Rising tolerance: Free housing, Swatch Bharat etc..

Aamchi Mumbai, a city of seven islands, the Financial capital of India and often described as a city of dreams has indeed been a place where many have made a fortune !

Lakhs of Mumbaikars have received 'free housing' since 1990s, thanks to the slum rehabilitation authority (SRA). Twenty years after SRA was introduced to rehouse eligible slum families free of cost in new buildings, the scheme has allowed builders to rake in super-normal profits. Mumbai now officially has 3,293 slum clusters. The SRA has, for the first time, carried out a Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping of slums across the city, which shows that slum clusters are spread over 9,008 acres or 36.45 sq km.

In this entire journey of sorts, encroachers have got away with free houses, developers made their big bucks and ruling parties in that process got their brownie points and vote bank secured. Salaried class tax payers have continued to fund this party, however. What choice do they have !.

The question is, will this free partying stop ever. Why are we tolerant of the continued encroachments in Mumbai.

Check out this video recently shot at Bandra Kurla Complex, financial district of Mumbai.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUpdmlUqzCs&feature=youtu.be

Real estate rates hover at around INR 40,000 per sqft in BKC and one can imagine the significance of continued encroachments. The other issue is the rampant rise in filth and lack of public sanitation in such an encroached land. The corporation has over 30,000 cleaners, full fledged anti-encroachment drive team which has full support of the police. However there are neither any significant control measures against encroaching dwellers nor any penalties for rising filth. Will an additional cleanliness cess help in making Mumbai clean ? Absolutely not, because where there is no real political intent no amount of funding will help !!

 While the free partying continues, Mumbai's dream of becoming a Shanghai or Singapore will remain a dream forever !! 

India: Divided we stand!

After 25 years, isn’t it time to do a serious status check of Caste based Reservation policy?

To correct a wrong which was done over centuries in India, the Mandal commission report was implemented in August 1990 starting an era of caste based reservations in education and government jobs for a wider set of backward classes (caste based promotions in India were enjoyed by Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes since 1955). Further, the honorable Supreme Court’s judgment on this issue in November 1992, raised the reservation quota to 69 per cent and even to 80 per cent in some states in 1994. 

The rationale behind this decision was simple; to ensure upliftment of those sections of the society, which have been deprived of social, education and economic opportunities due to age-old caste based divide.

Anti-reservation movement in the 1990 had put forth several arguments such as, reservations are against right to equality, they do not promote secularism, and it is against meritocracy and promotes mediocrity and increase the social divide - forward and backward class  

However, examples such as the one below were illustrated to shoot down the anti-reservation movement:

Assuming that a child from a 'so-called' upper class family and that of a backward class family had the same intelligence at the time of their birth, it is obvious that owing to vast differences in social, cultural, environmental factors and upbringing, the former will beat the latter by lengths in any competitive field.

Over the years, political parties, one and all, have continued to use the caste card contrary to the constitutional mandate for their vote bank gains.

One example is that of the previous UPA government which had granted OBC status to Jats on the eve of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the NDA government subsequently defended the decision in the apex court. However Supreme Court struck down on this request heavily and asserted that caste alone can’t be the criterion for determining backwardness and described the policy as a reflection of negative and retrograde governance.

This month in August 2015, India completes 25 years of caste based reservation era.

If the reservation policy has really worked in the right direction of upliftment, any logical thinker would expect the number of castes notified for reservations to come down in a span of 25 years.

Even while framing the Constitution of India, it was proposed that reservations should be for a limited period in favor of certain communities only. This point seems to have been conveniently ignored by our political class, who have systematically exploited the ‘caste divides’ to their advantage even today.

Ironically, over the years several castes and tribes have been added to the reservation list. For example, the number of backward castes in Central list of OBCs has now increased to 5,013 (without the figures for most of the Union Territories) in 2006 as per National Commission for Backward Classes

The Supreme Court’s recent directive to the government to devise better methods to define backwardness is a welcome step. It is time to take a pause and do a status check of the economic and social development of all the notified backward classes and then draw a road map to gradually eliminate caste based reservation in the country.

SC directive has brought alive the commonsensical argument that reservations on the basis of caste cannot be a permanent fixture any more than suppression on the basis of caste.

If Caste based reservations continue for another decade or so, future historians are bound to look back and say that ‘Make in India’ or ‘Acche din’ never happened for India, primarily because the merit based culture was never a priority for our policy makers. Self-centered political leaders will never let a positive change happen so easily, hence what is required will be a ‘mass movement’ for ushering ‘acche din’ for India!

God save the city !

Come August- September the festival season begins in Mumbai. It starts with Dahi Handi, the grand celebration to celebrate the birth day of Lord Krishna. 

On Chaturthi of the month of Bhadrapad (4h day of Hindu calender month) Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated by Hindus all over India, as the birthday of the god of wisdom, knowledge and prosperity. Shri Bal Gangadhar Tilak started the Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav. (Public celebration as against limiting to private event). 

His objective of making this a public celebration was to increase community bonding, enhance unity and integrity in the society. Those were the pre-independence days when there was a need for creating a sense of pride and togetherness amongst the oppressed citizens, the Ganeshotsav served the purpose well.

Today's free India is increasingly seeing depleting levels of any decorum that used to be seen in those days. 

Number of Ganeshotsav mandals have sprung up and rising every year in Mumbai and other towns. One would question the basic motive of having more than have 'x' number of mandals in a sq km. Unfortunately, there is no barometer to check the spiraling growth of Ganapati mandals every year. 

One would ask, have people suddenly become devout Hindus ? No one would be naive enough to come close to agreeing on that count.

Unfortunately, the commercial angle is order of the day. Collections of the Ganesh mandals run from lakhs of rupees to few crores. There is absolutely no accountability of the collected funds. Rules get blatantly flouted during pandal erection, noise levels are summarily violated. Last week, Zee 24 taas broadcasted repeated and shameless harassment of devotees by the organisers (goons) at a Ganapati mandal. Not surprisingly, no action has been taken by the government. Our esteemed Home minister has issued a warning that such incidents should not get repeated. Pity ! We are highly tolerant citizens. We are used to getting abuse, thrashed, bullied on streets, trains...whats the big deal now that has happened in the temple of worship !!

Traditionally, one would celebrate Ganapati for 5, 7 or 10 days. Lately, one can see large, medium and small idols being taken for Visarjan on any day from 11th to 21st day.

This procession begins at the time and venue of the organiser's choosing. Imagine the chaos on the roads when a large procession is heading towards the nearest beach at 7 pm on a week day cutting across highways and key arterial roads.

Why are we tolerant to such an extent about such civic indiscipline ? Is this an unregulated state ? 

I am no atheist. But what I ask is how can one reap fruits of worship by inconveniencing others. Need of the hour is to demand from the Maharashtra government to bring in regulations on any procession which is to be carried out on the public roads of any city / town / village.

- No procession at peak hour (all religions included)

- Public announcement in all newspapers few days prior, about any procession

- Noise levels (crackers and music) need to be below 80 decibels

Only the Lord can save the deteriorating city of Mumbai !

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Tiny Steps towards making Mumbai a better place !!

It may be hard to believe that Mumbai recorded its slowest population growth in almost a century, in the last decade. The population of the island city shrunk by 5.75% from 2001 to 2011, recording the sharpest drop in south Mumbai since 1901, according to Census data. The reasons attributed for this subdued growth are varied, smaller families, less affordable homes in cities and suburbs as well leading to migration to Thane and outskirts. 

Whilst the growth decline is good news, it can't undermine the challenges posed by the existing population. In 2012, the Mumbai population stands at 1.3 Cr which works out to over 20,000 people per sq km. 

A measure of the quality of life people lead in Mumbai can be estimated by the Human Development Index (HDI) – a statistic that incorporates the economic, educational and health conditions of people. Whilst the share of slum population is negligible in the city (Marine Lines) it is as high as 85% in eastern suburbs of Kurla and Ghatkopar  (as per 2009 HDR). 

One can keep on writing oodles of articles on the issues facing Mumbai. In fact, the favorite pass time during coffee table chats in social and corporate circles is to crib about the pathetic civic standards of Mumbai and curse the corrupt politicians. But beyond that, very few citizens contribute in any way to solve the issues. I would like to put forth six key challenges in any urban location in India as below;

The Urban Challenges

We know the problems, let me try to put forth fundamental steps that each of us could possible take to see incremental improvement.

Road: Absence of Road or Shoddy quality of road is the most common complaint in a city like Mumbai.
What can we do about it? 
Follow these steps, be alert and followup with the authorities and dont give up !!

1) Spot a pothole 2) Get road's name 3) If possible, try to identify which agency is responsible for the road, else visit the nearest BMC office to ascertain the agency 4) Locate the complaint office and lodge the complaint. Or go online (www.mcgm.gov.in / www.voiceofcitizen.com) or over phone (108 / 1916 / 22694727) 5) The complaint officer will transfer the application to the concerned road department. 6) The executive engineer (Maintenance), roads will ask contractor to fix the pothole

Alternative Transportation: Population explosion and slow pace of capacity expansion in road or rail has resulted in overburdening the existing transportation systems. What can we do about it?

Coastal Waterways is an excellent complementary transport solution which Mumbai could leverage. Given that Mumbai is an island city, it is a surprise that we have not as yet leveraged the waterways. With appropriate government support, the waterway enterprise can be made viable and can help Mumbaikars immensely. It is possible for citizen groups to lobby and push this idea !!

Encroachment of Public space:

Citizen groups need to be united on the issue of indiscriminate encroachment on streets, footpaths by hawkers, slum dwellers. First step which citizens need to take is file complaint on the BMC portal and actively followup....Alert citizens will only be able to help make a change.

http://www.mcgm.gov.in/irj/portal/anonymous/qlcomplaintreg

Waste Management:

Non biodegradable waste is waste that will never break down into part of the earth. What can we do to contain the tons of waste that is getting created by us on a daily basis?

Every citizen can do his least by ensuring segregation of waste in dry and wet and into non-biodegradable waste. Ensuring segregation at source of generation is a big help towards waste management.

Every housing society should appoint a small team of waste management volunteers and drive this. There are several NGOs working in the area of Waste management who can guide citizen groups in this.

Education reform:

Focus of pre-primary education in India needs to change from pure play academics to hygiene, sanitation and civic discipline. What can we do about it?

Set up like minded learned people and propose focused lessons in municipal and government schools. This will go a long way in making Mumbai and our country a cleaner and safer place to live. 

Employing disabled:

About 3% of our population suffers from some or the other form of disability. These disabled need to be trained and supported by the society so that they can lead a respectable life. What can we do about it?

Nature keeps the balance by making disabled extremely strong in one or the other ability. It is possible for small, medium and large entrepreneurs to employ disabled, train them and leverage their abilities for their benefit. There are umpteen examples of entrepreneurs who have employed deaf, dumb, blind etc...in their enterprise and been satisfied with the quality of output. 

Are you doing your bit for the society?

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Resuscitating the Indian economy: time for hard decisions

The Obituary published by The Economist (Farewell to Incredible India on June 9th) on the state of Indian economy was indeed a poignant reminder of what the absence of a true national leader and presence of deep-rooted coalition politics could virtually do..!

Revered industry veterans such as Murthy, Premji and others have raised serious concerns and have held 'policy paralysis' at the Centre responsible for the current state of affairs.

President in-waiting and the current FM  and our illustrious PM as well, both have not taken several cues from Moody, Fitch and domestic experts to show any gumption of taking hard decisions. 


To be fair to them, one would say that they always had Mamta and Jaya to pull down any well-intended moves.

It has been the RBI tune, sung by the men in power in recent months.With significant political pressure on RBI to keep on cutting interest rates, Subbarao has given it back to the FM in equal measure by refusing to cut rates in June 2012; since no actions have been taken by the Govt on supply side issues and to improve the fiscal situation. Quite a bold and correct measure by the Gov., one would have to say !

Simply put, these are the ten hard decisions / reforms which the Congress govt. needs to go after in order to revive the economy, bring it to speed and more importantly for them (Congress) to save face and remain in power post 2014:

1. Allow 51% FDI in Multi-brand retail


2. Exit Air-India immediately and liberalize the Aviation sector !


3. Promulgate a resolution to ensure Coal is made available to all existing power plants as per allocations and beyond if required


4. Bring Sea-ports, rail / road connectivity projects and capital investment projects under high-priority and hence a single window clearance.   


5. Introduce GST in the country with immediate effect. States opposing the same need to be shown a suitable carrot !!


6. Do not send wrong messages to the foreign investors by changing tax laws retrospectively. Remain investor friendly !


7. Fuel pricing: Reduce subsidies on Diesel with a clear time frame in mind and make petrol pricing truly free !


8. Review food subsidy and resurrect the PDS  


9. Do not mess with the already messed up Education system of India


10. Time to stop bailing out State after state..! UP, Bengal, Tamil Nadu !! Let the principle of Earn your bread be applicable to states as well !!!

This is more than a wish list, because it is a dream list and the dreams could just add on and on..!! But a die-hard optimistic and patriotic that most of us may be, we can only propose and continue to propose bright ideas. This is also because, it is difficult to see the dream of India as the third largest economy in possibly couple of decades, just melting before your very eyes because of dirty politics !


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Hassled Mumbaikars: Raw deal in the form of Sky Walks

The Mumbai Skywalk Project is a series of skyways for pedestrian use in the Mumbai Metropolitan region. The project was conceived to connect suburban railway stations or other high-concentration commercial areas with various heavily targeted destinations. 

The first skywalk was inaugurated in June 2008 from Bandra station to Kalanagar Junction stretching over 1.3 km. About 50 such sky walks were proposed by MMRDA with an average cost of Rs 12 Cr. MMRDA managed to recover part of this cost by hoisting ad hoardings. 

Till last year, 36 skywalks were completed, quite a few have been scrapped such as the Mahim east skywalk since it clashes with Dharavi redevelopment project. Now many skywalks which were built in a hurry may get demolished apparently because they obstruct the Monorail / metro projects. So much for urban planning !

For the uninformed citizens, the skywalk is a cheaper way for the government authorities to provide the hassled pedestrians of an alternative avenue to walk on the roads, which are not in the right condition to walk in the first place !. The reasons for the plight of the pavement and streets are numerous as one would guess; poor condition of the asphalt roads, encroachment by hawkers who now throng every nook and corner of the suburbs & city, car population sky rocketing with little space for road expansion (due to island limitation as well enncroachers)..etc

Why do I say that sky walk is a cheaper avenue ? Let me try and explain my point of view.

Today it is practically impossible to break the nexus of the hawkers, political parties and BMC and hence obstacle-free pavements are things of the distant past. Look at the enormous cost involved, both tangible and intangible costs, if one were to evict the encroachers from Mumbai roads and streets. There will be political outrage and υπροαρ, if parts of Dharavi or parts of the encroached parts of the Railway land at Bandra or parts of Mira-Bhayandar slums were to be demolished by BMC. The economic cost would be far lesser than the political cost !   

Cant help comparing BMC's predicament with that of the USA although it may sound a bit stretched here !. One knows that the Taliban is a creation of the US of A because of the various historic affiliations and ambitions that country harboured in the region. BMC (with its the long history of corrupt officials and corporators) has systematically allowed encroachments in the form of slums, commercial establishments to come up in the city and suburbs. 

Over a period of time, these encroachments have been regularised through a systematic regularisation fee, both accounted and unaccounted.Now when these regularised encroachers (Taliban) are coming in the way of development; lack of walking space, driving space and living space !!. The crises has grown manifold and still ballooning due to unabated & unchecked encroachments in all suburbs....!

Skywalk is just an illustration for driving the point of how authorities keep on giving a raw deal to tax payers in Mumbai. This project was proposed as a quick fix solution by the authorities to show that they care for the citizens of Mumbai in providing free walking and commuting space. However it has hardly been effective for pedestrians. Because most structures have either been put in the wrong place (ex. the skywalk which stretches on the SV Road at Lucky junction, it is empty at any peak hour of the day !) or it is simply not the right solution for the already hassled citizen of Mumbai. Just imagine a tired office-goer or a senior citizen is expected to walk a flight of 50 stairs and then walk for 350 m and then walk down  50 stairs again !!

Wonder when Mumbaikars will get anything close to Shanghai or Singapore or whatever the new CM claims to give !!

Re-development and urban planning:Catastrophic Mumbai

Mumbai's known history dates back to as early as 150 A.D. when City of Bombay, as it was known then, consisting of several islands was ruled by kolis and agris, the native inhabitants.


These natives ruled the islands upto 1345 A.D. Thereafter, the rulers changed down the history till the Islamic rulers invaded India and conquered some of the islands in 1534 A.D. 


Subsequently, a Muslim ruler from Gujarat took over all the islands, which were then conquered by the Portuguese. In 1661 A.D., the island of Bombay was added to the Britishers as a part of Royal Dowry, on the occasion of the marriage of King Charles II of England with the Portuguese princess Infanta Catherine. 
The island of Bombay, was then to remain the part of British Empire till 15th August,1947, on which day our country saw the first dawn of independence from foreign rule.


Mumbai, extending from Colaba in the south, to Mulund and Dahisar in the north, and Mankhurd in the east, is administered by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The city is constrained by its inability to expand horizontally on the West and South, thanks to Arabian sea. The island city has grown far and wide towards the North (Vasai, Virar suburbs fall within city practically speaking) and Navi Mumbai suburbs as well.

Real estate prices have ruled the roost in Mumbai since time immemorial naturally due to paucity of empty tracts of land and on the other side ample demand fed by thriving business and commercial activities.

Although FSI in Mumbai is lower in general as compared to global megapolis like New York, Seoul, Singapore the consideration with respect to setbacks, street widening, % building footprint are extremely lax in this city. More specifically, in south Mumbai the FSI has come down from 3.5 to 1.33. However other critical parameters with respect to public free space, parking lots, approach roads etc..are compromised in many of the re-development / new constructed buildings in Mumbai.


 TDR (transfer of developmental rights) was a nice innovative model of buying FSI from some far off suburbs / location, for deploying the same  in a high demand location. It has worked well for BMC, who got loads of revenue and real estate developers started selling the built-up space at super built up premium rates.This is unlike in other developed cities such as New York, where a TDR can be used in adjacent building only so that total FSI in a block remains constant.

Since all real estate development is palatable only if corresponding urban infrastructure planning was done in tandem the potential catastrophe of Mumbai may not be too far, until concretisation of Mumbai is complete. What we would have is utter chaos on the road due to inadequate approach and exits, overloaded sewage system, inadequate water supply, overloaded electric supply system etc..

Let us examine this with a  building re-development in a Bandra suburb .

Access roads, footpaths, Storm water drainage, Sewage system, Drinking water facility, Parking provisions are essentially the constituents of a Urban infrastructure planning. 

A colony with about 100 buildings each with 4 storeys each having two residential flats of average 600 sq ft. Such a colony coming for re-development since it has run its life of 45 years means, an opportunity of atleast 5 lakh+ sq ft. 

About 40 buildings have already been demolished for re-development till now. Towers which are anywhere from 15 floors to 25 floors are being built using the similar land coverage where stood 4 storey buildings. 


Hopefully the main sewage and water supply system has adequate capacity to take this additional influx of residents.  The approach roads have not been widened to take care of additional car movement which is likely, once all these projects are commissioned.


The strong nexus of developer and municipal officials is evident when one observes closely the manner in which public roads are blatantly being occupied by the building contractors for storing building materials, cement mixers etc. There is no concern for safety of passers-by who get struck by falling stones, pebbles due to absence of safety nets..The above incidents are visible to an eye of a layman. 


What gets hidden is the inadequacies of the other public utility systems, which only time will reveal ! As someone had said only God can save Mumbai from this human catastrophe !!