The Smart City projects announced by the BJP-led NDA government is on the lines of their ‘India Shining’ ad campaign of the past after which the BJP had come a cropper in the general elections that followed. When resources needs to found for creating and delivering basic infrastructure of water and power to achieve – ‘roti, kapda and makaan’ – for all, this government is going tangentially to accentuate further the rich and poor divide as also the yawning chasm of delivery of infrastructure and services between rural and urban areas.
With so many of our people involved in agriculture which is very much dependent on the vagaries of the monsoon and who suffer in the drought years leading to many going to the extent of killing themselves, there is no sense in luring these people to the charm of the Internet or modernity where their simple lives demand just uninterrupted power and water for irrigation for just about 12 hours in a day. Once you deliver this need then we can look at modernizing their lives by giving them 21st century conveniences. Thus this government is again emphasizing on the wrong values and further polarizing our society.
If you look at the agendas being outlined by the citizens across India and even in Goa on the Smart City program, it is ensuring water and power on a more regular basis, handling solid waste and garbage more effectively, providing public parks and grounds for recreation. These are basic needs which successive governments in the country have neglected and are being revived now under the Smart City initiative. Thus there was no need for programs like the Smart City or the Swachh Bharat initiatives if the incumbent governments had done their job properly. Thus for the neglect of the politicians and the bureaucracy in the past massive budgets are being framed now.
Just on the huge amounts that are being wasted in only publicising the initiatives it would have probably been possible to provide drinking water to many a village or a small town of the country. Moreover the tendency in all these propositions like the Smart City is to ape foreign cities which is not necessary since we can develop in our own way, in our own manner which will be friendlier and more compatible with our way of life.
