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“To say you have no choice is to relieve
yourself of responsibility.”
― Patrick Ness.
“The right thing to do and the hard thing to
do are usually the same.”
― Steve Maraboli.
Steve Maraboli has electrified, inspired, and entertained a wide range of audiences in over 30 countries with his unique style of bridging cutting edge Behavioural Science & such. Patrick Ness FRSL is an American-British author, journalist, lecturer, and screenwriter. Born in the United States, presently he lives in England. I always wonder about the diversity of thoughts & ideas in the USA, maybe that’s why they are the Land of Opportunities (well, at least till Trump Raaj, lol)! The quotes are about responsibility & the subject is not Forest (definitely not Tadoba), not Traffic or any such thing but about our urban policies or say responsibilities & many of us doesn’t even know what it means as Irresponsible Urban Planning (I too don’t claim I know, disclaimer) yet we all suffer every day because of it, that’s why thought of taking this topic. As usual, newspapers (I do read) & one message from a civil engg student Arwind Kadapure of CoEP about civic issues & their willingness to tackle the same, is the cause of this sharing (read as frustration). The returning monsoons are creating havoc in rural parts of our State & if the fields are getting flooded with water, then our cities (now as Smart City Mission is wrapped, so can’t even say Smart Cities; sarcasm!) are flooded with vehicles & outcome is the same, chaos! With due respect I am not comparing traffic jams or vehicle problems with farmer’s problems, the comparison scale is only to show the damage to both segments & cause also is the same, irresponsible planning of infrastructure! And as I am not agriculture expert (nor I am urban expert also but at least I see these issues around & is part of it) but I have been in rural parts & come from one such in Vidarbha though city life I live daily & my profession also deals with it directly, so can say few words about it!
Ok, the news was about the mess (sorry that’s the most decent word I could use) of so-called infrastructure especially around Pune city, more specifically the newly (that also is old now) merged 33 villages in PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation) which actually are already suburbs of Pune & few such which are not yet merged in PMC or PCMC & behold, the world-famous Hinjewadi is one of them. The rains caused disruption in electric supply, road network, created flood like situation & even water supply issues, to such an extent that few of the IT companies threatened to quit the Pune region. On top of that there was news about many of the road infra projects (flyovers connection to these suburbs) are not getting into operation only because big leaders of ours have no time for their inauguration, which added to fury of the citizens. And then the Hon Supreme Court cleared the local public body’s election process & every political leader suddenly realized these infrastructural problems to the citizens of Pune & started visiting these localities, for obvious reasons! Suddenly Twitter (now X ), Insta & FB accounts of political leaders are flooded more than the rains with reels about how they are meeting people & taking their complaints & sorting them right on the spot vis mobile call to the authorities (it's good entertainment though) & its such visits of our leaders (read as rulers) which is my subject of sharing! As such trips, sorry visits, whether they have helped in solving citizen’s problems or not that time will tell but they definitely have exposed our (read as govt’s) irresponsible approach towards the city & entire infrastructure because we are irresponsible in our urban planning itself!
If you are confused with this IUP (irresponsible urban planning) term then let me tell you what happened during one of such visits from a high-profile self-proclaimed Man of Action leader from Pune region only. When he called to the authorities about agitation shown over residents of Sus / Mhalunge (western suburbs of Pune) then the reply from the officers was plans of the new projects are sanctioned by PMRDA (plz google) but responsibility of providing infrastructure to these projects is of PMC! The leader was zapped by this answer (I am more zapped as he didn’t know this basic fact before visiting such locations, anyways) the leader fumed & announced this ambiguity will be dealt & now the plans of the new projects in these villages will be sanctioned by PMC only! Great move, but two points (rather many), what difference this makes that who passes the plan, as citizen’s problem is not plan passing but they need water, drainage, garbage, roads (I don’t even dare to mention now public transport, education & public health too, are part of citizen’s needs) & uninterrupted electric supply! Who is going to provide that & the answer with the authorities is simple, the developer is supposed to provide that & then dashing leader instructs (read as, orders) take action on these builders, stop their works, simple, problem solved, media also get breaking news & people are happy! For once, ever someone has thought what is all this tamasha (sorry again the best gentle term I can think) going on, that too regarding development of not just a city but entire region which we are looking at is, the future of the State in terms of economy, is my subject of sharing!
First of-all, may it be PMC, PCMC & now PMRDA, the govt keeps on sleeping over the delays of making DP (plz google) of all these establishments & don’t do anything to control the growth while the DP is in making & then one fine morning cancels the DP again without thinking (needless to say) what will be next. In the entire world, planning is about making Plan-A & then keeping ready Plan-B & Plan-C if Plan-A doesn’t work but the joke with our urban planning is, we don’t have Plan-A in the first place, now what to do! And this is what I call IUP (refer first para) & this is the key to all our civic problems which we are not accepting & are busy in finding solutions which are applying bandages on the skin while fact is, the bone itself has been fractured, of the body names city! At the same time, we have not thought (cared to think) that growth won’t stop for your DP as because of our failure on planning front people keep migrating to Pune region as here at least they get a job to earn their bread & butter & these all migrants need home which eventually needs other infrastructure. So, whether you make DP, don’t make DP, cancel DP, make TP schemes, or delay them, this all won’t stop making people to shift their base to Pune region (or any such region) & chaos will keep on multiplying is a fact unless we improve our urban planning & its execution. And even when we cancel DP of PMRDA, we make jokes like merged villages & outside area by applying two different rules of plan passing for them, the list of our irresponsible errors is increasing faster than growth of Congress Grass (plz google for meaning) & outcome is, suffering of citizens on civic issues. We plan to build two ring roads at a time & then we reduce width of one of the ring roads & again as DP is cancelled the plan passing authority is in question what width to be considered for this second ring road now i.e. 110 m or 65 m, making future of thousands of projects along this ring road not just hanging but dark, for no fault of theirs & then we say illegal constructions are increasing! Do mind, whenever the laws are wrong & impractical, crimes are bound to increase & for that the govt is more at blame than the criminals, which is what has been happening on our urban planning front! And now govt is saying Structured Planning (new term, I also don’t know what it meant, hope govt knows) for first stage as DP of PMRDA in which basic reservations like Roads, STP (drainage treatment plants) etc will be finalized & in second stage finer details will be finalized! Great, just great as I have never seen or heard of such a way of planning that too for an area more than 5000sq km & what is the fate of all the lands till this two tyred planning gets through, has anybody thought of it? At the same time, what about the needs of the already existing citizens in these suburbs, what target we are setting for them as what’s their fault that they don’t have a clear idea about who is their governing body, right? Finally, while I was completing this sharing (for now) the powerful action minister told to the media that Baramati (a taluka place in Pune) will also be part of PMRDA! Well, with all due respect to good intentions of the minister sir, urban planning doesn’t go by impulse & emotions but with meticulous study & research of the region & then such decisions are made or else we are experiencing the merge, demerge & cancel game which only leads to total mess of the planning on the ground! Oh, yes, one more last, nobody is uttering a word about Water supply & provision for the same for the population in the entire PMRDA as well as merged 33 villages which now are part of PMC as nobody either cares for it or realizes the importance of it!
Need of the time is, form a special task force of competent people, & give them a dead line task of making DP of Pune region, & at the same time make specific guidelines for sanctioning as well governing authorities for the same & monitor all these developments by one single body, which itself is missing at present! And please do it fast because time doesn’t stop for your planning, which is what a good planner always knows! To conclude I will share a similar story from the movie Deewar which is probably one of the most famous dialogues in the history of Bollywood…
In the movie Deewar, Bachchan teasingly says to his Inspector brother Shashi Kapoor (that time even Police Inspectors were supposedly poor), aaj mere paas Bungala hai, Gadi hai, Daulat hai, Shoharat hai, Ijjat hai, tere paas kya hai? And we all know the iconic reply by Shahshi Kapoor, but going with today’s genre, a meme is trending on the social media, that Shahshi Kapoor also replies, Mere paas bhi Bungala hai, Gadi hai, Daulat hai, Ijjaat hai,! On this, Bachchan says, Ayae, fir Maa kiske paas hai!!
On the same line today, PMRDA & PMC, both will say, mere paas Planning hai, System hai, Minister hai, Budget bhi hai, but citizens will ask, Bhai fir Infrastructure ki Responsibility kiske pass hai, adios with a laughter (what else we can do)!
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Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...
https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345
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https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html
https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345
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