Making the Smart City dream a reality!

“You take delight not in a city's seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours.” … Italo Calvino.

Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the book “Invisible Cities’ & in so perfect words he has described what a citizen expects from the city they live in! Pune city especially PMC i.e. our governing public body always gives me surprises & very rarely does they turn out pleasant for me & on one such is when I read the news about competition PMC announced for the citizen for sharing their ideas about Smart City, they want to be! The topics were as follows & going a step ahead PMC has appealed that citizens can add also the topics which they feel needed to be included in above list! Now it’s up to citizens to respond as smart city can be made only by the participation & understanding of the concept by the citizens! Here are the topics published by PMC…

Topics That You Can Write on

1) Affordable Housing

2)     Citizen Participation

3)       Education

4)        Electricity

5)   Environment

6)   Garbage Management

7)       Governance

8)   IT connectivity and digitization

9)   Health

10) Solar Power

11) Toilets and Sanitation

12)   Traffic management

13) Water Supply

 As a citizen & an engineer with construction as my profession & the subject is very close to my business i.e. real estate, here is something I thought of my views about my Smart City…

1. Affordable Housing.

Well I think for any city first job is to provide the citizens a decent home & affordable to them. Affordable means not cheap which is unfortunately considered so in our country. Affordable is a multidimensional term, to me it means not just on the price part but entire life time maintenance front also. And we have different income groups as well life styles so the homes also should be affordable according to all such classes of the society. In the DP there should be reservation for affordable housing with special FSI as well norm of the homes designing in this zone also should be fixed. The planning as well design should be in standard pattern & PMC can auction these reservations in open tender so the developer will sale them to PMC at a fix rate & then PMC can allot to the needy people & rest FSI developer can use it at his will yet not to be sold above a certain price in open market! Here the entire infrastructure including arrangement of public transport too drainage treatment plants should be provided by the developer only. There won’t be any premiums but all should be adjusted against the numbers of home PMC getting. These zones can be planned all around the city especially in new merged villages.

2. Citizen Participation

By declaring this competition PMC has already taken first step in citizen participation, what’s important is what happened to the outcome of such participation? What’s need is make a separate cell for data collection of all such suggestions from citizens’ participation & giving them feedback about what happened to the same! As many people prefer to keep away as they think whatever they suggests goes to drain! So keeping people in loop not just for sake of the suggestions they give isn’t important but the action on those suggestions needs to be delivered to the concerned then only people will come forward for participation with PMC or any public body. Provide a full time available person for this & team trained in communication!

Start an award for best citizen of the year for the person who has contributed most in making the city a better place by his acts in whatever field it may be & we can have categories in this. And see that the award is been given without any partiality!

3. Education

Most neglected front in front of all popular needs of the city like water & traffic; the tag line “padhega India tabhi to badhega India” is just for advertisement! Visit any PMC school & see the scene & you will know why no sane parents send their kids here. Rather ask any of “mananiya” i.e. elected members or class one officers of PMC where their kids goes for schooling & you will get the answer what situation PMC schools are in! First thing make a role model school on infrastructure & then make a plan for converting all the PMC schools as per role model. Also make it compulsory for PMC election nomination that the kids must be in PMC School only. Similarly this criteria must be considered while giving promotions or writing CR’s i.e. confidential reports of every PMC employee! That will make all of them to pay more attention towards their responsibility on school as well education front. Also give tax benefit for those whose kids are in PMC schools! Make business houses as well corporate companies to adopt each school & the adoption must not be only funding but their employees should mix amongst the teachers as well students of this school so they also can benefit with such exposure of outer world! As to make good students you need good teachers first & for that constant training of teachers is a must!

4. Electricity

Again good that the city civic body accepted that power supply is their responsibility also & not just MSEB”s i.e. MSEDCL’s! First of all sit with MSEDCL officers & work out city power need present as well future. And then jointly mark all the infrastructural provisions like transformer, receiving stations, cable sizes & their paths. In coming years we will have more battery operated vehicles which will need charging so the charging stations as well their power requirement also should be considered. Public parking places can be made as public vehicle charging stations too! At the same times try to consider use of alternate sources of power generation like solar or gas to reduce conventional energy use.

5. Environment

Actually Environment comes in every field so instead making it separate front make every aspect right from Education too Governance environment savvy. And for that most important is making every individual aware about his role towards environment. Remember no environment can be conserved by effort of one department of industry or NGO but each of our efforts are going to matter. So make agenda of every city front accordingly that’s what will work instead treating environment as individual front!

6. Garbage Management

Carrot & stick is the only way. Stop lifting wet garbage from the societies where vermiculture NOC has been given or was a criterion while giving completion. Make a garbage generation as well collection measuring scale of every ward, road or society & monitor it. Right now we don’t know how much & what type of garbage is generated from which locality because there is no scale or record. Unless we don’t know how much volume is to be monitored how we are going to monitor it?

Shut down all the open garbage beans on roads & make a separate design for the same as this flooding garbage on road from the beans is shame of city face! Let’s take a design competition for garbage beans. And the monitor it as presently there is no time table at any public garbage bean to when empty it; so mark a electronic board near it like timing of next train coming on platform is displayed! Make business houses adopt garbage beans & allow them advertize the same as well if any company is buying the garbage allow them so by open tender! Similarly small garbage treatment plants in every ward is a must & reserve places in the DP for same & see that its designed in such way that there is no nuiscense to adjoining areas but with proper landscaping it can be turned in beauty spot.

Arrange school trips of every school in our city rather make it part of their syllabus, to the existing garbage depot so every kid will know the seriousness of this problem & will understand his role also in fighting the same!

7. Governance

This is the weakest link of entire system as nobody believes in governance of PMC is a bitter truth! First thing is make citizens believe in PMC & for that we need to make everything transparent to the public! Make an app on mobile by which entire system right from PMC Commissioner to a mukadam at ward office, with information about whose job is what type data available & their contacts. Presently no one knows who is responsible for what & that make people distrust on PMC’s governance! And then action taken against every law breaker has to be transparent as well impartial. There has to be a mechanism which will ensure all are same in governance.

Make every department staff work for some time span in other department to make them understand importance as well working of other departments.

8. IT connectivity and digitization

Make a virtual web site of PMC with every single office available virtually on the site in specified time & manage it properly. Avoid human interface as much we can as there only lays the success of digitalization. Make connectivity available at every square via interaction centers & get all day to day transactions like complaints too various payments & noc’s on this web site. Make across the counter payments a bit costly to promote online payments. Data is key to most of the problems & PMC should have best data bank about everything related to the city right from numbers of stray dogs in city too schools in the city too numbers of public vehicles i.e. PMPML busses on road & make this data available to every citizen on a click. Let every citizens creates his user id & his page on the web site & avail this data. Make a separate data collecting & analyzing team at PMC which will be like special force making this data available to every real needy one by confirming the intentions.

Also the DP should be in virtual 3D form, displaying the images of the use of the land or the zone so every citizen can read it!

9. Health

This has to be called as health & population control. As population is the main curse or cause of failure of our every policy & has to be controlled. Like PMC schools PMC health centers condition is too bad & needs to be looked after. Promote use of public health centers by making them people friendly & same make PMC corporaters as well staff to use them compulsory. Instead a citizen coming to public health center make health center people move out & reach out to the needy ones.

10. Solar/Alternate Power 

Make compulsory solar water heating at every existing as well new development whatever it may be. Include it in DC rules as well make provision of solar farms of rooftops of the building & in open spaces & on hills! Make all the bus stops like establishments with solar roof & utilize every such sq ft including PMC buildings terrace for solar power generation.

11. Toilets and Sanitation

Mark public toilets as reservation in DP. As well make ladies & gents public toilets compulsory in every new building & accessible to public. Tie up with every business house in city for adopting public toilets & allow them advertising as well their offices property tax bills at different rates who have adopted such toilets. Take a design competition for standard design of public toilets as well best maintained toilets every year!

12. Traffic management

Probably the star of all issues! The only solutions are strengthening public transport & then apply vehicle tax to demoralize people using private vehicles! CC TV cameras & control room for keeping control on the same. The people have to come on roads for minimum purposes such should be the city planning. Convert every amenity place acquired for just two purposes i.e. biodiversity or paid parking as we have enough malls & commercial places.

13. Water Supply 

Metered water supplies is must & fix the meters of down take lines of over head tanks also as unless we don’t know how much we are using how we can control the use? Collect every drop of rain water through close lines & collect it at various locations treat it & reuse it in rainy days that will curb the supply  of fresh water in rainy season. Make a network of rain water carrying lines not gutters for this! Enforce rain water harvesting in private developments & measure its use in terms of reduced use of fresh water. Rain water harvesting of catchment areas of dams supplying water to city should also be accepted as civic body’s responsibility only. Think of small check dams in river along with making the gorge deep to store more rain water. Here we can think of charging ground water & increasing ground water level also. A continues data of city ground water level has to be maintained for this.

Reuse of drainage is most important aspect & we can urge even smaller societies to come together & have their own combine ETPs’ especially in new development or merged villages.

14. Biodiversity

The city green belts has to be declared as reservations & acquire them by  giving TDR or market rate & plant as much indigenous trees we can & create forests within the city! Don’t allow any private club houses or swimming pools but use the open spaces for biodiversity conservation. Make every citizen plant & survive one tree in his or her life time. Name the tree after the one who has planted it & ask him to look after the same. Form nature clubs in every school & ward & carry awareness programs about various aspects of nature. We need public parks& amenity spaces can be the best place to make it happen. Also river side green belts can play important role in this. Use this TDR   i.e. generated for acquiring green belts & hill slopes TDR for affordable housing only!

15. Aesthetic Values, Culture & Heritage of the City!

This is where city lacks most as look at the sky line & we are ruled by hoardings & dish TVs cables all around. There has to be a specific design pattern for every public utility right from bus stop too pedestrian bridges & keeping utility at front aesthetics must be worked! Creating more & more public places right from river fronts to even open performing arenas in every part of the city should be another target. As backbone of the city is culture & if we conserve culture then automatically right from environment too heath everything falls in place! Let’s understand that no city can become smart if it lacks culture. Recently there was a news in media about 72 old sirens from British times has been discarded as the local body is unable to maintain them! Such old sites or structures or establishments must be listed out & convert them in tourist spots by preserving them with proper information boards near them!

Encyclopedia of the city is missing as no booklet or any map is there which tells us what we should look for in the city which was once famous for its heritages!

16. Safety & Disaster Management

Leave apart PMC even police force too is lagging on this very important front & we need to make common man aware about how to behave in disaster time like fire, earth quake or flood. Also safety measures to be strengthened as a very basic need of a good smart city is safe environment it provides to its citizens!

We can think of Drone Cameras flying over the city main roads as well rivers & congested areas all round the clock for surveillance to monitor disasters as well chain snatching type street crimes! These drone cameras can be used for traffic management also!The CC TV’s has to be of good quality & people should be made aware about location & their use as well their periodical maintenance! Most of the time the footage is of poor quality & of no use, is what recent experiences are!

Reaction time in disaster times is very much important by every person involved & a routine training is a must & a separate cell has to be created for same & we can use Ex Servicemen for such activities!

17. Encroachment Policy & Implementation

Any type of encroachment has to be dealt with immediate effect & without allowing any high profile interference or influence as then only people will trust law & rules! Make a separate court or tribunal to deal the encroachment matters & sort them out & first target should be no harassment to the common citizens; may it be any illegal building complex or even a stall of footpath!

18. Infrastructure to the Public Service Team

Look at the condition of PMC staff colonies or Police colonies & you will know why they are mostly frustrated at work. It’s very important to give proper residences as well other facilities like medical & even recreation to all those personnel who are working with any public serving establishment as then only we can hold them responsible for the job they are supposed to do i.e. serve the common man at their best!

Finally lets believe in our own capacities & make Smart City as our common goal as then only we can make it happen! As this is one dream which one single man might have seen but it should make each of us sleepless then only is any hope that it will be a reality or else it will just one more dream which will be forgotten in the time travels! And we need to be patient yet consistent to see this dream together, so be it!

--

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/02/story-of-toilet.html


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Indian Railways; Connecting India, What About Indians?

People's lives are in the care of the railways when they get on a train. The railways should remember that....Nina Bawden.

Nina Bawden CBE FRSL JP was an English novelist and children's writer. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1987 and the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010. Why I choose her this quote is no childhood is there without getting fascinated by railways; rather I pity those kids who haven’t seen a railway in their childhood or not travelled by one & my kids too are included in it! 

One of my best travel memories are with railways though that time it did felt awful a times! As for my genre when private cars were beyond imagination, private busses were yet to rule the roads & air travel was for super riches; so the trains were the only means for taking us to our holiday destination which mostly was Nagpur as being a family’s central place! My town Khamgaon still isn’t on main line i.e. it’s not connected to other major cities by main rail link but a small three bogie train used to connect Jalamb which was junction for our town, to the mainline. It’s a British time railway station & my best times with my father had been going to the railway station when I was some four or five years old & all I wanted was to become an engine driver! Those steam engines were like giants for us eating coal & exhaling smoke & fire & used to rule my dreams! Then later on when I went to Pune for my engineering then also railways were only solace though to get reservation was always a nightmare & I remember standing in the general class for nearly twenty four hours on one of my trip to Pune! Those were the time I used to hate railways as the bogies used to suffocate for poor ventilation in summers & add on the smoking in the bogies which was allowed or no one use to take objection is more correct! And in winters even if you close the windows yet the cold used to penetrate somehow the bogies! The toilet was the worst part of second class or general class, they used to stink & the taps run dry & once I have spent a day without going for washroom just to avoid use of railway toilets! The reservation system that too when you are travelling on concession pass of student was always a headache for the booking clerks & they use to treat we students like we are beggars using services of railways! Yet railway was dear as its sole mean of or transport keeping the travel in our budget. I have carried my Luna to Pune from the cargo bogie & that too was a thrilling experience is all I can say! Well later on the rail travels were reduced to nil & whatever they were its by AC coach & I must say surprisingly the same railway travels which I used to hate got a bit dearer with some real good service of first class & the ease of online booking!

Here is something about Indian Railways, started some one forty seven years back, the firs rail run between Mumbai & Thane in 1853! Indian Railways is an Indian state-owned enterprise, owned and operated by the Government of India through the Ministry of Railways. It is one of the world's largest railway networks comprising 115,000 km (71,000 mi) of track over a route of 65,436 km (40,660 mi) and 7,172 stations. In 2014-15, IR carried 8.397 billion passengers annually or more than 23 million passengers a day (roughly half of whom were suburban passengers) and 1050.18 million tons of freight in the year. In 2014–2015 Indian Railways had revenues of 1634.50 billion (US$26 billion) which consists of 1069.27 billion (US$17 billion) from freight and 402.80 billion (US$6.4 billion) from passengers tickets.
Railways were first introduced to India in the year 1853 from Mumbai to Thane. In 1951 the systems were nationalized as one unit, the Indian Railways, becoming one of the largest networks in the world. IR operates both long distance and suburban rail systems on a multi-gauge network of broad, meter and narrow gauges. It also owns locomotive and coach production facilities at several places in India and are assigned codes identifying their gauge, kind of power and type of operation. Its operations cover 29 States & 7 central proveniences and also provide limited international services to Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Indian Railways is the world's seventh largest commercial or utility employer, by number of employees, with over 1.307 million employees as of last published figures in 2013. As for rolling stock, IR holds over 239,281 Freight Wagons, 62,924 Passenger Coaches and 9,013 Locomotives (43 steam, 5,345 diesel and 4,568 electric locomotives). The trains have a 5 digit numbering system and runs 12,617 passenger trains and 7421 freight trains daily. As of 31 March 2013, 20,884 km (12,977 mi) (31.9%) of the total 65,436 km (40,660 mi) route length was electrified. Since 1960, almost all electrified sections on IR use 25,000 Volt AC traction through overhead catenaries delivery.

Well with all criticism railways have come a long way during time span of my own generation is sure. Recently I read a news though it went unnoticed by many that Hon Railway Minister handed over the fifty thousandth coach i.e. bogie to railways & that’s a big number. Many of us won’t know the expand of Indian railway but as the numeric stated above we are one of largest network of rail tracks & carries probably the maximum numbers of passengers all over the world. Though that’s due to our ever increasing population also, yet the credit can’t be taken away from the system we call railway. Prior to expressway days & private airlines days, railway was the sole player responsible for the development of the cities! If you take the major cities except those which are sea or river port it’s the railway which used to bring business to any settlement. Like my own town just because it’s not on any of the main railway line it has to suffer a lot on development front. Take example of cities like Jalgoan, Nashik or Nagpur in our State, these cities have been benefitted at large due to their connectivity to all major Metros in country via railway! With air travel getting cheaper & cars affordable the railways popularity has been reduced a bit yet for millions railway is the safest & cheapest way of transport & with volumes increasing by the sheer population growth I think railway also has to upgrade itself a lot to serve the people in better way.

And here the service of railways is divided on three fronts i.e. first is getting a ticket to the destination & connectivity, second is the status of railway stations as well bogies & third is service of the railway staff where ever there is interface amongst commuters & the staff! Let’s have a look at each of these aspects individually…

First come the booking a ticket for the rail travel; agreed lot of efforts has been taken by railways to make the booking system transparent & keep out the criminal tendencies away i.e. black marketing of the tickets & ‘’agent raj”! Yet in a country with nearly 120 crore population it indeed is a difficult job to make tickets available at ease to all & at the same time the seats should not go vacant is also important keeping business in mind! The present scene is railway bookings opens nearly one twenty days in advance but to plans something that early is very difficult in our country with all sorts of uncertainties like getting holiday too exam dates of schools & colleges. And then at eleventh hour every train shows full sign on online net booking charts! This is a big hassle for any of those whose travel plans get decided on eleventh hour or at short notice. Mostly the sufferers are marriage invitees or business meeting people or families going on school vacations with their kids! What I feel is the booking quota should be opened one twenty days before but month wise & till travel date some tickets must be kept available & a week before or three days before it can be opened on net for anybody. We can think of a separate bogie for eleventh our travelers & charge premium for its tickets so even few seats go vacant the loss is covered in booked seats! All this has to be on internet for maintaining transparency as well there has to be ID proof system for every traveler to avoid malpractices with the bookings & black marketing of the same! Another job is making proper rail routes with connectivity to every destination & making the information available at ease. A lot has been improved & timing of the railways are followed much better than what it was in my childhood days yet some where number of trains to every destination & their numbers of bogies are in adequate to handle the traffic of commuters or else most of the time you won’t have to face no booking available situation on major routes! As the news I mentioned above about Hon Railway Minister ‘s presenting fifty thousand coach to the railways & though the figure may sound big yet in nearly 140 years its hardly anything considering the traffic load the railways are supposed to carry & we do need much more coaches & numbers of trains too. This is important keeping in mind two fronts i.e. tourism & commerce of the country. We can designate the trains according to these two uses is what I feel.  What we need is to study travel pattern & create a data bank to prioritize the expansion plans of the rail routes as well strengthening the existing net work!

Then comes the condition of railway stations; in my time the railway stations used to be main address of the town & pride of citizen! Somehow the conditions of the most stations has been deteriorated & right from visitors parking to booking windows a lot needs to be upgraded. Also connectivity to the railway station from any point in the city & round the clock is also a neglected subject in many of the cities. I know many stations of many towns where to catch an odd hour train is a real problem or even for the person who gets down at such stations on odd hour don’t get a commute to his residence & in end people tends to avoid railways itself!

Railway stations are like face of the city & they have to be maintained & planned properly. The British knew this perfectly & have a look as many stations they have build including Victoria terminals at Mumbai, serving still flawlessly missions of commuters! This task is two folded i.e. one is maintaining existing stations & second is expanding them to serve by today’s needs & locate & build the new stations! When we speak about stations then waiting rooms & public toilets are like mirrors, reveling condition of any station & here huge attentions is required by the authorities! We can think of making citizens as well corporate companies of the particular city to adopt these & maintain the same.  Also recycling of water as well using solar energy for lighting & decorating the stations by plantation & making them green is another aspect which is neglected. Here first categorize the stations in A, B or C type as per their size & make a role model of each type & then replicate it all over the country. Also we can conduct competition of all the stations in best maintained criteria as well green station types & give prizes category wise! Every citizen should be proud of his city’s railway station & PRO dept of railways should make it possible; arranging school trips to railway station of city as well surrounding school kids can be one sure way of achieving it!

Entry of unauthorized people like beggars in the station premise in one more nusicence to the real users & every station should be properly secured as well gated is what missing even in cities like Pune! Garbage collection & disposal at railway station is also needed to be improvised & can be done with making people aware as well garbage treating plants in premise of the station. 

Then comes the bogies maintenance; the first class as well AC coaches are well maintained but same can’t be said about second class & surely not about the general class. Rather the time has come seriously thinking about the general class concept itself & the arrangement of the same! Why the poor’s or without reservation travelers have to suffer that kind of surrounding, if any reader has travelled by general class then he will realize what I meant! The general class bogies resemble ghettos or concentration camps especially the long route trains. The reason is less bogies & by increasing bogies as well by restricting entries in the bogies we can achieve the solution & it’s high time as maximum accidents also occur in general class bogies as no safety devises even basic like fire extinguishers are not in place here! Here we can appeal corporate as well travel companies to adopt the coaches by allowing advertising on them & maintain it! As unless the environment in which a person is supposed to spend some hours even day isn’t clean & safe how can we make him like the railway?

Third & foremost are the railway personnel who are interface between the commuters & the system! Here again each person of railway should realize & understand that this is sheer service industry & though they are Govt employee there are options of air travel of road travel! Even one commuter opting to go for a small distance by other means of transport is a loss to railways, I think this attitude has to be cultivated in every staff member right from station master too ticket checker to the cleaning crew! For this regular awareness training as well exposure with the end user i.e. with commuters can be tried. I never have received any invite in my life by railway to come & visit some station & have a cup of tea with the station crew for my suggestions or views about railway. Or even after my many first class travels I haven’t received any mail or communication by a railway that how was my experience? While if I even once travel by Singapore airline then for my life time I keep on getting mails from them, this is the difference!

As Nina Bawden says for millions railway is the only way to reach their destination & it should not happen that they are doing it out of no choice but more millions should look ahead to travel by the railway, that should be the target! Let’s remember it’s not just the numbers of coaches or kilometers of railway tracks we lay, should be the scale of success but once again every kid in the country should dream as to become a railway engine driver or station master when he grow up & I think that will be the true success of railways & this will be achieved only by making every citizen of the country part of the system which we call Indian Railway!

--

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

 Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/02/story-of-toilet.html


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Digital India, M -Governance & Real Estate!

“It is the greatest truth of our age: Information is not knowledge.”… Caleb Carr

A son of Lucien Carr, a former UPI editor and a key Beat generation figure, he was born in Manhattan and lived for much of his life on the Lower East Side. He attended New York Friends Seminary, Kenyon College and New York University, earning a B.A. in military and diplomatic history. He writes frequently on military and political affairs. While our country is celebrating Digital Week these lines by Carr  rings in my mind as on one side yes its sign of changes surely for country like ours that we are getting aware of the digital power yet somewhere have we understood the power really is the question I ask to myself! Remember any power if not handled properly can back fire; as they say in hind “Do Dhari Talwar” i.e. two edged sword, it may cut the person handling it! Especially when the power is in hidden form is digital!   

Here I will share few lines from our Hon Prime Minister’s recent interview which I came across on a blog…

“Articulating global worries over cyber security, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said India should come up with solutions to meet the challenge posed by this threat of “bloodless war” as he launched a digital campaign to which top companies pledged Rs 4.5 lakh crore.

Inaugurating ‘Digital India Week’ here, he pitched for a digital revolution in the country, saying it is necessary to deal with problems like corruption, help provide transparent and efficient governance and bridge the rich-poor divide.

“We have to move from E-governance to M-governance. M-governance does not mean Modi governance. It means Mobile governance,” he said in the presence of several ministerial colleagues and who’s who of Indian industry and CEOs of some global companies.

The Prime Minister noted that India has huge capabilities in the field of IT and promised to encourage manufacturing within the country of electronic goods, which account for second largest imports after petroleum products. He specifically mentioned start ups in this regard.

While highlighting the advantages of the IT, Modi said, at the same time, “clouds of a bloodless war are hovering over the world. The world is terrified by this….India has a big role to play in this.

“Can India play this big role? India has talent. Can India provide a shield to the world by providing innovative and credible solutions? Why should we not have such a confidence? We should accept this challenge to ensure that the entire humanity lives in peace,” Modi said.

While talking about dangers posed to cyber security, he said, “somebody, with education of 10th or 12th class, sitting thousands of miles away, can clean up your bank account with a click of mouse.” This situation needs to be addressed, he said.

Well very futuristic approach indeed, here I remember my first visit to Dubai some twenty years back when mobile phone were unheard & remote control operations was only in Bond movies for us, even though we used to live in advanced city like Pune. There I was just zapped by seeing people opening their car doors by remote control or talking to their home from car though it was just a cordless phone & thought I was living a Bond movie dream! But in less than eight years I was not only opening my own car by remote I was using my own cell phone though per minute call charges were whooping Rs 32! And soon in next ten year now even my site watch man has a cell phone & my tile contractor sends me snaps of tile pattern in toilet at site on whats-app & asks me for approving it from his cell! Does this mean India has already become digital? Well from this aspect let’s see what real estate is doing on digital front?

Apart from the example of my own site mason using M technology the picture isn’t much good. As every Govt organization may it is Town Planning or NA permission or IGR i.e. registration office or local governing bodies like PMC, they all do speak about paperless permissions but is it so in reality? Ask any developer or even the common man his experience with real estate related Govt processes & scene isn’t changed a bit; expect the terminologies like e-registration or online sanction are used a lot in conversation but rest all is same. Take example of E-Registration of documents like flat purchase agreement, agreed now in Pune city you can get it registrar anywhere unlike area wise registration office yet the both the parties has to visit that registrar office which usually has no decent basic infrastructure like sitting arrangement! Then again it’s just city which is on central server, yet even if both the parties are from city & the land is out of city limit they have to go that particular registration office for e.g. land is in mulshi then one has to go to paud office! Also the payment terms changes as per individual office policy & no single web site provides all the information regarding different clauses or stamp duty charges! And if some information is on web site then the officer on ground don’t follow it or tells that it’s not updated! Yet today people have to wait for hours at registration office & there are arguments over ready reckoner rates & such issues! Why there can’t be all the data stored properly on IGR web site & it’s updated regularly instead requiring human interference every now & then?

The Revenue Department & Town Planning aren’t lagging far behind here! All the documents related land ownership & its measurements is still the biggest problem the real estate has to face. The land records are never in update condition & each piece of land becomes a separate subject of study. Two very basic ownership documents i.e. 7/12 extract & demarcation never matches & the land owner has to run between city survey office & collector office i.e. talathi office to match the record. Then no single server provides information of all land records under one collectorate leave apart entire State! So unless someone responds to public notice, no one knows who are the people who want to object the deal? Why we still believe in news paper notices about land deals? Why can’t State Govt comes up with one web site on which every public notice related to each land deal will be published & the person who wants to object it should also respond on that same web site, instead the age old argument of the advocate that, “My lord, my client hasn’t come across that particular public notice in some news paper!” This single step will avoid so much of confusion in all land deals & now when every second person is having 3G or access to internet then this will be best solution  as well time & cost saving! Also we will have all the data of every deal, its public notices & objections taken & even the replies given to those objections! So no one can say I have sent my objection or reply by registrar post & things like that! Also every NA permission given by the authorities must be uploaded on one single portal so all concerned will know the status of any land development! This will surely help in making people aware about illegal developments & keep away from the same!

Then follows the governance of the local bodies like PMC/PCMC & now the famous or infamous PMRDA! We do have the city’s DP i.e. development plan well whatever is in alive position as which DP is alive & which isn’t even gods can’t tell. But whenever it will then put it on web & don’t ask any architect or developer to come to local body for very basic things like zoning & don’t demand it too! But situation is even if the DP is one web site then it doesn’t matches with actual site conditions & again everything comes to square one that’s dependency on human interface! Then the development control rules needs to be crystal clear & on web for most cases if not every. Whatever governing staff is there has to be used for monitoring the development & not for sanctioning or authorizing the same but what’s happening today is most of the staff is busy in giving sanctions & things like plinth checking or completion or plan passing because each case is different such pathetic is our digitalization process! When you expect the outcome as online sanction then all the rules & regulations along with supporting things like a plan matching to site condition has to be in place. Even after this there will be some discrepancy but then it will be exceptional case not every case will follow the manual track the way it’s happening today!

The result is delay in getting every single permission related to real estate. And then we don’t know how to plan the growth as there is no data! Can someone tell how many flats have been sanctioned in one calendar year & of what size & how many in the same year got completed & become ready for occupation? This data will help us for many fronts right from property tax too water demand of the city or even to know the future electric load demand, so many such things which presently we have to just depend on guess work is a fact. A simple example is if the completion certificate is directly related to taxation department then all the developer has to do is submit a form at the time of applying completion certificate with names & other details of the flat holders he has sold the same flats to & then tax department can directly take this data from server & start generating bills from the day completion certificate is issued. But what happens today is even to get the name of the flat holders on the property tax the developer if he is responsible to chase the tax guys or poor flat holders have to face that battle after getting possession! And in all this process what about the loss of the tax during the period lapsed, well who cares!

Even the department like MSEDCL formerly MSEB competes all above Govt departments for just propagating on e-governance as there is no basic load sanction process clearly defined anywhere & if it is then no one is following the same is a fact! Firstly they don’t have any information about city growth so I really wonder how they plan their infrastructure development & result is they don’t plan! As any new project comes up after sanction from local body that plan goes to local MSEDCL office which don’t have any framed sanction process so whatever advantages or disadvantages of human interface are there all comes in picture! Even if the link their server with PMC or PCMC’s server & these bodies update their record of residential as well commercial development then a life will be lot easier for MSEDCL as well developers! Right from how many electric meters are going to be needed too how much load demand is going to come, all these things they will know in advance & brace themselves accordingly! A basic thing like change of name on electric meters after resale of the flat is such a headache due to human interface, ask any flat holder who has gone through that grind! But then whose job is it to make these simple processes via M governance, is the million dollars oops rupees question!

Then the real estate itself lacks or lacks deliberately is proper term, the transparency of digital genre! Ask how many builders put all the legal or permissions related information about their projects on their respective web sites? Providing just beautiful images of projects & amenities don’t end your responsibility towards clients! I always feel transparency is action & not mere words! Let’s remember like we expect service & transparency from Govt agencies same way we too are service providers to our clients! Here it’s high time for real estate buyers to get aware about their rights & demand proper service as well information from the developer as it’s easy to blame some department or profession but what we do for our own rights is equally important! Unless the builders themselves don’t start giving every single information about sanctions of the projects to their customers online, they don’t have any moral right to blame any Govt body for lagging on M or E-Governance, whatever you call it!

Hon PM we can make entire country Wi Fi with network of optical fiber cables & we can give every citizen a 4G cell phone with the service at cheapest rate so everyone can afford it but what about the people’s attitude who are supposed to store all this data & maintain it to make use of the same for making common man’s life easier & all your efforts? As you might be thinking M Governance is Mobile Governance but for most of the bureaucracy or even people in real estate in our country M Governance means Man Governance & which M follows Man Governance even a school going kid can tell! Irony is, name of the Father of our beloved Country also starts with M & is on every currency we have today; so that’s the truth you have to understand & then take the steps to your vision! 

As being digital doesn’t mean just having 4 G service on my cell phone but being digital means a human interface free  life for my daily needs, may it be getting sanction of a project or transfer of my flats electric meter on my name! Till then 4G will be only for sharing jokes on whatsapp & make fun, that’s all! You are concerned about E crimes like theft from bank accounts but I am more concerned about waste of our energy in the process as any service like mobile service is a power & if not used properly any power is a curse making the society at large pay for it & for that every single citizen of this country should understand the power of M Governance there only lays the future of Digital India!

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Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

 Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/02/story-of-toilet.html


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