them by the pollution but the policies made for the lands under green belts remained same, defeating the very purpose for which they have been marked as no-development zones!

Same this happened with hills in & around Pune which are now become slum centres instead of green cover but fortunately the green belt in news which is right in the heart of Pune connecting Rajaram Bridge to Mhatre bridge has survived because the land belongs to private owners & somehow, they thought of putting in to uses such as marriages, social gatherings even parking pots & eating joints. Joke is the local governing body kept on changing policies for the green belts as per its convenience, never giving a thought about practicability of these policies! At first there was no development of any sort allowed in the green belt, just like core areas of tiger projects, keep it as it is! Then only for the plots more than 1 acre i.e. 40,000 sft some 4% structures were allowed such as cafeteria, gym etc. As well some cattle sheds or goat farming (right in the centre of in Pune, lol) were allowed. At the same time nothing was allowed for plots of lesser areas than 40,000sft, only for God knows why so! Later in the revised DP of 2011, some 10% structure of the land area was allowed with uses such as eateries, swimming pools, recreation activities etc. Again why 10% has no logic, maybe thinking of 10% construction is allowed in the open spaces of lay-outs of plans of bigger plots. But then that was for lay-out of residential plots which are owned by a single person or group of persons while these are solely owned lands by the individuals, this fact our planners either forgot or ignored! And biggest blow for the land owners in the green belt came when in the so-called UDPCR (its same building control rules for entire Maharashtra State, barring few blue eyed regions) was drafted then in that the planners did allowed many uses in these green belts keeping in tune to environment but they forgot to mention the area allowed to construct for these uses & result is now even the 10% construction area facility was taken away & at present situation is, not a single sq ft construction is allowed in these green belts whatever size of the plot may be! On the top of it, PMC charges property tax at commercial rate even to vacant land to the lands in these green belts & takes away area for making roads without giving any compensation or TDR when the high-court has given verdict to give TDR as per regular rules for the lands in the green belts! Now tell me how many Punekars would have accepted such policies towards their hard-earned land as the only fault of the land owners here is their land was along the river which no longer is a river now, is a bitter fact!

Despite all such hurdles, fortunately the land owners in the green belt here haven’t succumbed to the temptation (read as greed) of making easy money & has maintained the greenery to the best of possible way, this I can vouch as a resident of this locality who lives right across the road. Every morning I wake up & look from my balcony which overlooks the greenest patch in the entire area where many age-old trees are still surviving which are homes to hundreds of birds & music is on every morning of their chirping! This is possible even with all the restrictions the uses of green belt lands have as agreed by DC rules no construction is allowed here (for now) but there are few old sanctions as well the green belt holders use the land for marriage ceremonies by erecting temporary mandap, a thing which nis common & not illegal in entire India but that also is marked as illegal & demolishing action is taken by PMC which I think is injustice with the greenbelt land holders! I am not saying don’t protect the green belt’s biodiversity rather I am the last one who will say so as I am a direct beneficiary of this biodiversity but we must strike a balance by which this greenery will be maintained as well the land holders of the green belts also will not be at total loss! And the only logical, sustainable, practical, viable solution is, to allow some uses as well structures in these green belts which will not harm the greenery here rather increase it as well there should not be any nuisance of such activities to the neighbourhood such as DJ, Firecrackers or Loudspeakers but it will make able to the landlords of the greenbelts to earn enough so as they won’t have to turn these green belts in to slums which has been happening all around this city which was once green!

And then there is another row over the red line & blue lines which are indicative lines of flood levels in last hundred & thirty years respectively & again keeping due respect to river water & its flow, if we can allow Metro rail right form the river bed then why can’t we come up with some solution to allow some uses, just temporary mandaps in the blue line when it’s not flooding. Agreed you don’t allow to build walls or something which will become an obstruction to the water flow inside the blue lines but what tomorrow there will be illegal hutments inside blue line, what are we going to do with it like we are doing nothing in other such hutments along the river in this city only, is I wanted to ask (read as appeal) the Hon Green Tribunal & authorities! And then these uses are needed by the entire society (read as citizens) also as or elsewhere in the city you have places where thousand plus people can gather for marriage or musical concerts, is also a fact we should look at! As with this very same logic tourism is allowed even in the core areas of the project tigers & resorts are allowed in the buffers of these forests as if we take care of the locals around these forests then only, we can make the wildlife survive, same logic is applicable if we want to conserve the green belts!

I know, reading this sharing many will tag me “two-faced” as on one side I call myself as wildlife or green thinker & on other side I am saying allow structures or make green-belt lands usable but unless you have understood true meaning of balanced growth or the word sustainable you will never achieve it by making just one-way policies for the environment at large or else there will be laws, rules & policies but only on the paper; mind it, adios with this statutory warning!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2023/01/defining-good-home-real-estate-in-2023.html

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

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below...

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Think Green, Think Life

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Avoiding Site Accidents!

“When you take in consideration all the possible chances of any mishap happening at the site & make safety arrangements to avoid it accordingly in the right way & yet something bad happens & someone loses his or her life, that is what I call an accident”… Me.

Friends, the above quote is not actually a quote but it’s sharing a thought process as you can easily imagine it’s about site accidents & to avoid them or to learn from them! And I just thought of these words in a brainstorming session of our fact-finding committee formed to analyze reasons for a recent accident at one site in Pune. Adhering to the outcome of this sharing as here will try to use this case study building a system which will be workable & will help to reduce ( I am not saying stop) the accidents at the sites!

As first & foremost we must understand that civil Eng works are still carried out in our country mainly by humans as labor force is cheaper in this country (unfortunately, so is life too) & that too most of them are in this trade just because they have nothing else to do & finds it easier for their survival & not by choice! So, to train them is a big challenge as barring a few institutes there are not many schools of colleges which will give formal training of these trades such as tiling, masonry, plumbing, carpentry, or steel reinforcement & many such. This makes educating these laborers on the safety front more tough as most of them are illiterate & are used to doing the work in their traditional way which doesn’t include safety as training! Then comes the supervisory part, being a civil Eng by myself, I vouch till lately, safety wasn’t a subject which they teach you in Eng colleges in depth (rather even on surface too) & no wonder in construction industry (not just real estate) a good civil engineer also not that good in maintaining safety at site is a fact! The main reason behind most accidents at construction projects is, safety was never considered as a quality aspect of any structure’s building process right from teaching civil engineering & this aspect we must keep in mind in achieving safety at sites!

For the contractors (I am referring to all trades) just to get a contract if you are missing safety from your expenditure then you are making a big mistake as one accident can wipe not just your profit from that work but all your earnings, please keep this thing in mind while quoting for any contract. As well do check & sign term sheet or tender or work order with your sub-contractors with proper safety clauses & follow them.

Lastly for the owner or builder (I am restricting to real estate) , your neck is the first in the line when any accident happens & more than this, I don’t want to comment anything about the developer's approach towards safety at the site!

Coming back to the subject, let's first list the probable stages of a construction site where accidents can happen & then only, we can make arrangements to avoid them, right?

1.While you buy the plot

Many times we think how an empty plot can cause harm but that depends on geography, topography as well geology of that plot. Study carefully, all these aspects of the plot, make documentation of the condition of the plot while you buy it even before building a compound wall as well what activities are happening in the neighborhood of the plot as all these things matter. Such as natural water source of path from or near by your plot, slopes where landslides can happen or water-logged areas or deeps as all these things can be the reason of accident even when the plot is empty & you make labor camps here.

2.Labour Camps

Most neglected & susceptible location for accident, right from its location to arrangement to material used for making it everything matters.

3.Boundary Walls

Making a boundary wall can be a costly affair depending on plot size as well soil strata but if you try to save on money in building the boundary wall it can cost you a fortune, so do it only under structural consultants advice as even if you spend money in making it fancy it must be durable also!

4. Excavation for foundation or basement

Maximum accidents happen during this phase & when we have to build thirty / forty storied buildings we need to dig deep in earth also & there is where the problem starts. Utmost care must be taken when you excavate your plot as it's not just safety or people working but adjoing properties also needs to be taken care in while you dig deep into your plot. At the same time dewatering is there if groundwater is high. Main issue is, most of western Maharashtra has black cotton soil as top earth cover & is very tricky in physical behavior; when it comes in contact with water it shrinks & expands when it gets dried, thus it physically flows, causing maximum accidents! As well flooding in rains also can be a matter of concern when you dig. And in case of redevelopment projects there is demolishing of existing structures or even the time of some bungalow also, these too are the stages of work where utmost care needed to be taken to avoid accidents.

5.RCC / Masonry/ Plaster

Here two fronts one must check, one is accidents during shuttering for slab work or casting & second is accidents while scaffolding work for masonry & plaster from outside. And as the structure goes up high then the service ducts openings at every slab level also are danger spots such as lift ducts, electric main’s duct & many such.

6.Facade & Elevation Works

With the craze of fancy elevations as well as glazing for commercial buildings, we have to make separate treatments to the entire height from outside & is a risky affair when a building is multistoried. This also needs to be taken in consideration while painting from outside as a few years back in Mumbai, entire scaffolding collapsed while painting from outside claiming nearly fifteen plus lives of the painters which were working on that scaffolding.

7.Finishing Items

Though as by this stage most of the activities are complete yet fire & electric short-circuit are two main causes which can be the reason of accidents in such things, such as tiling or interiors of the lobbies etc. As well falling down due to slippery floor surfaces also is one cause of the accident in the finishing stages. Even waterproofing of water tanks overhead or underground are risky affairs.

8.Site Equipments & Services

Construction equipment such as tower cranes, work-lifts are main reasons in construction stage accidents which must be kept under good & routine maintenance. As well in the finishing stage, building’s lifts, escalators , generators , transformers & such types of services need to be looked after carefully to avoid accidents. Even the movable machinery such as fork-lifts or Dumpers or water tankers or concrete mixers must be allowed to operate to only the trained hands to avoid accidents because of their wrong movements.

9.Children of Site Labor’s

Most vulnerable to accidents as usually they tend to follow their parents even to work areas.

10.Surrounding Neighborhood

These are more at risk because they are not site familiar & it’s us who must think for their safety. As well, clients & outsiders visiting the site also needed to be looked after from a safety angle.

Now, we can make pointwise do’s & don’ts to ensure safety at all above stages yet as I said at start there can be something all together different than these & cause a mishap but that will be an accident & next time we must cover that possibility also in our safety measures, that is learning from the accident!

Last but least, the governing public bodies as well investigation agencies like Police also must have a proper system to handle a site accident & rather than reacting to the incident & media pressure & taking face saving actions, must take a realistic & practical stand!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked..

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2023/01/defining-good-home-real-estate-in-2023.html

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

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Think Green, Think Life

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Being Greatful is Growing Up !

“With every passing year most people age but a very few grow & being grateful for those years is one sure sign of growing up”… Me (lol)

Dear Dada & Chota,

First, I am grateful to you both as it gives me one more opportunity to write on my birthday & analyze my own process of ageing or growing up, whatever we can call it! Though this birthday is more special as I will turn fifty-five & no more can consider myself in fifties or youth in the eyes of the society around & then Dada will get married this December so I will become Father-in-Law which again is sign of you being labeled as elder person in the society! Few years earlier these things would have scared me (if not on surface but within) & now also when I think it does gives me weird feeling, as I look back & can see you two as toddlers or wearing school uniform & going to school & look today, you are all grownup & one of you is now starting his own innings as a grown-up man & I am father of a married man, wow! I look in the mirror & reality of the age hits me , the thinned gray hair, bent posture, pain in the ankle while I take first step of the day, damaged knee & suddenly the face staring at me seems different & it’s not me & the birthday vibes of fun & enjoyment take the back seat! But don’t worry, what I wrote is what happens to them who just age with every birth day & this is what I see around me as many of my friends if are happy on one side for their son/ daughter getting married then deep within are unhappy or sad that they have aged now & no more they will be considered as young or happening & I don’t blame them as that’s what happens when you don’t understand growing up!

This is why I said I am thankful to you both (and your genre) as while following this ritual of writing to you on my birthday I learned meaning of growing up or say started learning, as the process is on yet & destination hasn’t yet arrived! But, in the years I started understanding so many thing or we can say started looking at the things differently as if on one side these years has given me scars, pain , hurt, insults, fear & deteriorated my body then these years has given me so many wonderful things, they have given me you two as well moments with my dear ones (though that list is small but moments are many) as I could read so many books, could travel in many places, have interacted with many young minds , could meet with a few wise personalities & most importantly every day of these years has taught me something new & has kept me alive to use what I have learnt! Dada & Chota, its these years which told me how lucky I am to have parents who were teachers as that has helped me to keep myself always a student & value life on the terms like right & wrong & stay by that! And equally important is your role as presence of aaji , abbu has made me think about what my parents will think of me if I do something wrong & now its your presence around keeps me on the track as the way I look back to my parents & respect them for what they are, some day you two will look at me & that time you should not feel ashamed of the way I chose for life, at least I can try keeping this aspect in mind.

And now Dada, it’s your turn to take ahead the ballet & your challenges are way higher than mine as I have had a strong middleclass upbringing which if was hurdle to make things big then on the other side was boon or my strength to be on right path & be happy with whatever I have been able to achieve! Your father may not be middle class by finance or resources angle but never forget what values I live by, rather make best of both aspects of me & your grandparents, is the way ahead for you! In the day-to-day personal life, I have stopped ordering or asking you both to do this or do that as you have grown beyond that & on that front, I have completed my duty but duty or parenting never ends actually; just the way you do it that changes, is what I have learnt! And I must say I am happy for the journey till now of which credit goes to you both & all the people around which has made me lucky on many fronts of life , a lot luckier than millions of people in this society & I am grateful for that! Dada & Chota, this is my growing up as life gives us many things & takes away also a few but most of the time we end up thinking we are at loss as we keep up looking at loss-side of life; being grateful helps us to look more often at gain-side & that’s the way to be at peace, I am deliberately not saying being happy as some day you will understand the difference between these terminology by yourself!

I think the dosage even though yearly is near complete & let me narrate this year’s learnings in ten pointers (finally), here we go…

1. Never stop yourself from helping someone to get up who has fallen…

2.Never stop yourself from giving what you have in your plate to someone who is hungrier than you…

3.Never stop yourself from applauding to someone who is looking for some supporting cheering…

4.Never stop yourself from standing beside someone who is fighting for being right…

5.Never stop yourself from crying when you feel to cry…

6.Never stop yourself from saying thanks to someone, seen or unseen who has helped you in some way at some stage of life…

7.Never stop yourself from believing in what you feel right even if the world says you are wrong… (but for that first decide & define your right & wrong)

8.Never stop yourself from bowing your head in front of wisdom when you sense some…

9.Never stop yourself from learning a new thing however silly it may look…

and,

10.Never stop yourself from sharing your luck with someone who isn’t fortunate to be as lucky as you are…

Dada & Chota, when I look in the mirror with this realization & now the face staring at me is very much familiar, fresh rather smiles back at me, telling me that he is grateful for everything he has gained from the fifty-five years being with me; thanks once again to you both along with Nikhil, Ketki, Rohit M, Shruti, Siya & Tanisha & all young brigade & yes Disney, Marvel, DC guys too, for my growing up!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2023/01/defining-good-home-real-estate-in-2023.html

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

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below...