Essay on Smart Vs Decent Cities: Some Reflections for UPSC - The term ‘Smart City’ encompasses a vision of an urban lebensraum which is ecologically friendly, technologically integrated and meticulously planned. Such a city relies more on the use of information technology to improve overall efficiency. The smart cities are supposed to leverage data gathered from smart sensors through a smart grid to create a city which is liveable, workable and sustainable. All the data collected from sensors – electricity, gas, water, traffic and other government analytics—are to be carefully compiled and integrated into a smart grid and then fed into computers with a focus on making the city as efficient as possible. This would allow the authorities to have real time information about these cities.
Essay on Smart Vs Decent Cities: Some Reflections for UPSC
Unless new cities are
developed to accommodate the burgeoning number of people, the existing cities
would soon become unliveable. The govrnment plans to build 100 satellite towns
near existing urban areas on the smart city template, to upgrade existing
mid-siezed cities and to build settlements along industrial corridors. Rs 7,060
crores have primarily been earmarked for the porpose which amounts to a little
over Rs 70 crore per city. The Rs 7, 060-crore corpus is said to be merely the
need money to get the ‘Smart City’ project going.
The term ‘Smart City’
encompasses a vision of
an urban lebensraum which is ecologically friendly, technologically integrated
and meticulously planned. Such a city relies more on the use of information
technology to improve overall efficiency.
The smart
cities are supposed to leverage data gathered from smart sensors through a
smart grid to create a city which is liveable, workable and sustainable. All
the data collected from sensors – electricity, gas, water, traffic and other
government analytics—are to be carefully compiled and integrated into a smart
grid and then fed into computers with a focus on making the city as efficient
as possible. This would allow the authorities to have real time information
about these cities. This also allows the computers to attempt ‘perfect
operations’, such as balancing demand and supply on electricity networks,
synchronising traffic signals for peak-hour usages and for optimizing energy
networks.
While the
‘Smart City’ initiative is really laudable, cynics have pointed to the
deplorable condition of Indian cities. They have questioned the ‘Smaart City’
initiative when the state of affairs in our extant urban settlements continues
to the pathetic. When we have failed to provide even the bare minimum urban
amenities for the citizens, the ‘Smart City’ venture may turn out to be a
pre-mature baby. They feel that instead of building futuristic cities, it would
be more than advisable to first focus on ensuring the basic minimum services
like proper disposal of solid and liquid waste, improvement of traffic and
parking system, better sanitation and hygiene including well-planned drainage
system availability of safe potable water and most importantly, better
inculcation of civic sense among the hoi polloi.
The fact
remains that the state of these facilities remains pathetic even in our grade
‘A’ and ‘B’ cities including the metropolises, not to speak of medium and
smaller cities. Clogged, overflowing drains and heaps of stinking garbage are
an everyday sight. We still have not been able to ensure a proper drainage
system in most of our cities. It is these clogged drains which generally give
rise to massive water logging problem in our cities with massive possibilities
of outbreak of water-borne diseases as they finally end up contaminating our
water table due to uncontrolled leaching and seepage.
The practice
of open urination and defecation in different parts of our cities does not help
the situation. After all, who can forget the outbreak of plague in 1994 in
Surat resulting in the deaths of many people? More than anything, Surat brought
a negative publicity to the entire country which became a greater cause of
concern. Surprisingly, the same Surat within a year turned out to be the
cleanest cities in the country. And mind you, the authorities did not have to
undertake any highfalutin initiatives but to focus on bare minimum things. This
is what we need to do while visualising our ‘Smart Cities’.
So, we emergently need to ensure a proper system of
solid and liquid waste management including house to house garbage collection,
a planned network of well-connected drainage system, availability of a network
of paid and free public conveniences, arrangements of scientific slaughter
houses of ensuring availability of hygienically processed animal protein, clean
streets as well as ensuring sale of covered food/street food stuffs. The latter
should be coupled with a regime for selling the same by the hawkers, e.g.,
making it mandatory for the streets food vendors to sell their stuffs only
wearing gloves and head-caps to pre-empt contamination. There should be a
corresponding provision for enforcing these sanitation and hygiene norms among
the people who should be penalised for violating the same as is the practice in
most of the advanced countries. The wanton throwing of garbage at public
places, open urination/defecation or spitting should be made punishable
offences. Use of plastic bags for day-to-day purposes should be discouraged as
far as possible and practicable as it is one of the important factors playing
havoc with our drainage system.
Again, unavailability of parking spaces in our cities
lead to private and public vehicles being parked on the roads itself, leading
to traffic snarls and inconvenience. Hence, there is not only an urgent need to
do a customised traffic planning for each city including provisioning of
notified parking spaces but there is also a need to enforce traffic discipline
among the people. The latter should include strict compliance with the rules,
zero tolerance for unauthorised parking or placement of household/shop stuffs
on public space, roads, streets and footpaths. Construction of decent footpaths
and public parks/community halls for recreational and utilitarian purposes
should also be a priority for the authorities. The National Policy on Urban
Street Vendors 2009 should be strictly enforced for bringing about a semblance
of sanity on our roads and streets. This would also ensure the pedestrians’
right to safe and free movement. Availability of better and safer means of mass
rapid transport system [MRTS] is also a desideratum.
Given the increasing menace of extremism, it is high
time that we have a strong system of city surveillance system to protect and
secure the lives of our citizens, more so in light of increasing urban crimes
and terror activities. Proper street lighting shall definitely prove quite
helpful here. The entire towns should be duly divided in identifiable zones
with public display of layout maps and proper road/street signages for
citizens’ convenience and for better policing. Identification for water aquifers
and identification of highly fire-prone areas should also be a priority with
proper awareness regarding disaster management regime for all the stakeholders.
Enforcement of building rules also demands serious attentions of the municipal
authorities. Enforcement of building rules also demands serious attention of
the municipal authorities. There should be an emergency planning for all the
old and ramshackle buildings as well as fire-prone areas.
Besides, intelligent effort should be made for
natural beautification of our cities. All the municipal authorities should come
out with their citizen charters and ensure mandatory compliance with the same.
Online deposition of municipal taxes and single window system for getting
licenses/permits and various services should be made functional immediately. A
strong public grievance system should be an inalienable part of the overall
planning. While one knows that finances would be a major hurdle while trying to
realise these goals, but with intelligent planning and smart execution, the
municipal authorities can actually generate more revenues than they might need
for the purpose. It is good to know that both the central and state governments
are already synergising their urban planning to be on the same page. If these
concerns are factored into the ‘Smart City’ project, then we can actually ensure
bare minimum service to our citizens in pursuance to a uniform template. Our
‘smart cities’ should first guarantee bare minimum amenities for ensuring a
decent standard of living to our citizens.
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