Growing urban imbalances, over the years, have marginalized the urban poor like vendors, hawkers, construction workers, plumbers, fitters, electricians, home based workers, rickshaw drivers, informal sector traders, low income group people and similar others despite the so-called planned urban development programmes under the local bodies, state governments and at the national level ever since the planning era commenced. This is because of growing nexus between the elected representatives, political leaders, and bureaucracy with the private builders under a well wheeled deep rooted collusive system of governance that generates unabated growth of black money, where poor have no place.
A case in point is that of unprecedented phenomenal growth of concrete jungles in private housing by unscrupulous builders in prime urban and suburban lands, acquired unabashedly with the connivance of authorities where a large scale hawala money in the name of NRIs has come. All the builders having formed cartels, mutually unofficially, to jack up prices of built up houses under the veneer of a make-believe world of competition, jacked up prices of houses and flats disproportionately, thus making them unaffordable and prohibitive for the common people including the poor, the low income group people and the middle class. This bodes ill for harmonious growth of urban areas as lack of shelter and other admissible amenities like access to basic services, security of tenure, affordable shelter, water supply, sanitation, health, education and social security to promote sustainable livelihood for them and to ensure a well knit balanced inclusive urban development, are pointers to growing urban disaster. This points to a growing syndrome that may spell lawlessness and chaos being witnessed currently across the urban India. The situation may exacerbate in the days to come if corrective steps on a war footing are not taken. Mere plaudits and rhetoric will not do.
JNNURM endeavors to include poor in all urban planning with a priority to the services like water supply, drainage, sewerage, solid waste management and other infrastructural development to avert emerging urban chaos. Crass commercialism has overtaken the builder mafias, who thrive under a collusive system. As a result, a large number of so built houses and flats are lying vacant and unoccupied. There is virtually no takers because of prohibitive cost and unaffordability of the general public. All so built up houses, flats and high rise buildings, although looking apparently very swanky, are sub-standard in quality
To ensure a proper and balanced urban growth, a Regulator needs to be appointed like in other segments of governance in order to maintain a modicum of transparency, openness, responsiveness with attendant compositeness and quality of housing, their cost effectiveness and accessibility to all sections of our people. Any delay on the part of the Central Government in institutionalizing legally a Regulator, has the potential to aid the growing urban rots. As is the case, the ongoing globalization of the Indian economy is progressively resulting in the high cost economy where the poor are being marginalized further as can be proved from the unprecedented and unabated growth of slums in urban conglomerates.
As per the 2001 Census, urban population in India is 286.1 million with 55.8 million urban households that include a total of 52 million urban housing stock of which 79.16 per cent are pucca houses, 15.58 per cent semi- pucca houses and 5.27 per cent kutcha houses.. Besides, 24.1 per cent of the total urban population are slum dwellers. Given this alarming situation, private builders provide no space for the poor, low and middle income group people. A Regulator will help ensure a modicum of checks and balances for a planned urban development under the emerging free market economy lest the situation should be going out of hand.
Before it is too late, it is time the UPA Government took a meaningful corrective measure to stem the growing urban chaos in the light of increasingly unchecked haphazard urban growth in flagrant violation of ecological balance and adequate infrastructure under the veneer of the so called planned development. #
MEASURES FOR STEMMING GROWING URBAN CHAOS
M. Y. Siddiqui - 21-07-2009 08:37 GMT-0000
With the Jawaherlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) having been launched at a cost of Rs. 50,000/- crores over a seven year long time frame from 2005 to 2012 in 63 identified cities across India as a flagship national programme of the UPA Government, and two other schemes like the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns and Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme for non-JNNURM cities and towns already underway, a pressing need for stemming the growing urban rot has arisen as never before. Growing urban chaos resulting from multiplicity of urban development bodies and civic authorities` and their concerted inability to forge an integrated coordinated approach has failed to arrest imbalances in the planned urban development. The result has been for all to see.