Urban News

Source : The Hindu Date : 10.06.2009

Work on 3,900 houses nearing completion

G.V.R. Subba Rao

VIJAYAWADA: Nearly after a year, the second round of mass Gruhapravesaalu (housewarming ceremonies) for the houses built for the poor are likely to take place in the city.

As many as 3,900 houses that are being constructed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) programme are in the final leg of construction.

These houses are likely to be completed in a month, as only internal works like painting and fixing of doors remain unfinished.

It was in July last year that the then Mayor, Mallika Begum, persistently followed up the progress of construction and ensured that two blocks of 32 houses each at Radhanagar in Kundavari Kandrika were inaugurated before she stepped down.

Inordinate delay

After an inordinate delay in the progress of construction for various reasons, including Budameru floods and problems in land acquisition, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) officials have succeeded in completing nearly 3,900 houses at various places, including Radhanagar, Kandrika, New Rajarajeswaripeta and Vambay colony.

Though common facilities like underground drainage (UGD) have not been completed, the houses would otherwise be ready for occupation.

Mayor M.V. Ratna Bindu says the houses will be ready for occupation in the next couple of months. Most probably, they will be ready by August.

The corporation will give top priority, while allotting these houses, to the families that have been relocated from canal bunds, Krishna riverbed, Padmavathi ghat and other areas, she says.

The corporation has taken up construction of houses under the Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP), a sub-mission under JNNURM.

The Union Government has sanctioned 21,752 houses, including 14,968 in Phase-I and 6,784 in Phase-II, for the city under the scheme.

The State Government has sanctioned 14,968 houses in Phase-I and 6,752 houses in Phase-II with a unit cost of Rs.1.32 lakhs and Rs.1.40 lakhs, respectively. Another 1,152 houses are being constructed by the Housing Department.

Of the 19,000 houses being built under JNNURM, works are at various level of progress in respect of 13,000 houses, officials say.

At Gunadala

But the construction of houses at Gunadala is yet to commence. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy laid a foundation stone for the housing here in April last. The works have been stopped due to technical reasons related to site, but are expected to resume soon as the problems have been sorted out, officials say.

Source : The Business Line Date : 02.02.2009

Unsung urban heroes

Ashoke Chakrabarty

Sharing space: City managers cannot afford to ignore the unmet needs of the urban poor.

Rajendra Joshi

In spite of the current hiccups in economic growth, India is urbanising at an unprecedented pace. The metros are growing at 12 per cent on average, the large towns at 10 per cent. This uncontrolled growth is the result of lopsided policies promoting economic prosperity around population clusters. People flock to these already populated centres to engage in economic activities like the services, construction and urban transport.

Sadly, our cities are just not able to cope with these levels of growth. The result is the chaos we increasingly experience every day: traffic, transport woes, rising crime rates, corruption, lack of basic sanitation, pollution, slum and pavement dwellers. This chaos is ironically acting as a leveller for the middle class, the poor and women, young and aged alike. Never before have so many felt so insecure and so excluded.

It is easy to apportion blame on city authorities and politicians without really understanding the underlying causes. There are structural flaws like the inequitable allocation of resources, lack of planning, and absence of able governance. Combine these with the inherent societal flaws of caste, community, religious intolerance and greed and the result is a cauldron of chaos.

So what are the solutions to this massive urban chaos?

Let’s start with underlying solutions: sharing and allocating resources, mainstreaming migrant populations and the urban poor, skilling city managers, and participation in urban governance.

Fifty per cent of the urban population is poor. These are the people who keep our cities going; the street-vendors, household help, rickshaw drivers, construction workers, garbage waste removers are amongst these unrecognised stakeholders. Yet they occupy less than 5 per cent of the land and are allocated less than 10 per cent of the city’s budget for housing, basic sanitation and transport. No small wonder these vital stakeholders are turning increasingly resentful and sometimes hostile.

If these basic needs are met, this critical mass of people will no longer be part of the problem, but the solution. Understanding the aspirations of these migrant populations then is at the core of resolving the crisis of a burgeoning urban India.

I have often heard the former collector of Ahmedabad city K. Srinivas, who is now the Managing Director of Gujarat Urban Development Company, make a case for creating dedicated cadre for urban management on the lines of the administrative services. I cannot agree more. Our city managers are inadequately trained for the job. Most learn through experience, which often becomes obsolete in the face of the complex growth of our urban centres.

Urban management today goes beyond basic engineering tasks and involves clear strategies and multiple skills across sectors like public health, transport, security and housing. The work may be unglamorous but those who have succeeded have really been our unsung heroes.

Take, for instance, Devuben Parmar, a feisty woman living in the Guptanagar slums of Ahmedabad. The 2002 riots saw her galvanise people to rehabilitate and reintegrate women and children in relief camps. She turned that into a scalable model of 190 Anganwadis under the Integrated Child Development Scheme with an annual budget of Rs 1 crore. Devuben now runs an Urban Resource Centre, which links slum residents to government, NGOs and the private sector.

Yaqoob Pathan from the ghettoised Juhapura area of Ahmedabad built on his experience in the relief camps to promote a local NGO called Sankalp Mitra Mandal. The NGO convinced the Ahmedabad Electricity Company to lower connection charges for local slum residents and facilitated transparent connection and payment procedures. The public utility scale has now applied slum electrification programmes across the city.

Many of us leave managing our cities to authorities. Yet, there are these people willing to get their hands dirty. Often they go unnoticed but create the groundswell for a nationwide movement for change.