Republic Day Write Up: Cities

India today symbolizes a heterogeneous mix of the India that was 100 years back and the India that would be 100 years ahead in the future. This divide well portrayed by the “India Poised” campaign is one of the major hurdles towards India’s leap to a fully developed nation. This divide is a legacy of a system neglected for years and counteracted by the will of people who wanted to grow and make a mark in this world. With the western nations reaching saturation, India stands at the crossroads with a promise to lead the world on the back of its young working population and the intellectual capital generated over the years. The divide can be bridged only when the growth engines of India i.e cities have good living conditions and all the citizens get easy access to good medical facilities, desired education, well connected transport network, open spaces, clean environment and good housing and sanitation.

Thus my desire is to change the face of all the Indian cities from stinking, slum ridden and choked places to an open and clean environment so that divide between the prosperous areas and the slum pockets is automatically bridged. This will also ensure that growth and prosperity does not happen at the cost of basic values of human beings. The task to bring about this change will start with the reorganization of the municipal corporations of these cities. These municipal corporations would be converted to a corporate setup where both public and private parties have equal stake. The democratic approach will consist of industry professionals who will perform key decision making while representation from different parts of the city will be done by the existing municipal councilors. The revamped structure will actually break the slumlord-builder-politician nexus and bring down the parallel but shady economy of the city.

The corporate setup will ensure that proper developmental goals are set and channeling of funds happens in a fair and transparent manner. The next step will involve creation of accountability and information system for the civic services such as law and order, utilities, and the local government itself. The information system will enable availability of information to the people and root out corruption and procrastination on the part of bureaucrats. The future of these cities can only be sustained if they emerge as major economic hubs. Therefore, a parallel initiative would be to connect these cities by creating world class railway terminals, airports and business districts. The above initiatives can be sustained through a mass awareness campaign among the people about the proper use of civic amenities and awareness of equal rights over these places. The development of these cities would be incomplete without social development hence special schemes have to be launched uplift the urban outcasts. Today’s cities are also the centers of the most polluting industries. These centers need to be relocated and youth to be retrained for alternative income sources. This does not mean doling out subsidies but it means constructing clean and open parks and providing good civic amenities in the vicinity which will bring them on equal standing with the other members of the society. Imagine having 35 full developed and self contained cities in India and the whole migration to major metropolis will automatically be stopped. This will reduce the pressure on major cities and also make them attractive tourist and business destinations on the global map.

- Vishal Jain, PGDM 206