CHENNAI- A city considered SMART

As Fredrick II,who was the king of Prussia in the mid 18th century pointed out "A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in",the roads of Chennai too stand affixed with the board "The roads serve not just for transport but also a bog house when it rains".

True.City planning, in which the Indus valley civilisation knitted their township infrastructure  is now a legacy that never got re-booted for a millennium.Three days of rain and the city considered to be the "Detroit" of India had its automobiles rendering a free wash of its engine parts.The civic life almost had its "modern technological era" extinction when certain pockets of the city had its power shut down for 48 hours.The later rehabilitation measures and the responsible(!) declaration of holidays of the schools are the normal chores of the post disaster consolation measures that any government would normally offer.The moot point of this article is not to highlight the broadly concerned city planning of the Chennai corporation but the proposal the city batters for calling itself a "Super Smart City"

SMART CITIES PROJECT:

As aware to most of us 100 cities are enlisted to submit their claims in the "Smart Cities Mission" which is considered(boasted) as the "pet project" of the ruling Central government.Speaking on technical lines the drafted plan runs with the formal introduction,the content,the proposed allocation and the conclusion like the form of a traditional academic essay.But what part the essay misses is the "core subject" content.How do you propose a city as a "Smart City"? When looked deeper I was offered an understanding from the government sites which enumerates the following elements as "core" needs of the Smart City.

The minimum criteria asks for Retrofitting,Redevelopment and Greenfield -area based models and a pan city initiative wherein atleast one smart solution is adopted for the entire city.Taking these core elements as the basis of the city design I prefer to analyse the infrastructure elements as proposed in the drafted "Smart Cities Mission".

Restricting myself to the capital of Tamil Nadu and the recent "flood wash" event,the smart city initiative can be considered as below by analysing 4 out of the 10 elements that are enumerated in the draft plan.

Adequate water supply:

The city where the cleaning of roads is the mandatory habit of "Metro water" lorries actually could harvest more if the regulations for the transport of metro water are made strict.By an estimate in  the year 2013,approximately 2000 lorries of both Chennai metro and private players are engaged in supplying drinking water to the various parts of the city.A statement that was provided a decade back goes the way saying "..a lorry of 9000 litres may spill 100 litres which in case is a meagre quantity".Doing a little math on this, one may arrive at a data which gives you 1,80,000 litres being wasted for a single trip.The wasted water stands statistically enough to meet the daily requirements of 9000 persons as per the math considering the WHO standards ,which is no less than the population of a town panchayat.

With the above point being given a mathematical approximated value,the question 'Is the above element of "Water Supply" need a retrofitting or redevelopment dimensional view?'.With the vagaries of natural and man made disasters that the humankind may face in the recent ahead decades whether Infrastructure alone can be the building brick of a SMART city?? I sincerely doubt it.Mind you,I am offering no solution to the problem but whether the city(government) is dedicated  enough to a non biased approach is highly a point of consideration.

Assured Electricity supply:

With the Discoms facing huge losses all over the country,TamilNadu shares the front row with other states though the state government holds a different manifesto on a recovery mode.As the trend of the day as demanded by the Prime Minister is "Competitive federalism" rather than a "Co-operative" one,the Smart city idea in a synchronous manner promotes this within the states as different cities in the same state may batter for their share in the fast tracking of development.On a positive connotation,I welcome such change but the nation as whole may not be fast tracked as the current spirit of competition happens not in a healthy environment but under a "per capita profit" making score.So when viewed as a non resident of Chennai,one may feel little discriminated when almost the entire city enjoys a full time supply of electricity(ofcourse at a high tariff) when compared to the villages in the deep south east areas of the state.So is the city ready to enjoy on other's grief is a grave matter of concern.Smartness at the cost of livelihood is a not a welcome strategy.How come Chennai a smart city at the cost of discomfort of the majority population of the state?

Sanitation including Solid waste management:

When speaking about Solid waste,the travel routes within the state of Kerala flashes brilliantly in the minds of the South Indian citizens.A state where ban on thin plastics was first introduced and implemented to a certain effective extent.The city(corporation) of Chennai which "echoed" strict enforcement of thin plastic bags ban from August 2015 failed to adjust the "tuner" to the proper note.The result, "Chennai declared as the second largest user of plastics next only to Delhi".Speaking of other solid wastes, the city have no strict enforcement of "NIMBY"(Not In My BackYard) policies and a little less than a 50 lakh population have no united stand on the ongoing compaign as they clean their backyards only to dump into other's.My point here is when a city like Chennai where the deep routed problems are right in the fore front as "blockade", is it even a right way to assure converting an existing city to an all round "Smart" city( no proper definition is provided for "SMART") with the structural flaws in the operating pyramid in a time span of 5 years??.The problem is not with the bid but with the time and approach.

Sustainable Environment:

Perhaps the above "infrastructure element" can be directly linked to the recent flood centric approach of the administration and the citizens response.Three days of rain and half the city looks like an irrigation field where no agriculture can be done.The "floating apartments" as the twitter trended,the city now have no place to promote green covers as the real estate and project builders have covered the entire rope of the city.Added to the green cover is the seepage of the sewage water where Filariasis is a common disease in the Chennai Slums.The above element of "Sustainable Environment" can be achieved not only through the government measures but a must change mindset of the residents is now a "written" mandate.The slowly shrinking green areas of Chennai adds shine to its " corporate photographic" images but in no where a step towards sustainability.The city faces the greatest challenge when it encounters this problem to declare itself a "Smart City"

When the above "infrastructure" elements are given a further detailed research one may appreciate the point that the very definition of "SMART" is not just confined to the Internet boom and shopping malls and the industrial step up available in the city but it concurs deeply with the fact of an egalitarian livelihood of the residents and the surrounding environment that can leave a living stage for the future generations to sustain happily.

As Tom Robbin says "If by the quarter of the twentieth century godliness wasn’t next to something more interesting than cleanliness, it might be time to reevaluate our notions of godliness.

I can say ”Not just temples are to be maintained clean but so do our surroundings, for temple is where God supposedly is believed to live and  Environment alone is where we can live"

 

An Intolerant Ignoration - a critical Indian comfort

"Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true"

The above quotes are from a book banned in India and few other countries namely "The Satanic Verses " by Salman Rushdie.The man while writing the book must be so whelmed  in an intolerant mood against particular people and that made him rewarded with a "fatwa" from the then Iranian government.Now,can this be compared to the recent "intolerant" wave that is sweeping the nation  in daily news channels?.I hope not.And as the so called "veterans" argue "Is India becoming intolerant?".Every citizen of India can have a different opinion on this intolerance issue and can hold a candle light to his/her stand.But the international society holds a different opinion as "India" is now a living entity for the global platform reporters.So keeping this point constantly in mind,when I tried understanding the sequence of events, I wrote this article in my "candle light" view point.

Post 1947 period:

India,a multi cultured nation which freed itself from the clutches of the British had a devastating task of dealing with the 'surgery' of partition.And mind you,the wound is yet not healed completely.We are in a constant term of reciprocation to the actions of  the  "Intolerant" fringe elements in our  neighbour country.But,we assured that the thought of Winston Churchill (see picture)was only his whimsical dream.Four decades after the independence,the first wave of intolerance which had a strong sense of religious colour flavoured by political advantage that eroded the deep tolerance of the nation was in the name of "Anti-Sikh riots-1984".One may note that the intolerance was clearly mooted by the subtle hand of the then ruling political class and the blame game still goes on.So this incident can be considered the first of its kind in India wherein the political flavour started playing a key role in the religious intolerance game.

Yet again,the 1992 Babri Masjid event and Bombay blasts had created a serious chaos in the Independent India and brought to light that the nation is in a tug of war of "blame politics".Since then any event that happened in any part of the country resulted in regional intolerance and reasons of this varied in different pockets of the Indian territory.The 2002 Godhra riots yet again played a unified reason for this existing intolerance among the various sections of the people living under the umbrella of "ONE NATION".

Today's era:

This decade had actually raked up the existing intolerance and made it a package for delivery .The job of delivering is done by the innocent "little runners" of the bottom pyramid with the forecasting being carried by the elite members."Ghar Wapsi","Love Jihad","Saffronisation".These are considered to be the new agenda for delivering this intolerant package and the victims being the people at the bottom layer.Then why all of a sudden the entire nation suddenly started questioning the "Intolerant " package.Because three eminent rationalist writers Mr.Narendra Dabholkar,Mr.Govind Pansare and Mr.Kalburgi were murdered for carrying their rationalism over this raked up agenda.The intelligentsia wakes up and started questioning the existing intolerance in the society.Is this wrong?.Absolutely not.

Beef Ban Theory:

India is a secular nation.As the Indian constitution guarentees in Article 25, "Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion under reasonable restrictions imposed by the state to maintain the national peace and integrity" .The "beef ban" theory takes the debated "reasonable restriction" phrase in the constitution and plays it along with the turmoil of certain religious affiliated groups.In a democratic secular(!) nation,the citizen's "kitchen menu" cannot be decided by the fringe elements with strong left or right wing groups.ofcourse,mutual tolerance is demanded as a mandate for the multi layered society based on religion and income.The stern truth is that the ruling governments (irrespective of political parties and the coalition groups) had now imposed a blanket ban on beef extending their informal support to the pressure groups with the only ideology of making India a one religion nation.Rubbing salt to the wound is the "silence fast" of the directly head and the blame game of the ruling party members. 

"Award wapsi" and "Political Chopsy"

As earlier mentioned ,the "wake up" intelligentsia is echoed by the surrendering of awards staring from the highest literary awards of 'autonomous' Sahitya Academy institution  right upto the  prestigious Padma awards.True ,that the freedom of speech and expression is at stake for the non-ruling(note it) members of the society.But how far this 'award wapsi' program have put  our country's fame  in the International community is always a matter of concern especially for the well educated elite member group.When the whole expression of moral anger is appreciated,the "award wapsi" is also been used as a platform to gain political/media attention for a few eminent personalities.The debates in the news channels stands support to the statement, as either of the debate group members drag the original scenario to a staged political drama.Yet again,the blame game continues and citizens are made to witness only one side of the staged political drama.

Questions and the cue points:

1.As the constitutional head of the country,Hon'ble president Dr.Pranab Mukherji had addressed the nation thrice on these issues and had sent a warning signal for these barricades in the  striding path of the nation's growth.Meanwhile the directly elected head addressed the nation to stay away from the "political game" and to concentrate on the growth.The one immediate question that I pose to Hon'ble PM Mr.Modi is that does his phrase "stay away from the political game" not apply to his "cut throat" political campaign in Bihar elections??

2.As a citizen of this country ,I wish to follow my conscience and want to be free from the religion and the reservation systems,Why am I forced to give my religious status and caste identity in any government application form.Mind you,I demand no reservation for my application.

3.As a citizen of the country with legal voting rights,I wonder what the term "empowered citizen" actually mean to the poor people of India.Am I or are we not empowered to overthrow the government by constitutional means when large sections of the society show visible signs of dissatisfaction?Should we rot and trot for 5 years when these "intolerant" signs are so clearly felt by the major section of the society. 

When these questions were discussed in an open debate forum,I was answered by the 'veterans' of the academia that "A system evolves on its own phase of cycle and our Indian system with the innumerable strings attached has so far been able to survive the herculean task of "One Nation" philosophy and it shall continue to do so.These questions should be taken as  cue points for the younger generation to frame a functional approach and reframe the structural backlog to become a well modernised society"

And my reply was sharp to the academia ," The baton still remains in the passage mode and currently it has been delivered to this younger generation.The so called "modernised society" will be a far dream unless the future history is written with the proper note.So "lecturing aside and let's decide" should be the strategy".

Ethos of Democracy

"Slavery does not merely mean a legalised form of subjection. It means a state of society in which some men are forced to accept from others the purposes which control their conduct"-B.R.Ambedkar

The man considered to be the chief architect of our Indian constitution should have visualised the bounty that one may enjoy under the umbrella of DEMOCRACY.The system established a fabric for the state to be governed by the eminent persons under the will of the people with their trust upheld under all circumstances.The system also further extended and provided the mechanism via Constitutional institutions to make sure that this fabric of expressing the people's will is thoroughly held in a fair manner.This perhaps describes the definition of a democratic state in the contextual sense.But the recent incidents are far from being on the lines of  this standard definition and I doubt that whether the definition of Democracy has got a number of  sub definitions  to be argued with.

A country like India with its prolific geographical and historical background have survived through the regimes of various fresh colours of experiments to be moulded into what is today called as the "world's largest democracy".As a matter of fact ,DEMOCRACY was found to be the panacea for the modern day world that raised up against the "bucking" boots of dictatorship.So its no surprise that besides being gifted with the natural abundance of culture and versatility of gifted population ,we evolved as the largest democratic nation.But the question is ,in what stage are we now..Are we a matured democracy or are we still amateur in dealing with basic "checks" that exists in functioning of the democracy.The answer in my opinion is partly Yes and partly No.

YES.Because,under no circumstances till date the ethos of the democratic definition has largely been violated.One incident that may raise against my 'Yes' statement would be the dark period of 1977 which then was survived by masses rightfully delivering the verdict.Is then the period of emergency not a black mark to the state of Democracy.Yes,it is, but the incident had offered sufficient inferences to be put in motion  in the then evolving phase of democracy.

NO.Because, a black hole still appears and it gets darkened every decade.1984 riots,1992 blasts and 2002 riots stands evidence to the tremors that still shake our claims of calling us a "matured democracy".I don't site these incidents to be grossly deviating from the evolving experimental phases but my point is these incidents narrate that the "popular will of the people" is subjected to be usurped by certain mechanised non constitutional powers.And the irony is that the delegated power given by the will of the whole nation for its people's welfare went largely unprotected.To support my partly 'NO' answer I further quote the recent happenings in the nation.Any conscious citizen will be able to appreciate that when put on a gross level ,the balance is slightly off to us being called "still not a mature democracy" leaving aside the theoretical data.Interestingly,we are not an "amateur democracy" either.

So,having been stuck in the middle way,this functioning  system of democracy can evolve to be the world's best ,provided it  avoids the "black hole" methodology.The moot point is how this evolution can happen.I would like to quote three best changes that currently are happening in the nation.

1.NJAC- The twin pillar debate.

2.The patent of dominant groups and the growing intolerance

3.The identity crisis of elected members.

It can be noted that the topics 1 and 3 are more relatively concerned within the ambit of the constitution and the topic 2 gets a flavour of mob mentality when given a lens view.The reader can best decide as where to fit in these topics under the "Yes" or "No" category of a matured democracy claim.

1.NJAC-The twin pillar debate:

Time and again, the distinguished wings of the government cross swords for the betterment of the system and this decade had seen the NJAC hit the table with strong points of debate from both sides.Staying out from the domains of both Judiciary and Executive(political executive),as a neutral spectator I see that we actually are thriving in establishing the participatory and transparent mechanism and both the sides do agree that the current collegium system demands reforms.Whether these reforms are to rush in radical changes in the structure or curb the flaws within the existing structure is a matter of national debate of the elite veterans.Sticking on to the topic of the article,I see these judgements and the willingness of both the wings to further scrutinise the system is a positive sign and it shows that we are slowly moving to the next level of democratic maturity via the accountability mechanism of highly respected Independent Judiciary.This is a positive sign.

2.The patent of dominant groups and the growing intolerance:

As a nation,India always have survived the harsh waves of the ad-hoc pressure groups.However,the current wave is being sustained for a longer phase and it leaves a harsh trail for the generations to follow.The hate speeches from the fringe groups and the standard silence of the elected representatives is never a good sign for a matured democracy.In the millennium ,where the social media knocks the door of an average literate citizen,these happenings tend to polarise the character of religious tolerance and the repercussions can be seen in his daily social life.When these happenings are taken as an yard stick for the grading system of democracy we as a country are still amateur.A point well agreed is that no democracy is without flaws,but in a nation with a strong cultural mindset it is the duty of the elected representatives to make the system of democracy take its deep root adjusting the circumstances of 'cultural mitigation'.However,it can easily observed that since the date of our Independence to the till date "Digital Indian era" we still are crippling under these factors of cultural mitigation and no single or coalition system of government have actually tried to uproot these flaws rather have crated the existing flaw as a package for the electoral victory.So yet again the popular will of people is used for attaining the power and to retain it at the cost of this mooted politics of multi regional disparity.

3.Identity crisis of the elected members:

Our constitution establishes the democratic structure by "Universal adult Franchise" and its a feature that not a single man/woman could rule the entire nation but the elected representatives.This feature again appears to be at stake when the elected members are not given the due respect in expressing the will of the people."Identity" politics is demanded to be the order of the day in India.The party comes first and the ideology comes second and last comes the representatives in the decision making process.This again is no good sign for the upsurge in the quality of the democracy.This point can be best understood when looked on the regimes of the various elected Prime Ministers and the "charishma" mindset of the voters.

Having discussed these points one may judge whether we have facts to offer or facts to learn.The other side of the democracy also comes from the participatory approach and expression of people's will without being lured by the "vote casting" gifts.A general awakening in understanding what democracy offers us and what are we to do to make it thriving,is needed for taking India's democracy to its epitome of performance.

As the saying goes, "With forms of government ,let fools contest that which is governed best the best".