Opinion: Urban India’s crisis beneath the concrete

ON January 16, Noida witnessed an avoidable tragedy — the car of a young executive, Yuvraj Mehta, returning home from work at night plunged into a construction pit adjacent to an unlit road. Though a crowd gathered at the spot, including rescue agencies, he could not be saved. Two weeks earlier, the historic 15th-century city of Indore, rated as the cleanest in India for several years, was supplied contaminated water. Several citizens died of the toxic aftereffects.These mishaps highlight some serious challenges facing India's expanding urban areas. The two instances show that cities, whether contemporary or going back in history, lack such basics as sanitation, potable water and face structural and planning challenges. The death of Yuvraj shows the lack of a quick response to a crisis, in which a life could not be saved. The Indore incident shows lack of supply of necessities like clean water.The country's urban policy must respond to the needs of the millennium arising from rapid and vertical expansion, increased automobile traffic and so on. The urban population has risen from 11% in 1947 to roughly 35-36% in 2021-2025. The approximately 1.34 to 1.5% annual rate of growth adds to the challenges in our preparedness. Arranging civic facilities for such a large growing population requires planning and preparedness that the country is obviously lacking.The 'urban' phenomenon of India has a long past. Remembering our ancient, glorious cities, we have been changing their names, like Allahabad to Prayagraj. There is talk of renaming Delhi as Indraprastha. But these are futile exercises. The urbanisation process focusses on land, which engenders politics and corruption. The builder-politician nexus makes cities weak, resulting in suffering for the dwellers.Jawaharlal Nehru's observation in his autobiography on serving two years (1923-25) as chairman of the Allahabad municipality is insightful. He has written: "But on the one side, there was the Government machine; on the other, the apathy of the members of the municipality as well as the public. The whole steel-frame of municipal administration, as erected by Government, prevented radical growth or innovation. The financial policy was such that the municipality was always dependent on the Government. Most radical schemes of taxation or social development were not permissible under the existing municipal laws. Even such schemes as were legally permissible had to be sanctioned by Government, and only the optimists, with a long stretch of years before them, could confidently ask for and await this sanction."The next page talks of how politics played a role in the allocation of funds to the privileged civil lines (the wide area with bungalows and cottages, each with a fairly extensive compound or garden) and "the densely crowded city proper"; the former paid less and got more and the latter to the contrary. He sums up: "Nearly all the Big Noises and Little Noises live in the Civil Lines." He regrets that he was not allowed to balance the allocation.A look at ‘India's Urban' shows that the situation continues to be what it was then. The Bhagirathpura locality in Indore that got contaminated water supply is populated primarily by poor people. It shows how urban development is planned. Similarly, the area in Noida where Yuvraj met his death is not a posh one and is under development. Since no "important" people live there, the local authorities have not provided it with proper fencing and light for the safety of the passersby.Rajiv Gandhi formed the National Commission on Urbanisation in 1985, but it wound up without leaving much impact. The mega-cities scheme of 1993 is an ambitious one. But it has not kept pace with the needs of rapid urbanisation. Under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, 2005, some schemes of urban upgradation were initiated. But small towns and cities that are unable to generate independent revenues and lack even the basic services have not been allocated adequate funds. In 2015, the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) were set up to look into the basic needs of the cities, but with little results.Selectiveness built into these schemes deprived them of a comprehensive approach to city-building that India needs. The Central government claims that Rs 1.64 lakh crore has been invested in the smart cities project and 90% of the project is complete. But the Noida and Indore episodes show that India is yet to meet the basic needs of the urban population. Fancy slogans such as 'smart city' lead to the allocation of enormous resources to a few cities without meeting the basic needs of these cities. India's massive urban expansion needs effective plans for public transport, education and medical services.

Opinion: Urban India’s crisis beneath the concrete

Fancy slogans like 'smart city' lead to the allocation of enormous resources to a few cities without meeting their basic needs .

Ajay K Mehra

Opinion: Urban India’s crisis beneath the concrete

Fancy slogans like 'smart city' lead to the allocation of enormous resources to a few cities without meeting their basic needs .

Ajay K Mehra

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