From samirfayaz at yahoo.com Sat Sep 1 04:43:47 2007 From: samirfayaz at yahoo.com (Samir Shaikh) Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:13:47 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Nanocity outside Chandigarh? - from Gautam Bhan Message-ID: <414873.9696.qm@web34606.mail.mud.yahoo.com> That's very interesting, because I have been doing some reading on "Nanocity" recently, and was aware that students of UC Berkeley have been involved in the design. But I havent seen any detailed study as far, only some massing models on the Nanocity website. I also have read about some resistance from local farmers as their land would be annexed for the new "city". I have tried to contact Sabeer Bhatia and his office regarding this but haven't got any good response. Most of the work being done is under covers. It was interesting to me because Mr. Bhatia was talking about recreating a new Technology City, and I have always been intrigued by the way Silicon Valley attracted brain power from all over the world and developed into a technology hub ... .... no one had planned it that way, there was no "masterplan" to make Silicon Valley into the Tech hub of the world. Is it possible to create that environment (physical, political, social and economic) artificially? That's what interests me. Sabeer Bhatia also talks of making his "city" environmentally sustainable with "green" power and energy efficient and make all it's streets and facilities accessible to handicapped people (something which is blatantly missing in . He also mentioned about socially responsible architecture and affordable housing not only for the tech workers but also decent housing for the service workers and domestic help and construction workers. But as I have said earlier, I haven't seen any plans or documents to support this. I guess, with all the high-tech features of his new City, Mr. Bhatia is overlooking citizen participation and transparency, two of the pillars of Democracy. Their website is http://www.nanocity.in/ Samir Shaikh ----- Original Message ---- From: Priya Sen To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 9:30:36 PM Subject: [Urbanstudy] Nanocity outside Chandigarh? - from Gautam Bhan Dear All, This is my first posting on the list but I wanted to write in and see what you all know about Nanocity, a proposed 11,000 "metropolis" being built 20km or so outside Chandigarh by Sabeer Bhatia, the Hotmail millionairre. I'm a student at UC berkeley here in the US in the urban planning program, and people here are involved in the design of this city, which seems to have land clearance from the governent and is claiming to be ready by 2012 at the cost of over $1bn. Now, in India and the Indian press, I haven't seen much or any public dialogue about this - -for a project of this magnitude it strikes me as odd because it seems to be going much beyond the IT park/SEZ/Township models that we're used to, and I'm wondering why there is such silence about it. There must be issues of diplacement of people and land use involved, without even talking about what it means for a private millionairre to decide to build a "21st century metropolis." Can anyone enlighten? If everyone else is as much out of the loop as I have been, I think its time we start taking Mr Bhatia's plan seriously and trying to understand what's apparently going on in our backyard. best, Gautam _______________________________________________ Urbanstudygroup mailing list Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup ____________________________________________________________________________________ Got a little couch potato? Check out fun summer activities for kids. http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=summer+activities+for+kids&cs=bz -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070831/c55d1a83/attachment.html From esg at bgl.vsnl.net.in Sat Sep 8 15:32:23 2007 From: esg at bgl.vsnl.net.in (ESG India VSNL) Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:32:23 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Parliament Q & A Bulletin Xi.5-- 080907 Message-ID: <46E2732F.7050904@bgl.vsnl.net.in> Dear All Please find enclosed the 5th Bulletin of Q & A in the Parliament Q & A series. We will appreciate feedback on the utility of this compilation. Please email nandini at esgindia.org in this regard. Thank you. With warm regards, ESG Team -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: POI_Q_A_BulletinXI-5_080907.rtf Type: application/msword Size: 169533 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070908/a9d91b3d/attachment-0001.dot From samirfayaz at yahoo.com Fri Sep 14 03:32:22 2007 From: samirfayaz at yahoo.com (Samir Shaikh) Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:02:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: Appeal Sajha Manch Message-ID: <110442.86276.qm@web34611.mail.mud.yahoo.com> SAJHA MANCH APPEAL SEPTEMBER 2007 INTRODUCTION In 1999, eight organizations working in Delhi slums joined hands and came under the banner of 'Sajha Manch' to collectively protest against the Public Interest Litigation filed by Mr. H.D Shourie on unauthorised colonies. To challenge this petition, constructive /concrete evidence was collected by Sajha Manch members, on housing and shelter situation in Delhi. In one year`s time members of the Manch grew from 8 to 40. Gradually, issues related to housing and shelter like rehabilitation, water, electricity, sanitation, sewerage, education, health and transport became part of the common agenda. Today Sajha Manch has a membership of 70-80 organizations, which work together on various urban issues for poor and are constantly trying to make a positive dent in urban policies in favour of the poor and marginalized. Where the Manch is advocating for better cities, government with its wrong policies is making people migrate from villages to cities in search for employment who are forced to spend nights on roads or in jhuggi jhopdi colonies. Whenever people have been uprooted from their houses they are more concerned about the loss of employment than houses. With the passage of time, all those associated with the Manch have realized that the core issues are employment and shelter. Shelter means right to live with basic amenities. Employment means the opportunity to work in safety and security. Sajha Manch was created in opposition to a PIL. Those were the times when Courts in the guise of implementation of Master Plan were pursuing lockouts in industries or destroying houses of poor. The member organizations of Manch studied it in depth. They deliberated on the various aspects and decided to raise the issues that were ignored by the Master Plan and had a considerable amount of impact on the lower strata of the society. Simultaneously, the Manch also brought out the issues that were to be addressed in the Master Plan of 2021. A book in 2003 titled ' Delhi kis ki hai ?'(Whose Delhi is it?) to highlight the basic perspective of Sajha Manch and to suggest an alternate policy was brought out. Its main aim was to ensure that the needs of people from lower strata are properly accommodated in the next Master Plan –2021. It was also noticed that as per Master Plan 2001, DDA failed to construct adequate number of houses, which resulted in unauthorized colonies. It was repeatedly stressed that the Court should not order for reallocation of jhuggis and should rather punish DDA for failing in its duty. As this awareness of the work of the Manch spread in other cities more people started associating with it. On the other hand media was not at all supportive. It did not pay any heed to the plight of the poor. With the result Manch took out its own newspaper ' Sajha Manch Samachar' to highlight the problems of urban poor. In the year 2001, Basti Prachar Samiti was constituted to appraise people with the various government policies and to the future problems they are likely to face. In order to give a boost to the ongoing discussions on the problems of cities annual conferences were held. With the fast expansion of Manch three conferences were held in last three years. In the intervening period other workshops were also held. In the year 2005 when DDA passed MPD –2021 Manch filed many objections. A protest march comprising 2500 people was also carried out in front of DDA office. The revised MPD- 2021 takes into account many objections filed by Manch. Now it has to be made sure that all aspects related to the urban poor in the MPD are implemented religiously. A simple medium should be used to apprise people of these developments. The entire process should be made participatory so that policy makers and planners hear voice of the depressed and exploited people. The city planners are ignoring today needs of 70-80% of the people. Big budget projects, which have no relevance to the majority of people, are being carried out in the name of development and progress. MPD 2021 presents a very biased picture of the city.74th Amendment is still not fully applied. Delhi is fast turning out to be a entertainment and sports hub. There is an urgent need to discuss the present ills of the city and to suggest strategies to make it a better and human place to live. DRAFT Delhi, capital of India . various development and beautification projects. Huge money being spent mindlessly . beneficial to people ? The above phrase tells us that the priorities of the implementing and planning agencies of the government are far removed from the ground realities. Capital city: The Indian Constitution provides for right to employment to every citizen in any part of the country. People from all parts of the country can come to Delhi to seek employment. Making a mockery of this right Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms. Shiela Dikshit issued a statement blaming people from Bihar for all the mess in Delhi. Responding to this a rickshaw puller remarked ' tell them to make Devariya the capital of India and then see who all goes there'. This is not very different from the sons of soil movement in Assam or Maharashtra. The rhetoric of right wing fundamentalists that all Muslims should go to Pakistan is also not very different. If the person from Tamil Nadu can become the President of this country why cant a poor Tamilian earn his living by selling Sambar Vada at the road side? New beautification projects: A rich person feels happy to see Delhi Metro, Flyovers and fancy Shopping Malls. But in the eyes of the common men/women the government is blind to their needs as it fails to provide basic amenities to them but can spend lavishly on the needs of rich. Out of the total population of 1.54 crore, only 8% are well off. More than 70% stay in unauthorized colonies or on the roadside. In spite of the hype created by Delhi Metro, it is a big failure, as it is unable to meet the expenses of the total expenditure incurred on it. Flyovers have been totally ineffective in decongesting Delhi traffic. Small vendors cannot sell their goods in front of shopping malls / centers as there is direct conflict of interest. Police, which is hand in glove with the capitalists, does not allow the vendors to sit in front of malls. Consumers are forced to go to these organized retailers, as they don't have any other option. This exposes the hollow development policies of the government. Huge money – huge projects: If just 10% of the total money spent on Metro is utilized to buy more DTC buses, people can travel comfortably and it will also reduce the congestion on the roads. Shrinking Employment opportunities: to stop migration to cities from rural areas government time and again brings out various policies like Jawahar Rozgar Yojna etc., which do not help the desired beneficiaries. If the government is really serious about tackling the menace of unemployment then why do government plans and documents like MPD 2021 and CDP consistently talk of machine intensive industry instead of labour intensive one? Taj Mahal (was built solely for the purpose of glory) managed to provide employment to 20 thousand people for 20 years. But development projects undertaken by the so-called democratic governments today fail to provide employment to vast majority of people. Now we will look at the problems created by the unscientific and irrational development projects: Most of these development projects have no relevance to 75% of the people who want basic facilities like health, education etc. These projects are being undertaken at the cost of their houses and employment. Shelter: As per MPD unauthororized colonies are mushrooming due to inadequate construction of houses. The labour classs can never dream of purchasing high cost houses constructed by DDA. And they continuously look out for place to live in. Though they have been provided Ration cards and voter cards but have never been provided basic amenities. Under the guise of development jhuggi clusters are removed and reallocated far off. Only a few numbers of people have been resettled and rest are still living on rent in unauthororized colonies. Some villages have been totally wiped off and many people are rendered homeless. Whereas in cities there were already good number of homeless and the reallocation has increased the problem manifolds. Privatization of services: new concept for development of cities has emerged. New programs have been initiated to run the cities. The services like city transport, electricity, water supply, security, health, scavenging and disposal of waste have been given to private parties. Law & Order and Judiciary: Change in the conception of cities has changed the thinking of rich class for better services. This has affected the working of Judiciary as they also showed their consent to this change irrespective of the law of the land. Corruption: with the changing times people are attracted to glamour, which gave rise to consumerism. In order to possess they need more money, which was not easy. This gave rise to corruption amongst government officers. With the result it has become impossible to get even a petty work done without paying bribes. Status of women: The so-called development has made our society hollow. The urban women have been impacted most. Money can buy everything has made inroads into everybody`s mind. Though Shopping malls provide work opportunities to only literate women nothing is being done for growing insecure employment and society. Women have contributed to the development of the city but have a got unsafe city in reward. Basic Amenities: the new planning process has not just tried to privatize essential services like health, education transportation, ration etc but has also tried to make the service delivery mechanism redundant so that people are forced to make their own arrangements. Unorganized labour: Due to lack of employment opportunities in the organized sector people are forced to turn towards informal sector to seek employment where their future is insecure as no social security provisions are available. The old people and physically challenged are also suffering because of these mindless development policies. It is difficult for them to cross roads or make use of these modern facilities. The children who sleep on the roads are now dubbed as criminals even though many of them help MCD indirectly by cleaning the roads and that too at free of cost. Manch has a fair knowledge of this city. The beneficial plans have not been implemented and which were never proposed has been implemented which has changed the face of the city. Keeping both these aspects in mind, there is a need to make pro poor programs in the coming days where by more and more people could be associated to put pressure on the government. Future Program as finalized by Sajha Manch through many discussions; Community Meetings: on the above mentioned issues, many community meetings have been held at unauthorized colonies, slums resettlement colonies involving various labourers and workers and there is a need to intensify this process. Public Hearings: to increase participation of people local problems were discussed at public hearings and this has proved to be a valuable activity for the future also. Workshops: there is an urgent need to organize workshops involving intellectuals and experts to understand the technical issues, which came up during community meetings and public hearings. Advocacy meetings: there is a need to address the questions along with policy makers and intellectuals in advocacy meetings. Research: intensive research is required to go deeply into policy matters. Community watch groups: these groups are to be constituted to address the issues, which are raised in public hearings. Workers conference: two conferences are to be organized to train community watch group's members and also their experiences should be shared. Community propaganda group: a group is to be formed comprising of 5 members at the basti level to maintain a balance between various local committees. Theatre group: to publicize various local issues in simple and entertaining manner a theatre group is to be formed. Publicity material: intensive use of pamphlets, posters leaflets is required. Local rally: in case no solution emerges from discussions with government, protest rallies are to be taken out. Proposed sixth conference and rally : to undertake all the above activities in a systematic and organized manner sixth conference in September- October 2008 and a huge rally to pressurize government is proposed. Note: This program is proposed for one year. The detailed planning for these programs will be discussed in monthly meetings of Sajha Manch. We invite your valuable participation. Donations are also required to implement the program. Please send your contributions through cheques/ drafts in the name of Sanchal Foundation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BUDGET S.NO Program Expenditure Number Total 1 Community meetings Rs.1000 24 Rs.24,000 2 Public hearings Rs.8000 10 Rs.80,000 3 Workshops 3,000 10 30,000 4 Research 2,500 10 25,000 5 Basti prachar samiti (5 people) 5000 12 months 3,00,000 6 Transport, phone- basti pracher samiti 10000x5 12 months 60,000 7 Drama 2,500 12 days 30,000 8 Workers conference 20,000 2 40,000 9 Publicity material (5000 posters) 1,500 10 issues 15,000 10 Publicity material (1000 posters) 2,000 10 issues 20,000 11 Rally 3000 6 18,000 12 Communication 20,000 13 Contingency and emergency 60,000 Total Budget Rupees 7,22,000 Dunu Roy For Sajha Manch, c/o 92-H, 3rd Floor, Pratap Market, Munirka, New Delhi-110067. Ph: 26187806, 26714244. Email: sajha.manch at gmail.com Appeal in Hindi is attached. SAMIR SHAIKH --------------------------------- Don't let your dream ride pass you by. Make it a reality with Yahoo! Autos. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070913/cfaa483a/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: hindi appeal sm.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 68892 bytes Desc: pat1067972974 Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070913/cfaa483a/attachment-0001.pdf From sridevi.padmanabhan at gmail.com Mon Sep 17 16:08:53 2007 From: sridevi.padmanabhan at gmail.com (Sridevi Padmanabhan) Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:08:53 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] posting on the urban study group Message-ID: Hi, I would also like to post on the urban study group. So please include my email ID. Thanks Sridevi -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-2 Size: 327 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070917/2b5a2ac9/attachment.bin From sridevi.padmanabhan at gmail.com Thu Sep 20 15:29:10 2007 From: sridevi.padmanabhan at gmail.com (sridevi.padmanabhan at gmail.com) Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:59:10 -0700 Subject: [Urbanstudy] I've added you as a friend on StumbleUpon Message-ID: relentlessly (sridevi.padmanabhan at gmail.com) has invited you to StumbleUpon! You can see my other favorites here: http://relentlessly.stumbleupon.com Thanks, relentlessly --- StumbleUpon lets you discover great sites with a single click. Give it a try at: http://www.stumbleupon.com/join.php?friend=3914514&emailcode=islvsz0u6z76gmk2 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070920/08e1ad0b/attachment.html From awbaaddho at yahoo.co.in Mon Sep 24 01:12:06 2007 From: awbaaddho at yahoo.co.in (awbaaddho ray) Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 20:42:06 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: SREEDEEP 4th posting - SEXUAL EXPLICITNESS and EMERGING EXCOGITATIONS Message-ID: <434545.40846.qm@web8805.mail.in.yahoo.com> Note: forwarded message attached. Why delete messages? Unlimited storage is just a click away. Go to http://help.yahoo.com/l/in/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/tools/tools-08.html -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: SREEDEEP Subject: Fwd: SREEDEEP 4th posting - SEXUAL EXPLICITNESS and EMERGING EXCOGITATIONS Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:58:20 +0530 Size: 19095 Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070923/b02e2307/attachment-0001.mht From elkamath at yahoo.com Tue Sep 25 23:03:37 2007 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:33:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Hidden Successes: International Competition for Best Research Paper on India's Urbanization Message-ID: <680644.65357.qm@web53611.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI Dear Colleagues, I am writing to tell you that MIT and the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai are jointly organizing an international competition for the best research paper on innovative responses to India 's urban challenges. The competition, titled Hidden Successes, seeks to highlight usually overlooked cases of innovation and success in response to rapid urbanization. Hidden Successes is an opportunity for scholars and practitioners to reflect on innovative financial and institutional arrangements that have allowed some Indian cities to cope with rapid expansion and population growth. Much of the published literature on India ’s urbanization focuses on the many constraints faced by local authorities and the central government. In contrast, this competition seeks to discover where urban areas have succeeded, for example, in delivering infrastructure and essential services, in spite of constraints. The competition anticipates that the crafting and implementation of new approaches to planning will require planners who are not confined by orthodox theories and ideological biases. The cultivation of such a new heterodox mindset requires new teaching material for professional education, which is the ultimate purpose of this competition. We would be grateful if you could publicize this competition announcement as widely as possible. The deadlines for the competition are 15th October 2007 (for Abstract Submission) and 1st December 2007 (for the Final Paper). Details about the competition and submission guidelines can be found on the competition website: http://hidden-successes.mit.edu/. Regards and best wishes, Bish Sanyal MIT Faculty Chair Ford International Professor of Urban Development and Planning Department of Urban Studies and Planning Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue , Room 9-435 Cambridge , MA 02139 Phone: 617-253-3270 E-mail: SANYAL at MIT.EDU ____________________________________________________________________________________ Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? Preview the hottest shows on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070925/d14fa4be/attachment.html From samirfayaz at yahoo.com Sat Sep 1 04:43:47 2007 From: samirfayaz at yahoo.com (Samir Shaikh) Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:13:47 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Nanocity outside Chandigarh? - from Gautam Bhan Message-ID: <414873.9696.qm@web34606.mail.mud.yahoo.com> That's very interesting, because I have been doing some reading on "Nanocity" recently, and was aware that students of UC Berkeley have been involved in the design. But I havent seen any detailed study as far, only some massing models on the Nanocity website. I also have read about some resistance from local farmers as their land would be annexed for the new "city". I have tried to contact Sabeer Bhatia and his office regarding this but haven't got any good response. Most of the work being done is under covers. It was interesting to me because Mr. Bhatia was talking about recreating a new Technology City, and I have always been intrigued by the way Silicon Valley attracted brain power from all over the world and developed into a technology hub ... .... no one had planned it that way, there was no "masterplan" to make Silicon Valley into the Tech hub of the world. Is it possible to create that environment (physical, political, social and economic) artificially? That's what interests me. Sabeer Bhatia also talks of making his "city" environmentally sustainable with "green" power and energy efficient and make all it's streets and facilities accessible to handicapped people (something which is blatantly missing in . He also mentioned about socially responsible architecture and affordable housing not only for the tech workers but also decent housing for the service workers and domestic help and construction workers. But as I have said earlier, I haven't seen any plans or documents to support this. I guess, with all the high-tech features of his new City, Mr. Bhatia is overlooking citizen participation and transparency, two of the pillars of Democracy. Their website is http://www.nanocity.in/ Samir Shaikh ----- Original Message ---- From: Priya Sen To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 9:30:36 PM Subject: [Urbanstudy] Nanocity outside Chandigarh? - from Gautam Bhan Dear All, This is my first posting on the list but I wanted to write in and see what you all know about Nanocity, a proposed 11,000 "metropolis" being built 20km or so outside Chandigarh by Sabeer Bhatia, the Hotmail millionairre. I'm a student at UC berkeley here in the US in the urban planning program, and people here are involved in the design of this city, which seems to have land clearance from the governent and is claiming to be ready by 2012 at the cost of over $1bn. Now, in India and the Indian press, I haven't seen much or any public dialogue about this - -for a project of this magnitude it strikes me as odd because it seems to be going much beyond the IT park/SEZ/Township models that we're used to, and I'm wondering why there is such silence about it. There must be issues of diplacement of people and land use involved, without even talking about what it means for a private millionairre to decide to build a "21st century metropolis." Can anyone enlighten? If everyone else is as much out of the loop as I have been, I think its time we start taking Mr Bhatia's plan seriously and trying to understand what's apparently going on in our backyard. best, Gautam _______________________________________________ Urbanstudygroup mailing list Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup ____________________________________________________________________________________ Got a little couch potato? Check out fun summer activities for kids. http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=summer+activities+for+kids&cs=bz -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070831/c55d1a83/attachment-0002.html From esg at bgl.vsnl.net.in Sat Sep 8 15:32:23 2007 From: esg at bgl.vsnl.net.in (ESG India VSNL) Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:32:23 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Parliament Q & A Bulletin Xi.5-- 080907 Message-ID: <46E2732F.7050904@bgl.vsnl.net.in> Dear All Please find enclosed the 5th Bulletin of Q & A in the Parliament Q & A series. We will appreciate feedback on the utility of this compilation. Please email nandini at esgindia.org in this regard. Thank you. With warm regards, ESG Team -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: POI_Q_A_BulletinXI-5_080907.rtf Type: application/msword Size: 169533 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070908/a9d91b3d/attachment-0002.dot From samirfayaz at yahoo.com Fri Sep 14 03:32:22 2007 From: samirfayaz at yahoo.com (Samir Shaikh) Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:02:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: Appeal Sajha Manch Message-ID: <110442.86276.qm@web34611.mail.mud.yahoo.com> SAJHA MANCH APPEAL SEPTEMBER 2007 INTRODUCTION In 1999, eight organizations working in Delhi slums joined hands and came under the banner of 'Sajha Manch' to collectively protest against the Public Interest Litigation filed by Mr. H.D Shourie on unauthorised colonies. To challenge this petition, constructive /concrete evidence was collected by Sajha Manch members, on housing and shelter situation in Delhi. In one year`s time members of the Manch grew from 8 to 40. Gradually, issues related to housing and shelter like rehabilitation, water, electricity, sanitation, sewerage, education, health and transport became part of the common agenda. Today Sajha Manch has a membership of 70-80 organizations, which work together on various urban issues for poor and are constantly trying to make a positive dent in urban policies in favour of the poor and marginalized. Where the Manch is advocating for better cities, government with its wrong policies is making people migrate from villages to cities in search for employment who are forced to spend nights on roads or in jhuggi jhopdi colonies. Whenever people have been uprooted from their houses they are more concerned about the loss of employment than houses. With the passage of time, all those associated with the Manch have realized that the core issues are employment and shelter. Shelter means right to live with basic amenities. Employment means the opportunity to work in safety and security. Sajha Manch was created in opposition to a PIL. Those were the times when Courts in the guise of implementation of Master Plan were pursuing lockouts in industries or destroying houses of poor. The member organizations of Manch studied it in depth. They deliberated on the various aspects and decided to raise the issues that were ignored by the Master Plan and had a considerable amount of impact on the lower strata of the society. Simultaneously, the Manch also brought out the issues that were to be addressed in the Master Plan of 2021. A book in 2003 titled ' Delhi kis ki hai ?'(Whose Delhi is it?) to highlight the basic perspective of Sajha Manch and to suggest an alternate policy was brought out. Its main aim was to ensure that the needs of people from lower strata are properly accommodated in the next Master Plan –2021. It was also noticed that as per Master Plan 2001, DDA failed to construct adequate number of houses, which resulted in unauthorized colonies. It was repeatedly stressed that the Court should not order for reallocation of jhuggis and should rather punish DDA for failing in its duty. As this awareness of the work of the Manch spread in other cities more people started associating with it. On the other hand media was not at all supportive. It did not pay any heed to the plight of the poor. With the result Manch took out its own newspaper ' Sajha Manch Samachar' to highlight the problems of urban poor. In the year 2001, Basti Prachar Samiti was constituted to appraise people with the various government policies and to the future problems they are likely to face. In order to give a boost to the ongoing discussions on the problems of cities annual conferences were held. With the fast expansion of Manch three conferences were held in last three years. In the intervening period other workshops were also held. In the year 2005 when DDA passed MPD –2021 Manch filed many objections. A protest march comprising 2500 people was also carried out in front of DDA office. The revised MPD- 2021 takes into account many objections filed by Manch. Now it has to be made sure that all aspects related to the urban poor in the MPD are implemented religiously. A simple medium should be used to apprise people of these developments. The entire process should be made participatory so that policy makers and planners hear voice of the depressed and exploited people. The city planners are ignoring today needs of 70-80% of the people. Big budget projects, which have no relevance to the majority of people, are being carried out in the name of development and progress. MPD 2021 presents a very biased picture of the city.74th Amendment is still not fully applied. Delhi is fast turning out to be a entertainment and sports hub. There is an urgent need to discuss the present ills of the city and to suggest strategies to make it a better and human place to live. DRAFT Delhi, capital of India . various development and beautification projects. Huge money being spent mindlessly . beneficial to people ? The above phrase tells us that the priorities of the implementing and planning agencies of the government are far removed from the ground realities. Capital city: The Indian Constitution provides for right to employment to every citizen in any part of the country. People from all parts of the country can come to Delhi to seek employment. Making a mockery of this right Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms. Shiela Dikshit issued a statement blaming people from Bihar for all the mess in Delhi. Responding to this a rickshaw puller remarked ' tell them to make Devariya the capital of India and then see who all goes there'. This is not very different from the sons of soil movement in Assam or Maharashtra. The rhetoric of right wing fundamentalists that all Muslims should go to Pakistan is also not very different. If the person from Tamil Nadu can become the President of this country why cant a poor Tamilian earn his living by selling Sambar Vada at the road side? New beautification projects: A rich person feels happy to see Delhi Metro, Flyovers and fancy Shopping Malls. But in the eyes of the common men/women the government is blind to their needs as it fails to provide basic amenities to them but can spend lavishly on the needs of rich. Out of the total population of 1.54 crore, only 8% are well off. More than 70% stay in unauthorized colonies or on the roadside. In spite of the hype created by Delhi Metro, it is a big failure, as it is unable to meet the expenses of the total expenditure incurred on it. Flyovers have been totally ineffective in decongesting Delhi traffic. Small vendors cannot sell their goods in front of shopping malls / centers as there is direct conflict of interest. Police, which is hand in glove with the capitalists, does not allow the vendors to sit in front of malls. Consumers are forced to go to these organized retailers, as they don't have any other option. This exposes the hollow development policies of the government. Huge money – huge projects: If just 10% of the total money spent on Metro is utilized to buy more DTC buses, people can travel comfortably and it will also reduce the congestion on the roads. Shrinking Employment opportunities: to stop migration to cities from rural areas government time and again brings out various policies like Jawahar Rozgar Yojna etc., which do not help the desired beneficiaries. If the government is really serious about tackling the menace of unemployment then why do government plans and documents like MPD 2021 and CDP consistently talk of machine intensive industry instead of labour intensive one? Taj Mahal (was built solely for the purpose of glory) managed to provide employment to 20 thousand people for 20 years. But development projects undertaken by the so-called democratic governments today fail to provide employment to vast majority of people. Now we will look at the problems created by the unscientific and irrational development projects: Most of these development projects have no relevance to 75% of the people who want basic facilities like health, education etc. These projects are being undertaken at the cost of their houses and employment. Shelter: As per MPD unauthororized colonies are mushrooming due to inadequate construction of houses. The labour classs can never dream of purchasing high cost houses constructed by DDA. And they continuously look out for place to live in. Though they have been provided Ration cards and voter cards but have never been provided basic amenities. Under the guise of development jhuggi clusters are removed and reallocated far off. Only a few numbers of people have been resettled and rest are still living on rent in unauthororized colonies. Some villages have been totally wiped off and many people are rendered homeless. Whereas in cities there were already good number of homeless and the reallocation has increased the problem manifolds. Privatization of services: new concept for development of cities has emerged. New programs have been initiated to run the cities. The services like city transport, electricity, water supply, security, health, scavenging and disposal of waste have been given to private parties. Law & Order and Judiciary: Change in the conception of cities has changed the thinking of rich class for better services. This has affected the working of Judiciary as they also showed their consent to this change irrespective of the law of the land. Corruption: with the changing times people are attracted to glamour, which gave rise to consumerism. In order to possess they need more money, which was not easy. This gave rise to corruption amongst government officers. With the result it has become impossible to get even a petty work done without paying bribes. Status of women: The so-called development has made our society hollow. The urban women have been impacted most. Money can buy everything has made inroads into everybody`s mind. Though Shopping malls provide work opportunities to only literate women nothing is being done for growing insecure employment and society. Women have contributed to the development of the city but have a got unsafe city in reward. Basic Amenities: the new planning process has not just tried to privatize essential services like health, education transportation, ration etc but has also tried to make the service delivery mechanism redundant so that people are forced to make their own arrangements. Unorganized labour: Due to lack of employment opportunities in the organized sector people are forced to turn towards informal sector to seek employment where their future is insecure as no social security provisions are available. The old people and physically challenged are also suffering because of these mindless development policies. It is difficult for them to cross roads or make use of these modern facilities. The children who sleep on the roads are now dubbed as criminals even though many of them help MCD indirectly by cleaning the roads and that too at free of cost. Manch has a fair knowledge of this city. The beneficial plans have not been implemented and which were never proposed has been implemented which has changed the face of the city. Keeping both these aspects in mind, there is a need to make pro poor programs in the coming days where by more and more people could be associated to put pressure on the government. Future Program as finalized by Sajha Manch through many discussions; Community Meetings: on the above mentioned issues, many community meetings have been held at unauthorized colonies, slums resettlement colonies involving various labourers and workers and there is a need to intensify this process. Public Hearings: to increase participation of people local problems were discussed at public hearings and this has proved to be a valuable activity for the future also. Workshops: there is an urgent need to organize workshops involving intellectuals and experts to understand the technical issues, which came up during community meetings and public hearings. Advocacy meetings: there is a need to address the questions along with policy makers and intellectuals in advocacy meetings. Research: intensive research is required to go deeply into policy matters. Community watch groups: these groups are to be constituted to address the issues, which are raised in public hearings. Workers conference: two conferences are to be organized to train community watch group's members and also their experiences should be shared. Community propaganda group: a group is to be formed comprising of 5 members at the basti level to maintain a balance between various local committees. Theatre group: to publicize various local issues in simple and entertaining manner a theatre group is to be formed. Publicity material: intensive use of pamphlets, posters leaflets is required. Local rally: in case no solution emerges from discussions with government, protest rallies are to be taken out. Proposed sixth conference and rally : to undertake all the above activities in a systematic and organized manner sixth conference in September- October 2008 and a huge rally to pressurize government is proposed. Note: This program is proposed for one year. The detailed planning for these programs will be discussed in monthly meetings of Sajha Manch. We invite your valuable participation. Donations are also required to implement the program. Please send your contributions through cheques/ drafts in the name of Sanchal Foundation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BUDGET S.NO Program Expenditure Number Total 1 Community meetings Rs.1000 24 Rs.24,000 2 Public hearings Rs.8000 10 Rs.80,000 3 Workshops 3,000 10 30,000 4 Research 2,500 10 25,000 5 Basti prachar samiti (5 people) 5000 12 months 3,00,000 6 Transport, phone- basti pracher samiti 10000x5 12 months 60,000 7 Drama 2,500 12 days 30,000 8 Workers conference 20,000 2 40,000 9 Publicity material (5000 posters) 1,500 10 issues 15,000 10 Publicity material (1000 posters) 2,000 10 issues 20,000 11 Rally 3000 6 18,000 12 Communication 20,000 13 Contingency and emergency 60,000 Total Budget Rupees 7,22,000 Dunu Roy For Sajha Manch, c/o 92-H, 3rd Floor, Pratap Market, Munirka, New Delhi-110067. Ph: 26187806, 26714244. Email: sajha.manch at gmail.com Appeal in Hindi is attached. SAMIR SHAIKH --------------------------------- Don't let your dream ride pass you by. Make it a reality with Yahoo! Autos. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070913/cfaa483a/attachment-0002.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: hindi appeal sm.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 68892 bytes Desc: pat1067972974 Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070913/cfaa483a/attachment-0002.pdf From sridevi.padmanabhan at gmail.com Mon Sep 17 16:08:53 2007 From: sridevi.padmanabhan at gmail.com (Sridevi Padmanabhan) Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:08:53 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] posting on the urban study group Message-ID: Hi, I would also like to post on the urban study group. So please include my email ID. Thanks Sridevi -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-2 Size: 327 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070917/2b5a2ac9/attachment-0002.bin From sridevi.padmanabhan at gmail.com Thu Sep 20 15:29:10 2007 From: sridevi.padmanabhan at gmail.com (sridevi.padmanabhan at gmail.com) Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:59:10 -0700 Subject: [Urbanstudy] I've added you as a friend on StumbleUpon Message-ID: relentlessly (sridevi.padmanabhan at gmail.com) has invited you to StumbleUpon! You can see my other favorites here: http://relentlessly.stumbleupon.com Thanks, relentlessly --- StumbleUpon lets you discover great sites with a single click. Give it a try at: http://www.stumbleupon.com/join.php?friend=3914514&emailcode=islvsz0u6z76gmk2 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070920/08e1ad0b/attachment-0002.html From awbaaddho at yahoo.co.in Mon Sep 24 01:12:06 2007 From: awbaaddho at yahoo.co.in (awbaaddho ray) Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 20:42:06 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: SREEDEEP 4th posting - SEXUAL EXPLICITNESS and EMERGING EXCOGITATIONS Message-ID: <434545.40846.qm@web8805.mail.in.yahoo.com> Note: forwarded message attached. Why delete messages? Unlimited storage is just a click away. Go to http://help.yahoo.com/l/in/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/tools/tools-08.html -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: SREEDEEP Subject: Fwd: SREEDEEP 4th posting - SEXUAL EXPLICITNESS and EMERGING EXCOGITATIONS Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:58:20 +0530 Size: 19095 Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070923/b02e2307/attachment-0002.mht From elkamath at yahoo.com Tue Sep 25 23:03:37 2007 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:33:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Hidden Successes: International Competition for Best Research Paper on India's Urbanization Message-ID: <680644.65357.qm@web53611.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI Dear Colleagues, I am writing to tell you that MIT and the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai are jointly organizing an international competition for the best research paper on innovative responses to India 's urban challenges. The competition, titled Hidden Successes, seeks to highlight usually overlooked cases of innovation and success in response to rapid urbanization. Hidden Successes is an opportunity for scholars and practitioners to reflect on innovative financial and institutional arrangements that have allowed some Indian cities to cope with rapid expansion and population growth. Much of the published literature on India ’s urbanization focuses on the many constraints faced by local authorities and the central government. In contrast, this competition seeks to discover where urban areas have succeeded, for example, in delivering infrastructure and essential services, in spite of constraints. The competition anticipates that the crafting and implementation of new approaches to planning will require planners who are not confined by orthodox theories and ideological biases. The cultivation of such a new heterodox mindset requires new teaching material for professional education, which is the ultimate purpose of this competition. We would be grateful if you could publicize this competition announcement as widely as possible. The deadlines for the competition are 15th October 2007 (for Abstract Submission) and 1st December 2007 (for the Final Paper). Details about the competition and submission guidelines can be found on the competition website: http://hidden-successes.mit.edu/. Regards and best wishes, Bish Sanyal MIT Faculty Chair Ford International Professor of Urban Development and Planning Department of Urban Studies and Planning Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue , Room 9-435 Cambridge , MA 02139 Phone: 617-253-3270 E-mail: SANYAL at MIT.EDU ____________________________________________________________________________________ Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? Preview the hottest shows on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20070925/d14fa4be/attachment-0002.html