By Dr Arun Mira
Much is being talked about making 100 cities throughout the country as smart cities. Focus of smartness is on digitalization, beautification, high rise buildings, big flyovers, wide spaces for cars to run on the roads, luxury parks etc. Little is being said about issues that relate to the needs of the common man. With the urban population in India at 35.39% in 2021, there is need to develop the cities to fulfill the socio-economic requirements and quality of life of all sections of society.
Concept of a smart city varies from person to person and among different strata of society. For a rich man, beautification of the city, big malls, wide roads to ply their cars, shining bright lights with glaring night life, big flyovers & underpasses, decorated entry point to the city is the meaning of the smart city. But for a poor man and hut-met dweller, a moderate house, clean drinking water, sanitation, unbroken roads, regular electricity supply, footpath to walk on road side, lane for accident free cycling & two-wheeler ride would be a better city. A vendor would want, clean vending zones free from the threats of the Mafia and unnecessary glitches caused by the local body administration. A poor/low middle income family would be happy with a job and wage to be able to purchase a piece of land to live. For the senior citizens security is the most important in view of the everyday increasing incidents of violence against them.
There is large scale migration to the cities in search of jobs and livelihood. They need place to live but in the absence of any government support they have to live in shanties in totally sub human unhygienic conditions. A smart city should ensure proper housing for them all.
It is therefore important that the concept of smart city should cater to the needs of all citizens. The basics like clean drinking water supply, electricity, sanitation facilities, facilities for all types of waste management, good public transport, unbroken roads, low cost housing should be the priority. A common man also needs good hospitals to meet health needs at affordable cost and needs schools for affordable quality education.
There is also need for parks with green cover in all types of colonies. Subsidised Solar panels on buildings, so that everyone could afford their installation is the need of the hour. Footpaths for the disabled and ordinary pedestrians, Braille linked mobility facilities for the visually handicapped is essential. The digitalization, which in modern time is essential for the governance and communication should supplement and facilitate the above.
But all the above is far off dream in the cities earmarked to be smart cities. Rains that inundated several parts of the northern region of the country have exposed the claims of Smart cities project conceptualised by the government of India. We have witnessed how there is water logging in the cities including the capital of the country. With broken roads the commuters met with accidents. Several houses got submerged in the dirty water of sewerage drains. The smart city claim has been thus washed away in the rains.
Larger question however is whether making 100 smart cities with a population of nearly 13 crore, which is less than 1/10th of total population of 142 crore in our country is justified? Does it stand the scrutiny of principles of justice and equality to all the citizens? The government of India has allocated nearly Rs.500/- crore per city to make them smart by June 2023. This deadline has already been missed. As against 100 proposed smart cities, there are 640930 villages in India which need to be brought under the focus, but are completely out of government’s priorities.
This huge amount of 48000 crores for the smart city project if distributed evenly throughout the country would have solved the problem of housing, education, health and nutrition for low income group to an extent. Under the circumstances when the government admits abject poverty in the country and has to distribute 5 kg grains and 1 kg daal to 80 crore people, spending so much amount to make a few big cities as smart is completely unwarranted. It is time that the government reorients its priorities towards even development for all the cities and villages instead of focusing on few big cities to provide facilities to corporate business model. (IPA Service)
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