RECONSIDERING GANDHIAN ALTERNATIVES FOR CITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN DRAFT – PUNE CDP

Some suggestions proposed by Mrs. Delia Maria Ph.D.
Airport Road Mohalla Committee, NSCC
Friends of the Gandhian Museum, Pune

Dear Dr. Nitin Kareer,

In response to your call for citizens’ initiative  in drafting the CDP 2006, I have some  suggestions to make which can be incorporated  when making the final  CDP draft mid-May 06:

1. If the present theme of making Pune “ a living city” is to come to pass, then the lives of each and every citizen in the city is to be considered precious and important.  Thus, provision of services for ”the poorest of the poor” (as mentioned by Gandhi) must also be made in city planning.  Sarvodaya or the welfare of all be made the underlying philosophy.  Among such categories of the poor are: slum dwellers ( whom you have already planned for) and street people, poor migrants and construction workers.

1. For street people, night shelters may be started on land owned by the government and the infrastructure costs and maintenance costs be provided for in the budget.  Many cities all over the world have already led the way.
2. For migrant labour especially construction workers (see NCAS report 1 May 06 in all major English newspapers), transit camps with sanitation facilities may be provided on need basis.
3. For ragpickers who contribute to cleanliness of the city and to re-cycling, special health and medical insurance facilities can be offered at all corporation run hospitals.

2. Your survey shows that  public transport is mostly voted for by the slum dwellers.  Why not make incentives for the middle class also to change over to the public transport and abandon the present consumerist practice of more than one private vehicle in each family. The public transport can be revamped, made more efficient, subsidized and passenger friendly.  Not only will more citizens shift over to a good public transport system, but the roads will get less congested, less polluted and need less maintenance. Citizens will also learn the Gandhian values of austerity and frugality which in turn will benefit the nation and the world that is predicted to run out of  petrol and diesel in a few decades.  The environment will also be preserved and there will be love for nature.

3. Citizens Participation is the hallmark of every democratic society.  The road map for Pune citizens’ participation can be laid out thus: 

First step           Second step           Third step            Fourth step              Fifth step

Budgeting,         deciding to          technical choices    involved at       completion and

Exploring-----to give contracts-----at both macro-----time of imple----evaluation,redressal

of needs          to only honest          and micro             mentation           of grievances and

of different      and efficient            levels                                                mistakes

populations     service providers

In this way, the CDP will not only be a city plan, but from start to finish become a citizens plan

4. Accountability and transparency is another virtue that must be an intrinsic part of  the PMC functioning.  As Gandhi has written, the corporation is also the steward or trustee of the public resources.  All stakeholders must have access to all information, plans and projects conveniently and timely.  Thus trust building between citizens and the corporation will be possible.  The result will be more citizens’ participation and in turn more efficiency by the corporation and its work.  Such an amiable participation will result in a dissidence free and happy city.

5. Taxation is  the means of not only to making the user pay but also levelling out glaring  inequalities in the society that is hampering the progress and development of a just and peaceful society.  Instead of blanket taxes that often squeeze the poor and the lower middle class, or cause disgruntlement to the upper classes, an environment-oriented taxation system (green taxes) can be introduced and can look like this:

1. tax those who buy more than one private vehicle in the family
2. tax those who consume more water especially for lawns and bigger houses/businesses
3. increase parking tickets for four wheelers to dissuade them from jamming the roads
4. give incentives like tax concessions to those who do waste management, water harvesting, use solar energy, wind mills, bio-diesel, electric vehicles, smokeless chullas, or any alternative technology.

6. Sustainability is another principle that has to be intrinsic to any development plan.  We cannot extract from the earth without putting something back for our children and our children’s children.  Hence, every time the garden department cuts a tree for road widening, three new trees must be planted in its place (ratio 1:3).  We also cannot exploit our natural resources without thinking of the consequences to the villages and towns around our city.  We send dirty water to the downstream villages thus risking their health and livelihood. Maintenance of the cleanliness of the river thus is a compulsion. Every other open sewage canals and nallahs in the city can be converted into parks and green zones.  For the mountain slopes that we have dug up for stone and gravel and left large gaping holes, we can convert into artificial lakes and green parks.  The garbage dumps we select should not be near any villages nor cultivated land and cause health problems to their people.  Use of plastics, wasteful use of water especially during summer, wasteful use of electricity for decoration, are among some of the urban dwellers careless habits which can be changed with policy and persuasion.  Simple living and high thinking is what Gandhi has taught our countrymen.

7. A city must also be gender sensitive.  The health and safety of the women of Pune city must be ensured.  Among some of the ways to do so, are manned public toilets for women at major bus-stops and railway stations, all women police stations, night shelters for destitute women, more women primary health centres, more PMT buses only for women on busy routes, quick redressal of grievances for single women’s problems by the corporation, self help groups and assistance to them for banking and entrepreneurial facilities, adult literacy classes, etc.  Your statistics have been showing that school drop-outs in corporation schools is highest for girls.  Hence, an incentive plan to motivate girls to stay in school can be designed. 

8. Finally, e-governance must also be accompanied with regular communication to the citizens through wall postering, news items in the press, public advertising and hoardings of the plans and projects of the PMC from time to time.  Mohalla committees, Shantata committees and NGOs may be invited every month for their suggestions, involved and assistance for all public works and programmes. 

To conclude, the Gandhian model of non-violent development has often been ignored by our planners and citizens, which is the reason for so much destruction and distress today.  I sincerely believe that in the interest of our city and my fellow citizens,  we need to borrow some of the aboive mentioned principles that Bapuji taught us and use them in our planning and policy making.  Similarly, sections of citizens will also have to change from having self serving, consumerist and negligent attitudes and behaviour, to those that promote the welfare of the city and all that lives in it – people, river, trees, hills, water bodies, flora and fauna, butterflies, birds and animals; in short promote Reverence for all Life.

 May the Pune CDP become a model for other urban centres to follow.  May you, your administration along with the citizens make it possible.  May our city return to its glorious past of being green, clean and healthy.

Looking forward to working with you.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs.Delia Maria
Peace Haven
B-4 puru Society
Airport Road, Lohegaon
Pune 411 032
Cell: 9371201138