Public stewardship was no longer the business of government. They had themselves – along with the developers they facilitated – become “speculators in human misery.”
Planning of a different kind
Indian people have paid a heavy price in socio economic sphere because of the lockdown with countless people at the brink of starvation. Any city’s ability to limit the damage from any crisis or disaster depends on popular control over decision making that should include the level of social equity, the quality of our public infrastructure, and the
responsiveness of our planning system. Indian cities are vulnerable because over the years their ability to anticipate, prepare and respond to any crisis have been consistently weakened. The lessons that we must draw from COVID-19 is that to recover from the present crisis and prepare for any possible future one, we must strengthen our public system rather than depending on private sector. No one can predict the next epidemic, flood or earthquake but we certainly cannot let market determine our fate. The broken system needs to be fixed, and fixed on urgent basis. We must commit ourselves to promote public health, conserve and improve
natural systems, redistribute wealth and opportunity, and protect human populations from climate events. In the words of Indorewala and Wagh ‘This would mean a well-funded public healthcare system and a universal Public Distribution System (PDS). It would mean investing in public transport and public housing. It would mean progressive climate action plans and conservation and restoration of eco-system services. It would mean job guarantee programmes and basic services. And much more’. We risk almost everything if we don’t make these commitments and good popular ideas even now.
Gated Colonies – The new trend in urban housing
City planning has seen drastic changes throughout the history of India. While the Indus Valley Civilization saw walled cities, segregated between the rulers, the rich and the common people, modern city planning is largely dominated by ‘gated colonies’. Both government and private gated colonies (GCs) can be seen sprouting up across a majority of the metropolises in Asia and the demand for new GCs is soaring Ashley Paul Reporter
30 August 2020 | www.urbanupdate.in
