From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Sat May 3 19:25:17 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Sat, 3 May 2008 19:25:17 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] [Reader-list] Madhu Kishwar, the MCD, the 'mafia' and the media In-Reply-To: <91ceb95e0805030427j251bce1cr5101d1275320de58@mail.gmail.com> References: <91ceb95e0805030427j251bce1cr5101d1275320de58@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Hi Hari, This is very interesting and thanks a lot for posting this to the list. I am copying this to the urban study list which also might be interested in discussing this story and the wider issues concerning the role of NGOs with street vendors, slum dwellers, squatters, etc. Recently, Liza Weinstein's article in the Journal for Urban and Regional Research also indicates some similar issues, the use of mafia and organized crime groups in the provisioning of housing under the SRA scheme in Mumbai. What is interesting is how these roles are now emerging with the transformation in cities. Perhaps there are other questions and thoughts which may emerge from this posting and which will be useful to discuss in the context of urban restructiring and changes in cities. Thanks again, Zainab On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 4:57 PM, Hari Sadu wrote: > [Given below is a news report published in Tehelka and later withdrawn. > Two > weeks later Tehelka published an apology, which is appended below the > article. Madhu Kishwar's allegations of corruption against two journalists > are also quoted in the end. This might be of interest to many on this list > about media and the city and will hopefully generate debate. Cheers, Hari > Sadu.] > > > > > A BIG, BAD STREET FIGHT > > Tehelka (print edition); 2 Feb 2008 > "Engaged Circle" section > > A Delhi project to accommodate street vendors in a dignified way fails; > social activist Madhu Kishwar is beaten up. SHOBHITA NAITHANI reports > > AS OUR METROPOLISES get mallified, and under the guise of "beautification > of > cities" street vendors get steamrollered, the Municipal Corporation of > Delhi > (MCD) and the NGO Manushi Sangathan, had launched the Sewa Nagar pilot > project in 2004. The objective was to demonstrate that world-class > cleanliness could be attained in the dirtiest of markets; that aesthetics > can be organised and the vendors can be accommodated in a dignified way. > Last week, the head of Manushi, Madhu Kishwar, termed the Sewa Nagar > project > a "failed experiment". Kishwar, also senior fellow at the Centre for the > Study of Developing Societies, was beaten up recently by the "local > mafia". > TEHELKA's inquiries have revealed that while a local mafia does exist, > Manushi itself is at the heart of growing resentment and controversy. > > The project, whose primary aim was to free street vendors and hawkers from > the scourge of "needless bureaucratic controls, license quota and raid > raj", > was initiated when 159 vendors signed an oath and agreed to stay within > the > Sanyam Rekha (line of discipline). This meant neither selling nor renting > out the allotted stall; paying a monthly rent of Rs 390 to the MCD through > Manushi; contributing on a monthly basis towards the salary of the Safai > Brigade (that maintains cleanliness in the area); paying the cost of > improved stalls and the management cost of the project and accepting a > fine > of Rs 100 if they violate the Sanyam Rekha. Membership of habitual > violators > was to be cancelled whereby the MCD is free to evict them and seal the > stalls. > > Manushi was granted Rs 25 lakh and Rs 10 lakh from Congress MP Ambika Soni > and Dr Karan Singh's MPLADS funds respectively to build the required > infrastructure. The model, which was lauded by locals, politicians and > government officials, today faces allegations of embezzlement. Charges and > counter-charges between Manushi and the local mafia fly thick and fast. > The > Bhagat-Baisoya gang (Bhagat Singh, Mahipal Baisoya, Babli Baisoya, and > Ajay > Baisoya) is supported by the Delhi Pradesh National Panthers Party (DPNPP) > and a gentleman who works surreptitiously under the pseudonym > "Hindustani". > > Kishwar claims the bribe-collecting mafia -- in connivance with local > corporator Jagdish Mamgain and Member of Parliament Ajay Maken -- has > unleashed a reign of terror: beating up Manushi members, destroying > project > property time and again, and threatening them with dire consequences. > However, members of the Bhagat-Baisoya gang and a few vendors claim > Manushi > has "pocketed their money". "The whole thing started with Ajay Maken and > his > henchmen asking us for stalls," says Kishwar. Maken's office when > contacted > said there was no need for Maken to clarify baseless allegations. > Meanwhile, > the situation at Sewa Nagar is volatile. A 24-hour police picket is > stationed there after a recent incident of violence. > > On December 31, 2007, Madhu Kishwar and Manushi member Sheeshpal were > beaten > up in the market. The Baisoyas, however, allege that the two were beaten > up > only when they tried to flee after ramming their car into their > 65-year-old > mother, who was admitted to AIIMS and discharged three days later. When > TEHELKA contacted the SHO, Kotla Mubarakpur Police Station, and sought > details, he only had two words: "Nothing happened." > > Subsequently, the police served externment notices to Mahipal and Bhagat > Singh in addition to ordering them to furnish bonds of Rs 10,000 each. MCD > Councillor Jagdish Mamgain says, "There are no two ways about the fact > that > she (Kishwar) was beaten up on 31 December." > > DPNPP president Sanjay Sachdev clarifies that while his party is not > against > the Sewa Nagar project, he is certain about the December 31 accident: > "There > is an AIIMS report that proves that the old lady suffered a minor head > injury." He also backs the vendors' allegation that Kishwar is running and > ruling the market with an iron hand. "She must realise that she is not an > enforcing agency or the court of law. She has been picking up vendors' > items > as and when she desires and has been issuing challans to the tune of Rs > 3,000. The temple of the Swacch Narayani Devi (the goddess Kishwar > conceptualised) that Manushi has built is on public land -- it is > illegal." > > Deputy MCD Commissioner (Central Zone), Amiya Chandra, says it is a > wonderful project, and the MCD is trying its best to make it a success. > "When I met Madhu, she told me the problem was not us with but the > police." > Asked if the temple was built on illegal land, Chandra told TEHELKA, "If > the > MCD wants, it can demolish the temple tomorrow. But if somebody is doing > it > to promote cleanliness, we must appreciate it." > > Kishwar says that there wasn't any agreement signed for the temple, but it > was part of the architectural plan given to the MCD. "The issue is not the > temple; not even the project. The issue is policy reform at an all-India > level. They can demolish what they like, I couldn't care less." > > According to Hindustani, "As per the agreement, vendors had agreed to pay > a > fine of Rs 100 if they violate the Sanyam Rekha. But Manushi charged > Kamruddin and Roshan Khan Rs 2,500 each for violations (copies of the > receipts are with TEHELKA). Some were charged Rs 2,750 and Rs 11,000 with > a > promise of a installation of an electricity metre." Kishwar defends: "They > started a chicken slaughter shop in addition to the mattress-making shop > and > occupied 100 square feet of extra space. Chicken slaughter is not allowed > on > the pavement and we were getting notices from the MCD, so we suspended > their > membership. The money of the few people who paid for the electricity metre > is deposited with us." > > The man in the eye of the storm, Mahipal Baisoya, who now runs a CD shop > in > Sewa Nagar, claims Manushi took Rs 1.5 lakh from him and his three > brothers > with a promise to regularise their tempo stand and give them a stall each > with costs ranging from Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000 depending on how early they > could pay. "We got a receipt for only Rs 30,000. When we heard that the > tender for the project was for five years and would end in 2008, the > vendors > decided to question the organisation for accounts." > > Kishwar says the Baisoyas' tempo stand was illegal and had become a hub > for > "anti-social elements", but denies taking Rs 1.5 lakh as Baisoya alleges. > On > June 6, 2007, the Deputy Commissioner (Central Zone) declared that, > "Determined action should be taken to get the unauthorised tempo parking > and > the illegally constructed office of the Baisoya Tempo Stand removed from > the > project area." > > While Mahipal and other vendors allege they live under the terror and fear > of Manushi, active Manushi project members claim it is the Bhagat-Baisoya > gang who have been terrorising them. "They want monopoly of the market and > have made life miserable for us. They come at night with knives to > threaten > our wives and children," says Mehboob, a vendor in Sewa Nagar. Another > vendor, Yogesh, says he is a victim of the money-lending mafia led by the > Baisoyas. "They persuaded me into taking a loan of Rs 35,000 at an > interest > rate of 10 percent per month to buy goods for my stall. I have already > paid > over Rs 3.63 lakh as interest. They are claiming Rs 1.2 lakh more, have > confiscated my scooter and forced me to sign several blank cheques." > > As the blame game continues, the Central Cabinet's January 2004 ruling to > implement a National Policy for Street Vendors comes into force. As 3 lakh > tehbazari licenses and vending sites in Delhi are to be allotted, a big > scam > appears to be in the making. According to Manushi estimates, at an average > of Rs 10 lakh per stall, this is worth Rs 3,000 crore. Clearly, there's a > lot at stake. > > > > * * * > > > [This article had appeared in Tehelka and was available on its website for > a > few days but later removed: > http://www.tehelka.com/story_main37.asp?filename=cr020208Big_Bad.asp That > link promised an amended version which was never put up and not one but > two > weeks later Tehelka published an apology which it curiously did not put up > online at all. Given below is the text of the apology.] > > > * * * > > [Tehelka, 16 February 2008, "Letters" section, page 7; not published > online] > > > > A TRAVESTY, NOT A BIG BAD STREET FIGHT > > Fighting public battles in India is never an easy task. Corruptions are so > entrenched, interests so vested, and the ordinary citizen sucked so > completely into the country's vast parallel economy and shadow > administration that often it is difficult to even remember how things were > really meant to be. Indians have come to accept that a bribe will allow > them > to go their way, allow them to run their businesses, run their lives: they > are almost grateful for this refuge, grateful to be instruments in their > own > oppression. One of the biggest ironies of waging public battles in India > is > that sometimes those you bat for might actually wish that you wouldn't. > The > road is too difficult; everyone would rather bend and look the other way. > > All of this makes the reporting of public battles almost as complicated as > waging them. At Tehelka, we had a taste of this in our Feb 2 issue. In > reporting the trouble around veteran activist, Madhu Kishwar's street > vendor > project in Sewa Nagar in Delhi ("A Big Bad Street Fight"), we mistook the > surface chaos for the real story. In the process, we ended up being unfair > to both the intention and the complexity of the endeavour. > > Four years ago, Manushi, the NGO run by Kishwar, undertook a difficult but > important pilot project in Delhi, sanctioned by the Supreme Court and > funded > by an MP's development fund. Its mandate was to prove that street vendors > can be formally incorporated into the city's economy as a hygienic and > beneficial presence and do not need to be booted out. The context of this > project was very significant. As India moves towards large retail formats > and first world urban models, there is an increasing official tendency to > banish the informal sector, comprising poor but self-reliant > entrepreneurs. > For instance, there are over three lakh vendors and mobile hawkers in > Delhi. > Yet, less than 3,000 have been given vending licenses from the MCD – most > of > these after prolonged battles in the courts. The illegal status of more > than > 99% vendors makes them easy targets of extortionist mafias. Blackmail, > arbitrary confiscation of goods, bribes: that has come to be the vendors' > life. The loss of income suffered by them, in doling out bribes, amounts > to > a staggering Rs 500 crore a year. > > For years, a key argument offered by municipal agencies and the police for > not legalising street vendors has been that they obstruct other road users > and spread chaos and squalour. To combat this official prejudice, Manushi > offered to take on a pilot project. Much rode on this project. If > successful, it would result in far-reaching policy changes. > > Predictably, the project faced a lot of resistance from the local mafia > and > police. Vendors who were part of the project now had legal protection and > stopped paying monthly bribes. This outraged the local mafia. Local > political leaders also began to pressure Manushi for stalls for their men: > the usual dismal Indian story. > > In December this year, the violence and intimidation came to a head. > Manushi > has been coerced out of the area; Kishwar has been accorded police > protection. The pilot project, which, in demanding dignity and discipline > of > its vendor-members, had begun to seem a thing of hope, has now been forced > back to its stereotype of chaos and squalor. > > As always in India, a larger story looms beyond the immediate incident. > The > violence against Manushi's pilot project is just a tip of the iceberg, > pointing to vaster corruptions and vaster violence against the ordinary > man > on the street. Until Tehelka has the time and resource to help uncover > that > travesty, it extends an apology for getting the original story wrong. > > Editor-in-Chief > Tehelka > > * * * > > > > [There were some articles in Mid-Day too which irked Manushi. In an > article > in the Outlokindia.com website, Kishwar has alleged vested interests on > the > part of these reporters and publications: An excerpt:] > > ============ > The police did register an FIR on the basis of my complaint of Decemebr > 31st > and some earlier attacks on me, but they also allowed the attackers to > lodge > several false complains against Manushi including "attempt to murder" > charge > against me alleging that I had tried to kill one of their aunts by > ordering > my driver to ram my car into her. They also alleged that when they > protested, my "henchmen beat them up." This has been their standard > strategy. After every single attack on Manushi members, they lodge all > manners of fraudulent counter cases against us. They are even able to buy > newspaper space for spreading these lies by influencing reporters through > money or political influence. Two such fabricated reports appeared in > Midday > and another one in Tehleka. While Tehelka offered an unconditional apology > in their issue of February 11, 2008, for their reporter having been misled > by mafia elements, Midday continued with the falsehoods despite repeated > warnings thus forcing Manushi to sue the paper and the reporter for > criminal > defamation. > ============ > > > The full article by Kishwar can be read here: > > http://www.outlookindia.com/fullprint.asp?choice=1&fodname=20080215&fname=madhu&sid=1 > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -- Zainab Bawa Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher Between Places ... http://wbfs.wordpress.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080503/22269c5a/attachment-0001.html From yanivbin at gmail.com Tue May 6 12:35:30 2008 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 12:35:30 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] CITY OF HOPE Seminar issue on Hyderabad Message-ID: <86b8a7050805060005x34717521r808e7170d605d642@mail.gmail.com> FYI* CITY OF HOPE *a symposium on Hyderabad and its syncretic culture http://www.india-seminar.com/semframe.html Only a part of the issue is online -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080506/8393aed3/attachment.html From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Tue May 6 19:48:54 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 14:18:54 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Soweto (Joburg suburb) water victory Message-ID: <951.90281.qm@web23003.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Privatization of urban services has been a major battle ground in South Africa. This one below is a major victory for Soweto residents. SA's urban history (Soweto itself in particular) is of a very different kind compared to anything we know in India. But is there anything that matches this kind of raw political energy ? anant ------------------------------------ The Times, 6 May 2008 Court declares prepaid system ‘unconstitutional, unlawful’ A Soweto residents’ organisation will today launch a campaign urging residents to remove the prepaid water meters installed in their homes. The announcement of the campaign follows a landmark Johannesburg High Court ruling last week declaring “unconstitutional and unlawful” the installation of prepaid water meters in Phiri, a suburb of Soweto. The meters automatically disconnect the water supply to a household once it has used the 6000 litres provided to residents free by the city. Residents have to pay in advance for further supplies. The court ruling came after residents of Phiri took Johannesburg Water, the City of Johannesburg, and Water and Forestry Minister Lindiwe Hendricks to court over the water system two years ago. Charlie Nyatumbo, of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, said the court’s ruling gave residents the right to remove the meters. Nyatumbo said: “[Today] we will be going house-to-house to remove these prepaid water meters. “This judgment basically says break the water meter and enjoy free water.” But Virgil James, a spokesman for the City of Johannesburg, warned residents not to damage council property. James said: “ The ruling of the court does not give people permission to start removing these meters. It is property that needs to be protected. “We appeal to people not to damage council property.” He said that the council was studying the high court judgment and would make a decision on whether to appeal after it had received legal advice. At a press briefing yesterday, two NGOs, the Anti-privatisation Forum and the Coalition Against Water Privatisation, celebrated the judgement and announced the launch of Operation Vula Manzi, which will push for the disconnection of at least 80000 prepaid water meters. Dale McKinley, a spokesman for the Coalition Against Water Privatisation and a member of the Anti-privatisation Forum, said: “People from all over the world want to know about this judgment as it will have global implications.” McKinley said the City of Johannesburg had acted like “Big Brother” regarding the prepaid meters and that the city council’s water policy discriminated against blacks and the poor. He called on Cosatu-affiliated unions and on political parties to join the fight against prepaid water meters. McKinley said the coalition expected the council to appeal against the judgment and was prepared to take its case to the highest court in the land. The Coalition Against Water Privatisation called on poor communities across South Africa to take their municipality to court to fight the installation of “discriminatory” prepaid water meters. Patra Sindane, an organiser for the coalition, welcomed the judgment, saying the disconnection of water supplies had caused an increase in water-borne diseases, which had resulted in an increase in the child mortality rate. “Water is life and sanitation is dignity. Our life depends on water,” Sindane said . But James said the judgment would badly affect the council’s water-saving campaign , mainly because some people waste resources that are free. James said the council was losing “millions of rands a year” because of water it was unable to account for. line __________________________________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! Mail. A Smarter Email http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080506/af0a2353/attachment.html From anokhip at gmail.com Tue May 6 20:11:06 2008 From: anokhip at gmail.com (Anokhi Parikh) Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 20:11:06 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Soweto (Joburg suburb) water victory In-Reply-To: <951.90281.qm@web23003.mail.ird.yahoo.com> References: <951.90281.qm@web23003.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Message-ID: It is inevitable that the city will appeal, yet it's an amazing victory. What this article doesn't mention is that the court also ruled for the quantity of free basic water to be doubled - from 25 litres per person per day to 50. Have attached the (lengthy) judgement and another brief. -anokhi *PREPAYMENT WATER METER SYSTEM UNCONSTITUTIONAL, FREE BASIC WATER TO BE INCREASED* *High Court Judge slams City of Johannesburg's water policy and orders removal of prepayment meters if residents demand* The Johannesburg High Court today ruled that the City of Johannesburg's practice of forcibly installing prepayment water meters in Phiri, Soweto is unconstitutional. It also set aside the City's decision to limit its free basic water supply to 25 litres per person per day and ordered it to provide the residents of Phiri with free basic water in the amount of 50 litres per person per day. The City was further directed to give the residents of Phiri the option of an ordinary credit metered water supply. In a ground-breaking judgment – the first in which the constitutional right to water has explicitly been raised – Judge MP Toska criticised the municipality for its discriminatory approach to the provision of water. The Judge found that: "the underlying basis for the introduction of prepayment meters seems to me to be credit control. If this is true, I am unable to understand why this credit control measure is only suitable in the historically poor black areas and not the historically rich white areas. Bad payers cannot be described in terms of colour or geographical area." The Judge also found that the consultation leading up to the adoption of prepayment meters was inadequate, stating that the process was "more of a publicity stunt than consultation". He also criticised the City's "big brother approach" to the residents of Phiri. The Judge stated that "25 litres per person day is insufficient for the residents of Phiri", whom he described as "poor, uneducated, elderly, sick, ravaged by HIV/AIDS and reliant on state pensions and grants." The judge continued that "to expect the applicants to restrict their water usage, to compromise their health, by limiting the number of toilet flushes in order to save water is to deny them the rights to health and to lead a dignified lifestyle." The Judge found that increasing the free basic water supply would not put significant strain on the City's water and financial resources, especially if free basic water already supplied to rich households is redistributed to the poor. Jackie Dugard, Acting Director of CALS and a member of the applicants' legal team said "It has been a long hard road for our clients. This judgment is not only a victory for them, but for all poor South Africans. Judge Tsoka has shown that socio-economic rights have teeth. His judgment shows a careful and sensitive understanding of the law, the City's obligations, but above all our clients' lives". Stuart Wilson, Head of the CALS Litigation Unit said that "the judgment speaks volumes about the City's approach to the poor and the vulnerable. A serious rethink of the City's approach to poverty must now take place". *For more information, contact: Jackie Dugard on 084 240 6187, Stuart Wilson on 072 265 8633 or Dale McKinley of the Coalition Against Water Privatisation on 072 429 4086* On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 7:48 PM, anant m wrote: > Privatization of urban services has been a major battle ground in South > Africa. This one below is a major victory for Soweto residents.. SA's urban > history (Soweto itself in particular) is of a very different kind compared > to anything we know in India. But is there anything that matches this kind > of raw political energy ? > anant > ------------------------------------ > > The Times, 6 May 2008 > > Court declares prepaid system 'unconstitutional, unlawful' > > A Soweto residents' organisation will today launch a campaign urging > residents to remove the prepaid water meters installed in their homes. > > The announcement of the campaign follows a landmark Johannesburg High > Court ruling last week declaring "unconstitutional and unlawful" the > installation of prepaid water meters in Phiri, a suburb of Soweto. > > The meters automatically disconnect the water supply to a household once > it has used the 6000 litres provided to residents free by the city. > Residents have to pay in advance for further supplies. > > The court ruling came after residents of Phiri took Johannesburg Water, > the City of Johannesburg, and Water and Forestry Minister Lindiwe > Hendricks to court over the water system two years ago. > > Charlie Nyatumbo, of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, said the > court's ruling gave residents the right to remove the meters. > > Nyatumbo said: "[Today] we will be going house-to-house to remove these > prepaid water meters. > > "This judgment basically says break the water meter and enjoy free water." > > But Virgil James, a spokesman for the City of Johannesburg, warned > residents not to damage council property. > > James said: " The ruling of the court does not give people permission to > start removing these meters. It is property that needs to be protected. > > "We appeal to people not to damage council property." > > He said that the council was studying the high court judgment and would > make a decision on whether to appeal after it had received legal advice. > > At a press briefing yesterday, two NGOs, the Anti-privatisation Forum > and the Coalition Against Water Privatisation, celebrated the judgement > and announced the launch of Operation Vula Manzi, which will push for > the disconnection of at least 80000 prepaid water meters. > > Dale McKinley, a spokesman for the Coalition Against Water Privatisation > and a member of the Anti-privatisation Forum, said: "People from all > over the world want to know about this judgment as it will have global > implications." > > McKinley said the City of Johannesburg had acted like "Big Brother" > regarding the prepaid meters and that the city council's water policy > discriminated against blacks and the poor. > > He called on Cosatu-affiliated unions and on political parties to join > the fight against prepaid water meters. > > McKinley said the coalition expected the council to appeal against the > judgment and was prepared to take its case to the highest court in the > land. > > The Coalition Against Water Privatisation called on poor communities > across South Africa to take their municipality to court to fight the > installation of "discriminatory" prepaid water meters. > > Patra Sindane, an organiser for the coalition, welcomed the judgment, > saying the disconnection of water supplies had caused an increase in > water-borne diseases, which had resulted in an increase in the child > mortality rate. > > "Water is life and sanitation is dignity. Our life depends on water," > Sindane said . > > But James said the judgment would badly affect the council's > water-saving campaign , mainly because some people waste resources that > are free. James said the council was losing "millions of rands a year" > because of water it was unable to account for. > > > line > > ------------------------------ > Sent from Yahoo! Mail. > > A Smarter Email. > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080506/1404da14/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Phiri Judgment.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 3227753 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080506/1404da14/attachment-0001.pdf From anokhip at gmail.com Tue May 6 20:11:57 2008 From: anokhip at gmail.com (Anokhi Parikh) Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 20:11:57 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Soweto (Joburg suburb) water victory In-Reply-To: <951.90281.qm@web23003.mail.ird.yahoo.com> References: <951.90281.qm@web23003.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Message-ID: It is inevitable that the city will appeal, yet it's an amazing victory. What this article doesn't mention is that the court also ruled for the quantity of free basic water to be doubled - from 25 litres per person per day to 50. Have attached the (lengthy) judgement and another brief. -anokhi *PREPAYMENT WATER METER SYSTEM UNCONSTITUTIONAL, FREE BASIC WATER TO BE INCREASED* *High Court Judge slams City of Johannesburg's water policy and orders removal of prepayment meters if residents demand* The Johannesburg High Court today ruled that the City of Johannesburg's practice of forcibly installing prepayment water meters in Phiri, Soweto is unconstitutional. It also set aside the City's decision to limit its free basic water supply to 25 litres per person per day and ordered it to provide the residents of Phiri with free basic water in the amount of 50 litres per person per day. The City was further directed to give the residents of Phiri the option of an ordinary credit metered water supply. In a ground-breaking judgment – the first in which the constitutional right to water has explicitly been raised – Judge MP Toska criticised the municipality for its discriminatory approach to the provision of water. The Judge found that: "the underlying basis for the introduction of prepayment meters seems to me to be credit control. If this is true, I am unable to understand why this credit control measure is only suitable in the historically poor black areas and not the historically rich white areas. Bad payers cannot be described in terms of colour or geographical area." The Judge also found that the consultation leading up to the adoption of prepayment meters was inadequate, stating that the process was "more of a publicity stunt than consultation". He also criticised the City's "big brother approach" to the residents of Phiri. The Judge stated that "25 litres per person day is insufficient for the residents of Phiri", whom he described as "poor, uneducated, elderly, sick, ravaged by HIV/AIDS and reliant on state pensions and grants." The judge continued that "to expect the applicants to restrict their water usage, to compromise their health, by limiting the number of toilet flushes in order to save water is to deny them the rights to health and to lead a dignified lifestyle." The Judge found that increasing the free basic water supply would not put significant strain on the City's water and financial resources, especially if free basic water already supplied to rich households is redistributed to the poor. Jackie Dugard, Acting Director of CALS and a member of the applicants' legal team said "It has been a long hard road for our clients. This judgment is not only a victory for them, but for all poor South Africans. Judge Tsoka has shown that socio-economic rights have teeth. His judgment shows a careful and sensitive understanding of the law, the City's obligations, but above all our clients' lives". Stuart Wilson, Head of the CALS Litigation Unit said that "the judgment speaks volumes about the City's approach to the poor and the vulnerable. A serious rethink of the City's approach to poverty must now take place". *For more information, contact: Jackie Dugard on 084 240 6187, Stuart Wilson on 072 265 8633 or Dale McKinley of the Coalition Against Water Privatisation on 072 429 4086* On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 7:48 PM, anant m wrote: > Privatization of urban services has been a major battle ground in South > Africa. This one below is a major victory for Soweto residents.. SA's urban > history (Soweto itself in particular) is of a very different kind compared > to anything we know in India. But is there anything that matches this kind > of raw political energy ? > anant > ------------------------------------ > > The Times, 6 May 2008 > > Court declares prepaid system 'unconstitutional, unlawful' > > A Soweto residents' organisation will today launch a campaign urging > residents to remove the prepaid water meters installed in their homes. > > The announcement of the campaign follows a landmark Johannesburg High > Court ruling last week declaring "unconstitutional and unlawful" the > installation of prepaid water meters in Phiri, a suburb of Soweto. > > The meters automatically disconnect the water supply to a household once > it has used the 6000 litres provided to residents free by the city. > Residents have to pay in advance for further supplies. > > The court ruling came after residents of Phiri took Johannesburg Water, > the City of Johannesburg, and Water and Forestry Minister Lindiwe > Hendricks to court over the water system two years ago. > > Charlie Nyatumbo, of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, said the > court's ruling gave residents the right to remove the meters. > > Nyatumbo said: "[Today] we will be going house-to-house to remove these > prepaid water meters. > > "This judgment basically says break the water meter and enjoy free water." > > But Virgil James, a spokesman for the City of Johannesburg, warned > residents not to damage council property. > > James said: " The ruling of the court does not give people permission to > start removing these meters. It is property that needs to be protected. > > "We appeal to people not to damage council property." > > He said that the council was studying the high court judgment and would > make a decision on whether to appeal after it had received legal advice. > > At a press briefing yesterday, two NGOs, the Anti-privatisation Forum > and the Coalition Against Water Privatisation, celebrated the judgement > and announced the launch of Operation Vula Manzi, which will push for > the disconnection of at least 80000 prepaid water meters. > > Dale McKinley, a spokesman for the Coalition Against Water Privatisation > and a member of the Anti-privatisation Forum, said: "People from all > over the world want to know about this judgment as it will have global > implications." > > McKinley said the City of Johannesburg had acted like "Big Brother" > regarding the prepaid meters and that the city council's water policy > discriminated against blacks and the poor. > > He called on Cosatu-affiliated unions and on political parties to join > the fight against prepaid water meters. > > McKinley said the coalition expected the council to appeal against the > judgment and was prepared to take its case to the highest court in the > land. > > The Coalition Against Water Privatisation called on poor communities > across South Africa to take their municipality to court to fight the > installation of "discriminatory" prepaid water meters. > > Patra Sindane, an organiser for the coalition, welcomed the judgment, > saying the disconnection of water supplies had caused an increase in > water-borne diseases, which had resulted in an increase in the child > mortality rate. > > "Water is life and sanitation is dignity. Our life depends on water," > Sindane said . > > But James said the judgment would badly affect the council's > water-saving campaign , mainly because some people waste resources that > are free. James said the council was losing "millions of rands a year" > because of water it was unable to account for. > > > line > > ------------------------------ > Sent from Yahoo! Mail. > > A Smarter Email. > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080506/2ebdf107/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Phiri Judgment.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 3227753 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080506/2ebdf107/attachment-0001.pdf From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Wed May 7 14:21:16 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 08:51:16 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Soweto (Joburg suburb) water victory Message-ID: <216288.51845.qm@web23013.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Thanks Anokhi, since you seem to be following this more closely, perhaps you could point to some reading material/news reports on what has been going on in this neighborhood in the last few years? I am particularly curious about the question of organization. I am basing my question on the hunch that 1) there is actually a fair amount of water 'pilferage' in the area. I say that without any negative connotations. There is no other way to access water. 2) there is probably a strong presence of well funded NGOs with community members as staff at the field level. If the above two are correct - how did this effort to challenge the water metering system on constitutional grounds come about ? what exactly is the relationship of this lawyers collective that fought the legal case and these NGOs and community members collective/individually? Who funds the legal effort ? How costly is it ? I am curious about this because in a similar situation related to water and electricity in a poor neighborhood in Hyderabad, I was struck by the vehemence with which some of the residents opposed any formal attempt to challenge the various government departments. even those who did not oppose it were at best indifferent to such efforts. On some probing, I was told that the main reason for this was that most of them found it easier to pilfer. Trying to get it legally as a matter of formal right involved toomany costs and risks that they were just not willing to undertake. Anant ----------------------- Ek hi ulloo kaafi tha, barbaad-e-gulistan ke liye. Har shaakh pe ulloo baitha hai, anjaam-e-gulistan kya hoga. ----- Original Message ---- From: Anokhi Parikh To: anant m Cc: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net Sent: Tuesday, 6 May, 2008 10:41:06 PM Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Soweto (Joburg suburb) water victory It is inevitable that the city will appeal, yet it's an amazing victory. What this article doesn't mention is that the court also ruled for the quantity of free basic water to be doubled - from 25 litres per person per day to 50. Have attached the (lengthy) judgement and another brief. -anokhi PREPAYMENT WATER METER SYSTEM UNCONSTITUTIONAL, FREE BASIC WATER TO BE INCREASED High Court Judge slams City of Johannesburg's water policy and orders removal of prepayment meters if residents demand The Johannesburg High Court today ruled that the City of Johannesburg's practice of forcibly installing prepayment water meters in Phiri, Soweto is unconstitutional. It also set aside the City's decision to limit its free basic water supply to 25 litres per person per day and ordered it to provide the residents of Phiri with free basic water in the amount of 50 litres per person per day. The City was further directed to give the residents of Phiri the option of an ordinary credit metered water supply. In a ground-breaking judgment – the first in which the constitutional right to water has explicitly been raised – Judge MP Toska criticised the municipality for its discriminatory approach to the provision of water. The Judge found that: "the underlying basis for the introduction of prepayment meters seems to me to be credit control. If this is true, I am unable to understand why this credit control measure is only suitable in the historically poor black areas and not the historically rich white areas. Bad payers cannot be described in terms of colour or geographical area." The Judge also found that the consultation leading up to the adoption of prepayment meters was inadequate, stating that the process was "more of a publicity stunt than consultation". He also criticised the City's "big brother approach" to the residents of Phiri. The Judge stated that "25 litres per person day is insufficient for the residents of Phiri", whom he described as "poor, uneducated, elderly, sick, ravaged by HIV/AIDS and reliant on state pensions and grants." The judge continued that "to expect the applicants to restrict their water usage, to compromise their health, by limiting the number of toilet flushes in order to save water is to deny them the rights to health and to lead a dignified lifestyle." The Judge found that increasing the free basic water supply would not put significant strain on the City's water and financial resources, especially if free basic water already supplied to rich households is redistributed to the poor. Jackie Dugard, Acting Director of CALS and a member of the applicants' legal team said "It has been a long hard road for our clients. This judgment is not only a victory for them, but for all poor South Africans. Judge Tsoka has shown that socio-economic rights have teeth. His judgment shows a careful and sensitive understanding of the law, the City's obligations, but above all our clients' lives".. Stuart Wilson, Head of the CALS Litigation Unit said that "the judgment speaks volumes about the City's approach to the poor and the vulnerable. A serious rethink of the City's approach to poverty must now take place". For more information, contact: Jackie Dugard on 084 240 6187, Stuart Wilson on 072 265 8633 or Dale McKinley of the Coalition Against Water Privatisation on 072 429 4086 On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 7:48 PM, anant m wrote: Privatization of urban services has been a major battle ground in South Africa. This one below is a major victory for Soweto residents.. SA's urban history (Soweto itself in particular) is of a very different kind compared to anything we know in India. But is there anything that matches this kind of raw political energy ? anant ------------------------------------ The Times, 6 May 2008 Court declares prepaid system 'unconstitutional, unlawful' A Soweto residents' organisation will today launch a campaign urging residents to remove the prepaid water meters installed in their homes. The announcement of the campaign follows a landmark Johannesburg High Court ruling last week declaring "unconstitutional and unlawful" the installation of prepaid water meters in Phiri, a suburb of Soweto. The meters automatically disconnect the water supply to a household once it has used the 6000 litres provided to residents free by the city. Residents have to pay in advance for further supplies. The court ruling came after residents of Phiri took Johannesburg Water, the City of Johannesburg, and Water and Forestry Minister Lindiwe Hendricks to court over the water system two years ago. Charlie Nyatumbo, of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, said the court's ruling gave residents the right to remove the meters. Nyatumbo said: "[Today] we will be going house-to-house to remove these prepaid water meters. "This judgment basically says break the water meter and enjoy free water." But Virgil James, a spokesman for the City of Johannesburg, warned residents not to damage council property. James said: " The ruling of the court does not give people permission to start removing these meters. It is property that needs to be protected. "We appeal to people not to damage council property." He said that the council was studying the high court judgment and would make a decision on whether to appeal after it had received legal advice. At a press briefing yesterday, two NGOs, the Anti-privatisation Forum and the Coalition Against Water Privatisation, celebrated the judgement and announced the launch of Operation Vula Manzi, which will push for the disconnection of at least 80000 prepaid water meters. Dale McKinley, a spokesman for the Coalition Against Water Privatisation and a member of the Anti-privatisation Forum, said: "People from all over the world want to know about this judgment as it will have global implications.." McKinley said the City of Johannesburg had acted like "Big Brother" regarding the prepaid meters and that the city council's water policy discriminated against blacks and the poor. He called on Cosatu-affiliated unions and on political parties to join the fight against prepaid water meters. McKinley said the coalition expected the council to appeal against the judgment and was prepared to take its case to the highest court in the land. The Coalition Against Water Privatisation called on poor communities across South Africa to take their municipality to court to fight the installation of "discriminatory" prepaid water meters. Patra Sindane, an organiser for the coalition, welcomed the judgment, saying the disconnection of water supplies had caused an increase in water-borne diseases, which had resulted in an increase in the child mortality rate. "Water is life and sanitation is dignity. Our life depends on water," Sindane said . But James said the judgment would badly affect the council's water-saving campaign , mainly because some people waste resources that are free. James said the council was losing "millions of rands a year" because of water it was unable to account for. line ________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! Mail. A Smarter Email. _______________________________________________ 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 __________________________________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! Mail. A Smarter Email http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080507/282f45b7/attachment.html From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Thu May 8 14:21:28 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Thu, 8 May 2008 14:21:28 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: Ashhar Farhan's latest book is out! In-Reply-To: <3e1a2e9e0805072054x72240a58ge649519324b55844@mail.gmail.com> References: <3e1a2e9e0805072054x72240a58ge649519324b55844@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <908adbd0805080151s1cd3b1c7ve4a645329704b6ef@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ashhar Farhan Date: Thu, May 8, 2008 at 9:24 AM Subject: [yocs] Ashhar Farhan's latest book is out! To: yocs at yahoogroups.com, Elahe , tobler32 at gmail.com, humeraahmed742004 at hotmail.com, usha.akella at gmail.com Ashhar Farhan's latest book is out! Ashhar Farhan's only book to come out this year, in fact the only book to come out any year is already out! Go grab a copy now. Be careful though, it is bit heavy going. All of three thousand pages (die, vikram seth!). In his own words, it is more approachable than Wittgenstein's tractotus, more gripping that the bombay telephone directory and far more informative than the RAW. the book titled "Bibliography of Social Sciences in Urdu" is written in both Urdu and English. It is the first book to be simultaneously published in both languages (apart from zinda tilismath's flyer). Film rights are reserved and it is expected (by the authors at least) to be a major motion picture as soon as their filmi friends start accepting their calls. the book heralds the death of story in post modern literature and breaks the arch of narrative by following the structure of a list. as the reader steps through the book's fast paced, racy pages, he is assaulted by thousands upon thousands mentions of various books and articles written by people long dead (thankfully). In the end, he or she is left with a sense of fear and terror at the menace that social sciences can become when left to the free will of various academic investigators and self publishing thinkers. as the publisher said while chewing on the barra kabaab at karim's - "chomp! chomp! this can only lead to more research work on the research work already done, can i have a soda please? burp!" the book's credits are given to both the authors. one is curiously related to the other by a stroke of luck. farhan happens to be the son of moazzam, the other author. while farhan's stellar role has been to take the entire database, copy it to a memory stick, upload it into an excel spreadsheet and print it all out, moazzam's lesser but nevertheless important role has been to actually send couple of boys around to libraries where they sat and read and wrote about the books on the shelves for about 10 years, talk about wasting time. the boys have decided to write a small monograph on 'the making of the bibliography of urdu social sciences - a comparative study of bed bug infestation in library chairs' as soon as they are able to walk again. the books is expected to do brisk sales, clearing up the room in farhan's living room. the spouses of both the authors were not available for comment at the time of going to press. without spoiling the ending, it must be pointed out that the urdu and english books have different endings due to alphabetic arrangement. the english book's exciting ending happens in the "Zypher in Zafar's zeitgeist and zygotic zoology", the urdu ending is not considered fit for universal audience (such as this) as it involves a poet called chilkan. the book is published in three volumes and is available for $100 in library edition. please send money to the authors directly. they also indicated that any other form of payment in like wheat, rice, vegetables, pulses and chicken (not more than 2 days old) is acceptable tender. __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls | Members | Calendar To Post a message, send it to: yocs at eGroups.com To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: yocs-unsubscribe at eGroups.com Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Visit Your Group Yahoo! Groups Find balance between nutrition, activity & well-being. Y! Groups blog The place to go to stay informed on Groups news! Special K Group on Yahoo! Groups Learn how others are losing pounds. . __,_._,___ From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Tue May 13 08:12:37 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 08:12:37 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] NGOs in Delhi sealed out, fight for their rights Message-ID: <908adbd0805121942o20812fc9vc149268d81957194@mail.gmail.com> http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&autono=322719 NGOs in Delhi sealed out, fight for their rights BS Reporter / New Delhi May 13, 2008, 3:55 IST Non-government organisations (NGOs) in the national capital, New Delhi, have been sealed out since May 6. The reason: The city's planners never envisaged NGOs to be part of the city. They also never planned for NGOs to be operating out of residential areas. And now, the 12 sealed NGOs will remain so till at least July when the matter comes up before the Supreme Court. In the mean time, closure is staring at more NGOs in the Capital as the court today refused to give an interim order on a submission by about 50 NGOs seeking a stop to the ongoing drive targeting NGOs. Organisations like Navdanya, SoS Children's Villages, Wildlife Protection Society of India have been without offices since the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) sealed their offices in South Delhi localities like Vasant Kunj, Malviya Nagar and Greater Kailash. "Things were fine till the master plan was revised recently. The MCD had earlier issued an interim order allowing NGOs to continue operations wherever they were and providing immunity from sealing, as most of them were implementing government programmes for people apart from programmes funded by various agencies," says Kalyani Menon Sen of Jagori, one of the petitioners against the sealing drive, targeting NGOs. The NGOs have appealed today to Union Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy and Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken on May 12 to allow them to operate from non-institutional areas and inclusion for such a provision in the Delhi Master Plan. The majority of non-profit organisations in Delhi, as in other cities, do in fact, operate out of premises in non-institutional areas to provide essential services — education, health, social welfare, crisis support, emergency relief — to poor and marginalised citizens of Delhi. Many, if not most of these citizens are themselves forced by the lack of affordable housing to fend for themselves in so-called 'illegal' settlements, a letter to the ministry says. Sen said that their only hope now was from the ministry and Reddy who seemed receptive to their request for a possible cut-off date for excluding NGOs from non institutional area. MCD made an exception for NGOs in the period interim to notification of the revised master plan. The monitoring committee appointed by the Supreme Court to oversee the sealing drive had ruled in 2006 that NGOs would be allowed to function even if they are located in residential areas. These observations were notified by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in September 2006 in a circular to its Zonal Commissioners. This followed an appeal made to the Supreme Court monitoring committee for de-sealing of an office of the USAID functioning from 2, Poorvi Marg, Vasant Vihar. Now this order is defunct says Sen as it was issued as an interim order. Says a representative of Programme for Social Action (PSA) an organisation anchoring many people's movements on behalf of the National Alliance of People's Movement from Delhi: "The majority of charitable trusts, societies and other non-profit organisations in Delhi operate out of premises in non-institutional or residential areas. This is not so much a matter of choice as a reflection of the inadequate provision of designated institutional spaces. Space in commercial complexes is prohibitively expensive and completely out of reach for non-profit organisations that most often operate with minimal funds." NGOs describe the sealing drive as contrary to the Bhagidari movement, a citizen government partnership, that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has been championing in the capital. From virtuallyme at gmail.com Thu May 15 11:56:21 2008 From: virtuallyme at gmail.com (Rohan DSouza) Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 11:56:21 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] BIAL open to public scrutiny Message-ID: <79e82f610805142326s5a42aa63h687fdb7dfceceae2@mail.gmail.com> http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/15/stories/2008051559540300.htm * BIAL open to public scrutiny * Staff Reporter BANGALORE: In a landmark judgment with far-reaching consequences on projects taken up under the Public-Private Partnership model, the State Information Commission ruled on Wednesday that Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (BIAL) is a "public authority". The Commission has directed BIAL to appoint Public Information Officers and publicise them for the benefit of citizens. What this means is that BIAL is bound to give information to those who seek it under the Right to Information Act 2005. From procedures followed in taking decisions to budget allocations and proposed expenditures and documents under its control, as a public authority, BIAL must now voluntarily put out this and more information in the public domain as *suo motu *information. Acting on a complaint filed by an individual Benson Isaac, the Commission dismissed BIAL's contention that it was not "substantially financed" by the Government and instead held that "the financing of the project by the Government promoters is not only substantial, but also higher than the financing by the private promoters". BIAL meets the criteria for being a public authority as required by section 2(h) of the RTI Act, the Commission ruled. Further stating in its order that the project "serves a public purpose and the public have a right to know about the proper management of the project," the Commission ruled that "it will be a negation of the fundamental rights of the citizens if information about the project is not provided to them". The judgement was delivered by State Chief Information Commissioner K.K. Misra. Commenting on the decision, Vikram Simha, trustee of the Right to Information Study Centre, told *The Hindu* that this opens up all projects under public-private partnership model to scrutiny. "People have contributed much from giving up their land to use of airspace for this project. The Government has foregone money that would have gone to the exchequer and used for development projects when it gave the airport promoters exemption from several aspects," he said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080515/6a42d6b5/attachment.html From cugambetta at yahoo.com Thu May 22 15:27:27 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 02:57:27 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] pragmatism, design and informality Message-ID: <337777.42585.qm@web56803.mail.re3.yahoo.com> http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/research/publications/hdm/current/28_Fabricius.html Hi all: I wanted to send out this link to a piece I read on the favelas of Rio. It is informative, and raises a few questions I found pertinent to how we write and think about informality, or how practices of design position themselves against informal urbanisms. I was curious how others would respond the the argument Fabricius arrives at, effectively that informal urbanisms resist representation. She sees potential in how we (geographers, designers etc.) are unable to demarcate urban boundaries, she ends by asking we give up 'epistemic control' and accept 'partial knowledge'. To accept 'partial knowledge' is interesting to me, as a current student of architecture in the United States, where I see pragmatism (philosophical pragmatism) finding its way into how we think about design. A word like approximation is operative here, since it implies a certain looseness in how one designs for larger scale systems (think high density housing, office buildings, large developments, landscape scale projects etc.), or systems that, however small, are inextricably connected to large scale ecological or political forces (as a point of reference, I am drawing this use of approximation from a studio that was conducted in the Spring of 2007 and 2008 at Rice University by Clover Lee, titled Scale vs Size). Approximation, in my understanding, allows for the suggestion of programmatic relationships (how a space is used, how relations between functions unfold) without designing every single thing into an architectural infrastructure... there is of course an art and intelligence to orchestration here, its poetics derives from this direction of forces. I am speaking here of the disciplinary space of architectural design. When taken to the context of informal settlements, one is inevitably reminded that design in one sense is in large part irrelevant to the development of a slum, especially given that many living in slums (I think of India now) are more than able to build and negotiate their livlihood in a slum. Who, in this context, needs an architect or 'designer'? Having said this, I am reticent to write off the slum or informal settlement as no man's land to the designer. One interesting example is the work of an office in Shenzen, Urbanus, who conducted their own self-initiated study and design proposal for urban villages in Shenzen. Urban villages in Shenzen are constantly under threat of eviction and demolition, and are a correlate to the slum in India, evolving largely through extra-official means and networks. Their intervention is still couched in the language of rehabilitation (see Gangsha village), though it is parasitic in its introduction of new public amenities (presumably a necessity in convincing planners to keep the village), allowing the older fabric of the village to remain largely intact and presumably to continue to grow on its own. Many on the list may find this kind of intervention troubling, though I would argue that they are grappling with very real pressures. I appreciate the fact that they don't see the future life of the urban village in Shenzen as one of either ground up redevelopment or freezing the village as an artifact. http://www.urbanus.com.cn/en/projects_newcity/CV/projects_newc_cv.htm Why does the 'resistance to representation' on the part of the informal settlement that Fabricius observes energize so much critical reflection in the first place? It seems an especially active discourse if we look to how designers and urbanists are writing on slums and informality in the third world (though by no means a monolithic discourse). Fabricius briefly turns the question back on the First World ("And is the informal city perhaps a model that describes not only Third World conditions but also many aspects of First World cities?"). Still, I see an 'epistemic authority' at work here that unsettles me. Though she probably had no role to play in the title of the magazine, I wonder what kind of perspective arguments such as this are put in the service of, the title here being "Can Designers Improve Life in Non-Formal Cities?" Does her argument contradict the problematic suggested by this title? Why this persistent interest on the part of design students and pedagogues about the informal (why do students visit the favelas, or equally loaded contexts such as Dogon hill settlement in West Africa, made famous in design circles by Aldo Van Eyck)? An expansive, question, for sure, but one that is raised for me constantly. I think the correspondence between a historical obsession with the informal (often, but not always, associated with the primitive) within the disciplinary space of architecture deserves more critical thought--I think this concern has been highly influential on architectural production not only in the US or Europe but as well in India (ranging from responses to spatial techtonics, planning or interests in surface, pattern or color). I suspect that concepts like approximation owe their authority in the contemporary moment to a sustained interest on the part of designers and urbanists (such as Fabricius) with the informality of the contemporary megalopolis. Importantly, I don't think the informal is any longer solely mapped onto the third world. Fabricius mentions the interest in Los Angeles as paradigm in the 70's (think of Reyner Banham's book on LA), which I see as a case in point, not to mention more recent interest in cities such as Houston or Lagos. issue contents: http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/research/publications/hdm/current/index.html Curt From cugambetta at yahoo.com Thu May 22 18:05:42 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 05:35:42 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] question for the list on peer reviewing Message-ID: <355501.45241.qm@web56803.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Anant: Sorry it has taken me two months to respond, sometimes email slips through the cracks... but I returned to this email because I thought it was pertinent, and was hoping to see more response. My immediate response was a personal desire for the list: I would like to see more original content, in whatever stages of development, posted on the list. What I like about this list is that is allowed to ebb and flow based on the issues we are interested in. We have no prior agenda, besides a common interest. I think it would be useful for us (including myself, I am guilty too!) to circulate papers in progress on the list, often this work ends up in books and journals and we have no occasion to talk about it or, depending on where you are placed, see it. The student stipendiaries from Sarai do post their work, but it would be great to see more work posted that people can comment on. My sense is that peer reviewing won't take place or be successful unless it is structured in some way (where there are commitments from a number of people to review and post comments on the list). This is something we could do if people are interested. Also, I would be interested in knowing if there are other models for this kind of critical exchange used on other lists? Does anyone know? Again, sorry for the delay in responding to this. If there is interest, we should think about how to address this. Curt ----- Original Message ---- From: anant m To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 2:39:58 PM Subject: [Urbanstudy] question for the list on peer reviewing Dear all, it is not my intention at all to create hierarchies in the mailing list. If anyone feels that is a likely consequence of what I am suggesting, please do voice it. Having recently finished what I like to call my midlife excursion -- a PhD in geography, I am faced with a peculiar difficulty in research and writing. Happily enough, the problem has less to do with my midlife ness and more to do with a rather strange state of affairs akin to what Appadurai aptly described as the double apartheid of globalization. But it plays out in a peculiar way with me. To cut to the chase, there are the usual divides between theory and empirics and theory and praxis or intellectual and academic (i find it quite useful to make that distinction) that many of us carp about from time to time. But what complicates this further is the divide between what counts as knowledge in professional journals and what is available to some of us as people who are simultaneously rooted in many different places. Take Prem's comment (Thanks Prem for that lovely summary. I will respond to it at some point in the near future) about theorizing the Indian city. The specificities of the city in India are so myriad and riveting in themselves. However, the moment, we begin to speak to theory in refereed journals within our disciplinary boundaries or even in the multidisciplinary journals, we end up talking in strange tongues that nobody except the initiated can make any sense of. At the end of the day it proves itself to be an extremely alienating experience even to the speaker/writer. I dont have any ready solutions for this. But I am wondering if this makes any sense to anyone else on this list perhaps we could start some conversations, share some of our writings for peer reviewing or share ideas on strategies to thrive or even think of how to create spaces for collaborations and mutual support in activist/organizing/professional work. As I said at the beginning, the idea is clearly not to create some kind of academic or even activist exclusions but to ask, now that we have been here for a while, can we do something more with this list or off the list?! anant ________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! Mail. More Ways to Keep in Touch. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080522/f8f64a2d/attachment-0001.html From govind_029 at yahoo.com Fri May 23 14:41:13 2008 From: govind_029 at yahoo.com (Govind Singh) Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 02:11:13 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Invitation - Delhi Youth Summit on Climate - DYSoC 2008 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <634804.82372.qm@web54504.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Dear All, This is to invite all concerned citizens between the age group of 18 - 30 years, to the Delhi Youth Summit on Climate (DYSoC - 2008). Citizens outside this age group are welcome as observers. The two-day event will take place at Teen Murti Bhawan (about a kilometer away from both the President's House and the Central Secretariat Metro Station) on May 28th and 29th, 2008 and will bring together youth from different parts of the city and different backgrounds - to discuss, debate, share concerns and find innovative solutions to the pressing problems faced by Delhi and to shape a vision towards securing and safe-guarding our common future. The summit is NOT a lecture series and is divided into four main sections, viz., Water, Waste, Energy & Transport and Urban Planing. Speakers, Mentors and Facilitators for the Summit are coming from leading groups in the city, viz., SARAI, CSE, TERI, Toxics Link, and many more. The summit will conclude with a white paper or the "Delhi Youth Charter on Climate", that would be presented to the Chief Minister, Environment Secretary and all decision-making bodies in Delhi. To find more, read what the media is saying about the summit and to register yourself, visit: http://iycn.in/dysoc (Registration is now open and shortlisting is being done on a first-come-first-serve basis) Event Organizers & Partners: Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN), Nehru Memorial Museum & Library / Teen Murti Bhawan, Delhi Greens, LEAD India, Fountain of Development, Research & Action (FODRA), The Al Gore/Climate Project - India, SAYEN/UNEP and the YP Foundation. For more information, please contact: Kartikeya Singh Event Coordinator Indian Youth Climate Network iycn.in Ph: +91-9999-00-88-07 E-mail: kartikeya at delhigreens.org -- Govind Singh IYCN, Delhi Greens -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-419 Size: 2879 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080523/fd18a0af/attachment.bin From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Thu May 29 08:49:56 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 20:19:56 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] question for the list on peer reviewing Message-ID: <987225.93551.qm@web23013.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Curt, one delayed response begets another! Just kidding. I was swamped with stuff. You are right. Peer review kind of thing is not really possible on a large public and open ended list like urban study. I am not sure I can think of any other models of critical exchange other than what we already know. May be collaborative blogging by social scientists and humanities scholars ? But it does take up a lot of time and energy - so one has to be very clear about the goals and the time frame. Your other post - on Fabricus -- the link was not working at least when I checked a few minutes ago -- it said the server is down or something like that. The question of representations has been coming up on this list quite consistently over the years. I see this not so much as a matter of the favela or the slum resisting representation but more as a strategic political choice that the writer makes. For as long as I can remember, critical writing/media work on slums in India has been about producing counter representations/counter narratives as a strategy to defend the rights of the urban poor. Perhaps the most iconic of them is Anand patwardhan's film Hamara Shehar. The idea is if the judge says, slums are filled with criminals you show how slum residents are actually honest working men and women. If the judge says slums are filthy and filled with rats, you show how against all odds, they stay hygenic. Or you show how the lack of hygene is something created by the rich and not by the urban poor. These strategies are not working anymore. Lawrence raised this question succinctly at the time of the NanglaMachi eviction. These slums have never had full legal protection. But they survived and thrived for up to five decades in some cases. What has changed now about the city that makes slum eviction a possibility ? (Of course I am paraphrasing Lawrence here beyond recognition). In my own work, I found it necessary to draw sometimes on performativity and some times on actor networks to answer that question. The slum is constantly changing. It is never the same. It enjoys a provisional stability as a spatial unit because there are a certain critical number of linkages being performed routinely - government officials need to spend developmental funds, politicians need voters in that area, contractors need labor pools, middle class neighborhoods need domestic workers and so on. When sufficient number of these linakges are broken, the slum faces a threat of eviction. For example the DFID stops funding slum improvement programs, world bank stops funding community development, the slum has lost its significance in the politician's electoral calculations and the real estate value in that area has suddenly shot up because of a new bridge. This provisional stability of spatial units inhabited by the urban poor is a serious challenge for planning and designing. Backing off from 'representational' politics here is a strategic choice by the writer and to that extent it involves a certain epistemic authority. But then once you make that choice, you are already embroiled in a space that is produced by multiple rationalities -- the politicians, the bureaucrats, the NGOs and so on and you have to make further choices about who to collaborate with, how to map that space and towards what ends. anant From: Curt Gambetta Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 8:35 PM To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net Cc: anant m Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] question for the list on peer reviewing - Hide quoted text - Anant: Sorry it has taken me two months to respond, sometimes email slips through the cracks... but I returned to this email because I thought it was pertinent, and was hoping to see more response. My immediate response was a personal desire for the list: I would like to see more original content, in whatever stages of development, posted on the list. What I like about this list is that is allowed to ebb and flow based on the issues we are interested in. We have no prior agenda, besides a common interest. I think it would be useful for us (including myself, I am guilty too!) to circulate papers in progress on the list, often this work ends up in books and journals and we have no occasion to talk about it or, depending on where you are placed, see it. The student stipendiaries from Sarai do post their work, but it would be great to see more work posted that people can comment on. My sense is that peer reviewing won't take place or be successful unless it is structured in some way (where there are commitments from a number of people to review and post comments on the list). This is something we could do if people are interested. Also, I would be interested in knowing if there are other models for this kind of critical exchange used on other lists? Does anyone know? Again, sorry for the delay in responding to this. If there is interest, we should think about how to address this. Curt ----------------------- Ek hi ulloo kaafi tha, barbaad-e-gulistan ke liye. Har shaakh pe ulloo baitha hai, anjaam-e-gulistan kya hoga. From anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk Thu May 29 09:25:20 2008 From: anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk (anant m) Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 20:55:20 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] speaking of sharing 'in progress' work In-Reply-To: <987225.93551.qm@web23013.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <25580.44671.qm@web23004.mail.ird.yahoo.com> By the way, I am not sure this is quite what curt what had in mind when he called for more sharing of work in progress - but here is a blog a few friends have recently started. it is still very tentative and somewhat hyderabad centric. (well it is barely two weeks old). the latest post may be of general interest to this list. http://www.7oclocklive.com anant ----------------------- Ek hi ulloo kaafi tha, barbaad-e-gulistan ke liye. Har shaakh pe ulloo baitha hai, anjaam-e-gulistan kya hoga. From geetanjoy at isec.ac.in Thu May 29 10:56:51 2008 From: geetanjoy at isec.ac.in (geetanjoy at isec.ac.in) Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 10:56:51 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: Chidambaram's interview in Tehelka Message-ID: <60386.203.200.22.246.1212038811.squirrel@www.isec.ac.in> ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: Fwd: Chidambaram's interview in Tehelka From: "Divya Badami" Date: Thu, May 29, 2008 11:03 am To: geetanjoy at isec.ac.in "Arpita Joshi" "Payal Agrawal" pankaj at isec.ac.in -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * http://www.tehelka.com/story_main39.asp?filename=Ne310508cover_story.asp >From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 21, Dated May 31, 2008* *CURRENT AFFAIRS* *'My vision is to get 85 percent of India into cities'* *As India's Finance Minister,** P. Chidambaram** must unravel some of the most complex riddles of our time. In an unusually candid interview, he spells out his committed, but debatable, vision to **SHANTANU GUHA RAY(SGR) **and* *SHOMA CHAUDHURY(SC)* *A long wait in an ante-room and then the summons. A neat man in meticulous white at the far end of a football field-size room. In a stellar career, P. Chidambaram, 62, has gone from being a left-wing trade unionist to Finance Minister, driving a globalised new economy. Inevitably, he's in the crosshair of every major argument about the future of India. Certain of his vision, contemptuous of doubting socialist romantics, in an hour-long interview he spoke less numbers, more vision, with combative eloquence* *SGR: Let's start with what's top of mind. Inflation. Wholesale inflation just hit a whopping 7.83 percent. Given that the tolerance level for inflation has come down in India from a time when people were willing to tolerate 8-10 percent inflation, does this put your government on notice? *I've said this many times in the past. In the 70s and 80s average inflation was well over 8 percent, in the 50s and 60s it was even higher but since the 90s the tolerance level of inflation has come down drastically. Since the turn of this century, I think tolerance level of inflation is only between 4 to 5 percent. Therefore when the headline inflation number goes beyond 5 percent there is resentment and naturally political parties seize the opportunity to feed this resentment. We are doing everything to control the situation, but I don't think it will have too adverse an impact on our government *SGR: What about growth? The International Monetary Fund recently said the Indian economy stands at an increased risk of overheating. Do you think there could be a backlash against fast growth in India?* What is overheating? Overheating is when you have a situation where demand is far in excess of capacity. You can have overheated segments of an economy, but I do not think, in India, that demand across the board is in excess of capacity. For example, there is a demand for steel but we also export steel. The same for cement and rice. In some markets, yes, there is very high demand and some bubbles have built up, for example, in the real estate market and may be, to some extent, in the equity market. But to say the Indian economy is overheated is something I don't agree with. I think there is still capacity for our economy to grow at a higher rate. The consequence of arguing that the Indian economy is overheated is to slow down the growth rate. And that would be disastrous for India. *SC: In one of your budget speeches you spoke about a triad of concerns: growth, equity and social justice. The first is being globally celebrated. Do the other two give you moments of disquiet?* Everything is relative. The UPA government did not invent poverty nor can you say that pre-2004 this was a land of milk and honey and poverty has hit us only today. We have had poverty for 5000 years. We have had children out of schools for 50 years, infant mortality for hundreds of years. The point is, have our policies made a dent in these poverty indicators? Clearly, things are better. Per capita incomes have risen, fewer children are out of school, drop-out ratios are declining, even if slowly. More jobs are being created. In that sense, our policies are clearly progrowth and pro-equity. But if the question is, have we reached a point where we can say we are satisfied with the pace of inclusive growth, my answer candidly is, no. Our growth is at an impressive rate, but the pace of inclusiveness of that growth is at a very tiny rate. If we had a better system of administration, a better system of reaching benefits to the poor, greater accountability — we could have reached the benefits of this growth to a much larger number. Let me give you just one example: the PDS. On an average, we have put 70-lakh tonnes more food grain into the PDS after 2004, compared to previous years. This should've taken the PDS to a larger target group but, on the contrary, due to high rate of leakage which is stubbornly stuck at 35-36 percent, the perception is that the PDS is a broken system, and people are more resentful of it. *SC: When you have undertaken such massive innovation with the economy — dismantling the socialist regime, dismantling an entire way of thinking — aren't there real innovations you can undertake to improve these sectors? * Of course, we can. In my first budget I said, we must move over to a smart-card based PDS system. There were no takers. I have only just found two takers — Haryana and Chandigarh. The progress is at a glacial pace but at least it's a beginning. Very early on, I also said the fertiliser subsidy must be given directly to the farmer. Even today, the Ministry of Fertilisers does not buy that idea. Therefore, while some very remarkable changes could have been brought about in the manner in which we distribute subsidies and the manner in which we reach direct benefits to the poor, since we are unable to get people to agree to change we are continuing with a broken system. *SC: What is this resistance based on? * Well, a new system is always threatening. It may succeed, it may fail. In fact, some very sincere people oppose it out of fear of failure — what if fertilisers don't reach the farmer, what if there is a crisis in the distribution, we will have a famine in this country. But the real block is that basically everybody is loath to lose patronage. And *Palaniappan Chidambaram* does not want to ruin his own copybook but the rising international crude prices, fuelling an all-time high inflation, are making things difficult for the country's erudite finance minister. Days before he sat down for this no-holds barred interview at his office in the imposing North Block, the FM had rejected demands from the oil ministry for bonds to bail out ailing PSUs and angered the cement lobby by forcing the cement companies to lower prices. Click below to post your views on eleven interesting issues raised by the FM in the interview : I am not necessarily using the word patronage in a pejorative sense. There can be patronage without any element of corruption or malfeasance, but because people don't want to lose patronage is why you continue with old systems. *SGR: The Prime Minister has been talking about crony capitalism. You also prodded corporates recently to absorb one lakh disabled people in return for big incentives. Why should governments foot the cost of corporate social responsibility, for things that should normally happen?* Where is it ever normally done? US business did not give contracts to blacks, nor employ blacks for many, many years. You heard chairperson of the Central Bank, Ms Daruwalla, on television yesterday when she said that in 1972 she was turned down by every business house — including some Parsi ones, notwithstanding the fact that she is a Parsi — who told her that you are very qualified but we would prefer a male. So it's never normally done. People normally do not employ disabled people. We have to woo them, and that is why we've offered to pick up the tab for ESI and EPF for three years if corporates employ a differently abled person *SC: But the question runs deeper. The perception today is that government policies are entirely skewed towards corporate growth. At a time when social spends have dropped, why are there so many sops for corporates? * If all this is about creating free, competitive markets, why SEZs, tax holidays, subsidised land taken over from people under the Land Acquistion Act? In fact, to correct you, we are not reducing social spending. The numbers show we have sharply increased our social expenditure. *SC: Maybe as compared to the BJP but not... * No, not correct. Education, health, drinking water, sanitation — the amount that is spent today on all this was never spent at any time in India's history. At the same time, you have mentioned SEZs. Now I am reluctant to reply to that because I am bound by government policy. *SC: China has just six SEZs. But our Board of Control cleared more than 200 SEZs in its first sitting. I know that privately you... * It doesn't matter what I think. We are not talking off the record, and I am reluctant to talk about it because I am bound by government policy. There is some consternation about the way the policy is operating. An empowered group of ministers has been asked to look into it. It's taking more time than I would have liked, but hopefully some of the concerns expressed will be addressed. *SC: India's opportunity for growth has come at a time when we can learn from the mistakes of other societies, when we are privy to new ways of thinking on environment, climate change etc. Must we insist on the same model of growth, make the same mistakes? Can't our roadmap be different? * To an extent, but let's not be overawed by the arguments of the developed countries that we should factor in many of the new ideas and concepts which they did not factor in when they were growing. Our emission is among the lowest in the world. If you accept that there is equality amongst human beings... *SC: But it is lowest because we aren't at the peak of our industralisation curve.* See, we have made an offer that our per capita emission will be lower than that of the developed countries. In fact, we have challenged developed countries to lower their per capita emission with a promise that we will remain even lower. If you accept the fact that all human beings are equal, and are entitled to emit equal amounts — our per capita emission is a fraction, one-twentieth of that of the most developed countries, onetenth in some places, one-fifth in others. So I don't think we should be overawed by these arguments from the developed countries. In our self-interest we have decided we will adopt policies and strategies that will keep emission low and reduce the rate of emission over a period of time without interfering with our high rate of growth. We are entitled to grow like those countries were entitled to grow when they had the opportunity. This is our opportunity, we are entitled to grow. *SC: But our industrial projects, our growth centres, our cities have zero concern about environment, human life. Shouldn't quality of life — a sense of well-being — be a factor in the growth story? **France is revising what its GDP should mean to include the intangible but crucial idea of "well-being". * Yes, but that's after you reach a certain level of GDP, a certain degree of per capita *SC: That's the point. First we must arrive at the crisis, then we will look for the remedies. * Poverty is the worst polluter. If you are poor, you live in the most polluted world. The sanitation is poor, the drinking water is poor, the housing is poor, the air you breathe is poor. Everything is polluted. Poverty is the worst polluter. It's our right, our duty, to first overcome poverty. In the process, yes, we will be sensitive to concerns expressed by other countries but not at the cost of our growth and our goal of eliminating poverty in our lifetime. *SC: The worrying thing is that on the ground the exact opposite of what you say is happening. Take the POSCO project or Vedanta or the sponge iron factories in Raigad. It is the poor who are suffering the most from the move towards industrialisation. Most of the unrest in the country today is over development projects that are anti-people — in terms of land takeover, resource usage, pollution of water and air. On the very things you talked about — air, water, basic health, basic living — the growth that is meant to alleviate poverty is adding to their misery. Do you call this inevitable collateral or would you admit the way we are going about things is wrong?* I think people are being deceived to believe that the existing state of life is an ideal state of life and development and industrialisation will make it worse. Here we talk about steel prices going up, but for three years we have stopped the world's largest steel producer from producing steel in India. This could be categorised as a conspiracy of the socially-driven class to keep poor people poor. What is the quality of life we are talking about? They have no food, no jobs, no education, no drinking water. These districts of Orissa have remained poor since the world dawned. They live in abject poverty and you want me to accept the argument that if you set up a steel plant or mine the minerals there, they will become even poorer? What are we talking about? *SC: I am talking about the way it's done. So what do we do? * We keep the minerals buried in Mother Earth? We keep the iron ore where it is, we keep the coal where it is and keep people poor? Is that what you're suggesting? I'm telling you, we must develop those iron ore mines, we must mine that coal, we must build industries, we must give jobs to people. If this argument had prevailed there would be no Jamshedpur, and today the quality of life in Jamshedpur is better than in any other city in India. It has 24 hours water supply, electric supply, it has education for all its residents, and it has cleaner air than any other city. Had these people been around to advice Mr Jamshedji Tata in 1908, there would have been no Jamshedpur at all. *SC: That's just one example, and it's a hundred years old. I am talking about the way we are industrialising now, the complete absence of a "best practice" culture. How was Jamshedpur built? * Are you questioning the way industrialisation took place there? *SC: One would have to go back to see if there was unrest and pollution.* Look at the environment there today. They may have done some short-term damage. It might have been a curve — you might do some shortterm damage but you ride the curve, you hit the trough and then it improves. Would you have wanted them to continue living in abject poverty? Why do you assume that POSCO or the Mittals will not build in Orissa and Jharkhand a place like Jamshedpur. Why do you assume so? *SC: There's little evidence to go by. There was a culture of collective good and nation-building which no longer exists.* I don't agree that the only ones with consci ence and sensitivity to the environment are NGOs, and that business houses and entrepreneurs have no conscience and are totally oblivious to the larger good. I don't agree at all. Just go to Neyveli and see. What was Neyveli? It was the poorest part of Tamil Nadu and today it is a humming, buzzing town and it has a school which has hundred percent pass results every year. The boys and girls from that school are toppers in competitive examinations. I sincerely hope you do not believe the poor enjoy a high quality of life. *SC: Our governments have been pretty derelict in regulating or nudging corporates to behave well. The Vedanta project in the Niyamgiri hills in Orissa is a good example. It earned international censure for its untenable behaviour in Orissa, a Norwegian fund even divested from it because of that. But here it took a PIL to stall the project. Would you agree that our government is failing to bat for the common good? * We have enough laws to take care of the issue. Apply those laws. If the Central or state government does not enforce environmental laws then blame that government. If the laws are inadequate, strengthen them, but in the name of the environment, for heaven's sake, please don't say that the poor should remain poor for the next five thousand years. *SC: Take Vedanta again. I'm asking what is the view from the other side, what is the government's thinking on them? Even after they were stalled by the Supreme Court, the government asked it to reapply for the project under its Indian company. You argued as a lawyer for them when you weren't Finance Minister.* In one of their excise cases. What has that got to do with this? Are you insinuating that my answers are coloured by the fact that I appeared for them? If a lawyer is pleading for a client in a murder case, does that imply that he has complicity in the murder? What is the relevance of your statement? *SC: Alright, I'll withdraw it. I am asking, given their dismal track record in Orissa, why is the government defending their position instead of disqualifying them or pushing them towards better practices? * So do it. Who is preventing you? Apply the laws. But don't stop the project. That's the only way of rescuing those people from the clutches of abject poverty. *SGR: To switch track, why are you opposed to food crop being diverted for the generation of bio-fuel? *We grow food to consume it as food. We don't grow food to be converted into fuel. Twenty percent of US corn is* *being diverted to fuel. Sugarcane is being diverted to fuel. Palm oil is being diverted to fuel and because of the high prices of fuel linked to the crude oil crisis, people are diverting land which is meant to grow food grain to grow crops for bio-fuels. How is this justified in a world where millions of people are still going without food? We are serious about making poverty history. We are serious about eliminating hunger and malnutrition. I think the first point everybody should agree on is that food should not be converted to fuel. If you want to produce bio-fuels using non-food, do so. Find other land to grow crops for producing bio-fuels. *SGR: What about your ban on futures trading in commodities? * The Abhijit Sen Committee said there's no conclusive evidence that futures trade is fuelling a price rise. But it advised continuing the current ban on four commodities. Isn't that confusing? I agree there is no conclusive evidence that banning futures trade has any impact on prices. But it was that very committee, not I, who said we should continue the ban on rice, wheat, toor and urad. When the Parliamentary Standing Committee says the same thing, if all political parties, including the BJP which introduced commodities trading in the first place, demand a ban, if people in villages start blaming futures and commodities trading as the reason for price rise, you have to heed the advice of the majority. That is what we have done. I'm reasonably sure this ban will have no impact on the prices of these items, but sometimes you do things that may have no positive impact, but hopefully no negative ones either. *SC: To come back to a question that vexes everyone. In a country as complex as ours, what is your vision for eliminating poverty? Does it mean the co-existence of rural and urban economies? * Urbanisation cannot be stopped. It is an inexorable process. All you can do is mitigate the harmful effects of mindless urbanisation by building new cities, by limiting the size of cities, by creating more green and open spaces in cities. I don't think it's within the power of any country or people to stop this natural progression. We must try to manage it rather than interfere with it. My vision of a poverty-free India will be an India where a vast majority, something like 85 percent, will eventually live in cities. Not megalopolises but cities. In an urban environment it is easier and more efficient to provide water, electricity, education, roads, entertainment and security rather than in 6,00,000 villages. I also believe a significant number of Indians would want to live in the countryside and continue farming. That should be welcome and we should encourage it, but it would be a much smaller number than people who have moved to cities. My vision again is that we must continue to emphasise the imperative need of growth over a long period of time. We get weary easily. We have three to four years of high growth and we sit back as though it is a given. Growth is not a given. You have to work hard for it. We have to ensure that the growth process continues for the next 20-30 years. When we have eliminated poverty, illiteracy, some of the most debilitating diseases, when we have immunised every child, when we have eliminated very basic deficiencies like lack of drinking water, electricity, rural road connectivity — at that point of time, the process will become automatic and people will themselves ensure that growth continues at a fairly sustained pace. But for that that moment to arrive, to get rid of poverty in our lifetime, we need to work very hard to sustain a growth rate of nine percent moving up to 10 percent. If you want to get rid of poverty over the next hundred years, you can have a different model or system. But if you want to get rid of it in the next 20 years, we have to work very hard for it. *SC: It sounds like a pipedream, because the experience on the ground is very different. Look at Gurgaon — emblem of India Shining, coming up on virgin land. It could have been a kind of urban utopia. Instead, there is no water, no electricity, no public transport, huge pollution, and absolutely no space or planning for the poor. Take any other B-town. Moradabad. Siliguri. Patna. Take the megalopolises — imploding under the weight of growth. The poor definitely don't seem to be benefiting in these places.* So shall we leave people to live in these villages? *SC: I am asking is there a slower, deeper, more varied way of doing things that might not mean instant and insane wealth for a few of us, and yet ensure overall growth?* Apply the laws. Apply town-planning laws. The laws do not allow you to build without providing water and open spaces. You are passing off our collective failure to apply laws upon the model of development itself. I don't think there is anything wrong with the model of development. It is just the unwillingness of the authorities to enforce rules and regulations. The answer is not to go back to the past and say, if we cannot apply the laws, let's continue to live in our original state of poverty, neglect and despair. *SGR: So if you had no political constraints, how would you fix the agricultural sector? * This year, the latest assessment of 2008 by ICRA will show a growth rate of 4.5 to 4.7 percent in agriculture. We are going to end up with 227 to 230 million tonnes of food grains. So agriculture in itself is doing well. Yet farmers are poor because of the vast numbers dependent on agriculture. If the numbers were much smaller, let's say half, you would say agriculture is doing very well in India. So I don't think we should confuse the issue between agriculture doing well and farmers doing poorly. The way to fix agriculture is to address the five key inputs required for agriculture:water, power, seeds, fertiliser and credit. I think we have done well on credits. We are beginning to do well on water, thanks to the massive outlays and irrigation projects. It will take some time, but when these projects are completed, we will do well on water. We have neglected seeds, we have got a completely distorted fertiliser subsidy regime, and we have failed miserably on the power front. But Gujarat has shown us the way on how to fix power for agriculture. With seeds, we made a beginning last year. We are trying to increase the replacement rate of seeds and, with fertilisers, there is a clear way out provided we are willing to bite the bullet. If all these five things come together, agriculture will grow at a very rapid rate of more than four percent a year. But even if it grows at four percent, farmers will continue to remain poor because of the large numbers dependent on agriculture. So the answer is to wean farmers away from agriculture into industrial services — not urban slums, just non-farm related activity. Do away with the romantic idea that we can continue to sustain 60 percent of our population on agriculture. *SC: Let's go back to national resources, like minerals. When you hand over natio - nal wealth to private corporations driven purely by the profit motive, what is the logic of usage? What's to stop them cynically destituting a place before moving on? * Don't hand it over to a private corporation. Set up an efficient PSU if you want. *SC: But you are against PSUs. We are not, who said we are? * We are putting more money in NTPC, SAIL, NMDC. We have revived 29 sick PSUs and put aside 13,000 crores in the last four years for this. So create a PSU. But why this old mental block that private is greed and therefore bad, and public is good. *SC: There are bad examples. Union Carbide, Enron. * If you want to continue with those traditional images of public and private sector you are welcome. The point I'm making is coal and iron ore is not meant to be kept buried under Mother Earth. They have to be put to use. As for your fears about environment and overuse, when we found that mining Kudremukh iron ore is highly polluting, we stopped mining it. But the argument that resources should not be used is an argument that must be rejected. Those who say that have a vested interest in perpetuating poverty. *SC: You stopped mining in Kudremukh, but it is now a devastated place. SGR: Let's move to another big fear. Retail. A government-sponsored study recently reaffirmed the fear that the entry of large retail formats will ultimately dry up all small and middle-level retail.* This is a genuine fear. There is no empirical evidence to show that mom and pop stores will be wiped out if retail chains come. For example, Walmart. I met its chairman the other day and he said their 47th store has opened in China and there's no evidence that mom and pop stores in China are being wiped out. But still, the fear is genuine, and it is the duty of the government to allay that fear. And until it is completely removed, we are moving slowly and cautiously. We are not saying the fear is unjustified. That is why we have opened only wholesale, cash-and-carry and single brand retail to foreign investments. We have not yet opened multi-brand retail. *SC: How far do you see the Maoist-Naxal phenomenon related to economic issues? * The areas affected by Naxals are in a pretty bad situation. They are obviously thriving on the poverty and illiteracy of the tribal people and the State owes a responsibility here because it has not paid enough attention to those areas, nor has it respected the democratic rights of those people. The State today is seen to be in conflict with the tribals. And the Naxalites and Maoists are seen as allies of the tribals. But the answer to the State's failure is not to encourage left-wing extremism. We have to fight the Naxalites and at the same time the State has to be more sensitive to the welfare of the tribals. *SC: The PM has brought up concerns over conspicuous consumption. Is that valid given the economy that's being architected? * It is, but you can't legislate on it. It can only be stopped by teaching values and ideals in schools and families. *SC: There is very little to distinguish between the economic policies of the BJP and the Congress. What does that say? * I don't think the BJP is an originator of any economic policy. The Congress is the originator of the new economic policy. The BJP carried the ball forward in its own way, even if they made some mistakes. Therefore this question must be put to the BJP — does the BJP want to be a follower of the Congress-initiated economic policy? *From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 21, Dated May 31, 2008* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080529/6a80b5f7/attachment-0001.html From cugambetta at yahoo.com Thu May 29 15:32:17 2008 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 03:02:17 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: This Saturday: Youth Fellowship Annual Event Message-ID: <483364.73453.qm@web56806.mail.re3.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: PUKAR To: cugambetta at yahoo.com Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 3:17:02 PM Subject: This Saturday: Youth Fellowship Annual Event If you are having trouble viewing this email please click here. ________________________________ PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research) Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P.M.Road, Fort, Mumbai 400001 Telephone:: +91 (22) 6574 8152 Fax:: +91 (22) 6664 0561 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in PUKAR is an innovative and experimental initiative that aims to contribute to a global debate about urbanization and globalization. ________________________________ Change email address / Leave mailing list -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080529/9bacf3a2/attachment.html From virtuallyme at gmail.com Fri May 30 11:44:56 2008 From: virtuallyme at gmail.com (Rohan DSouza) Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 11:44:56 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Gated Communities in Bangalore In-Reply-To: <79e82f610805290450g154ea776n8f9950eef96a8736@mail.gmail.com> References: <79e82f610805290450g154ea776n8f9950eef96a8736@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <79e82f610805292314p7d7f26d8h46b2b0af24327170@mail.gmail.com> Hi, The Bangalore City Corporation recently came out with a notification (full notification below the body of the mail) where it directed 'gated communities' to provide access to the roads inside the layouts to the general public, who don't stay in it. This is an interesting development, both from the point of view of the authorities challenging the concept of gated communities ("It is hereby brought to the public notice that under the Town and Country Planning Act, there is no such concept of a "Gated Community") and critiquing how the are being established and maintained ("have established barricade preventing entry of vehicles and pedestrians and have also put up boards mentioning that entry is restricted.. They have even posted guards to prevent people from using the road.") Their edict ("establishing barricades and preventing general public from using the internal road of a layout is against the law.") drives the point home that such layouts cannot deny access to the public especially in the use of the roads in the layouts. It is interesting to see what the reactions of the residents of these communities will be. In most cases the purchase has been made to afford them the privacy and privileges of an access controlled space. Gated community in terms of access, are similar to spaces such as the Special Economic Zones, which is a concept mooted and implemented by the government. However in such colonies/communities, the concept seems to have arisen from the demand of the upwardly mobile Indian upper middle classes and catered to by the real estate industry. So far a blind eye has been turned by authorities to this phenomenon, in a way giving it tacit approval. But this notification seems to have changed that, at least for the time being. It will be interesting to try and understand what triggered this notice, especially given the fact that such gated communities have been operating for years together. Is it the recent controversy over the usage of a road in the Agricultural University campus? That being a government run institution, with its control by the institution being challenge by the residents living in a layout near it. ( http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2008041255420100.htm&date=2008/04/12/&prd=th& ) This move also brings up the question of access and control of common spaces in an urban context. What exactly gives a community control over a common space. Those living in these gated communities claim that in most cases, no maintenance of roads and other infrastructure is done by the government bodies and therefore the get it done and thus access an its control should be theirs. However the ownership of such spaces in most cases, is normally either with the government bodies such as the municipal corporation, revenue department or the panchayat. Only the plots are owned by the individuals. In a place like Bangalore, where public spaces such as tanks and parks are increasingly being leased to private parties under the guise of maintenance, thus denying access to a large section of the populace, its intriguing to note this move of the city corporation, which is actually (re?) opening up public spaces. Rgds, Rohan * The notice:* Date: 20.05.2008 PUBLIC NOTICE LAYOUTS ESTABLISHING BARRICADE AND PREVENTING USE BY GENERAL PUBLIC PROHIBITION-REGARDING It is noticed that several layouts within the old BMP area and the erstwhile CMC area have established barricade preventing entry of vehicles and pedestrians and have also put up boards mentioning that entry is restricted.. They have even posted guards to prevent people from using the road. Such layouts generally call themselves as "Gated community". It is hereby brought to the public notice that under the Town and Country Planning Act, there is no such concept of a "Gated Community". Once when any layout is formed, the roads in the said layout automatically come under the jurisdiction of the respective municipal corporation the general public has free access to use the roads within the layout. Hence, establishing barricades and preventing general public from using the internal road of a layout is against the law. All such barricades and boards established shall be removed forthwith failing which the jurisdiction engineers have been instructed to remove the barricade and the boards. Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike can also prosecute the person/association if such barricades and boards are erected. Citizens can lodge complaints with the jurisdictional Zonal Additional / Joint Commissioners, Bruhat Bangalore Mahnagara Palike, if layouts prevent using of the roads. Sd/- Commissioner Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080530/f9c68b75/attachment.html From leofsaldanha at gmail.com Fri May 30 19:06:14 2008 From: leofsaldanha at gmail.com (leo saldanha) Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 19:06:14 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Karnataka High Court admits PIL against Road Widening Projects in Bangalore In-Reply-To: <9057132d0805300632y63868825lbdaa1e0e25e2e5ee@mail.gmail.com> References: <9057132d0805300632y63868825lbdaa1e0e25e2e5ee@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <9057132d0805300636r603ba330x36616bc692498a00@mail.gmail.com> *Press Release – 30 May 2008, Bangalore* *Karnataka High Court admits PIL against Road Widening Projects in Bangalore* Issues emergent notices to Respondents Mr. Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Mr. Justice A. N. Venugopal Gowda, constituting the Division Bench of the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka, today admitted a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Environment Support Group and others against the ongoing irrational road widening projects of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP – Corporation of the City of Greater Bangalore). Appreciating the urgency for considering the need to protect avenue trees from needless felling and safeguarding various rights and priveleges of pedestrians, street vendors, etc., the Hon'ble Judges issued emergent notices to the Respondents while also allowing for serving of hand summons. The PIL challenges BBMP's ongoing project of widening 91 roads (a number likely to increase) in Bangalore, running into a length of about 400 kms. across the length and breadth of the old city areas. This mega project is predicated on the premise that it would result in improved flow of traffic and reduce congestion. However, no evidence has been presented to prove that the result of widening would actually achieve these objectives. In contrast to the approach adopted by BBMP, experience from densely populated and leading cities from across the world prove that widening of roads is not the solution for easing traffic congestion. Instead intelligent design approaches, responsive (rather than reactionary) traffic management, enhancement of public transport, improvement in pedestrian zones, protection of livelihoods of vendors, and discouraging personalised modes of transport have successfully addressed the most serious traffic congestion problems of mega cities. Such approaches have also enabled the protection of cultural heritage, public spaces and urban greenery, significantly enhancing the environmental quality of urban areas. The PIL makes a strong case against tree felling as the first step to road widening by demonstrating that the work undertaken by BBMP in several roads has proved unsuccessful in reducing traffic congestion. The Petitioners submit that the actions of the Tree Officer in authorising the felling of hundreds of avenue trees violate various provisions of the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, and is admittedly an action taken under duress. In most cases where hundreds of really old avenue trees have been felled, the stated object of widening has not been achieved even after years, as various utilities have not shifted out of the proposed right of way, or such spaces have been encroached by places of worship. The PIL relies heavily on the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, the National Urban Transport Policy and a variety of circulars issued by the Union Urban Development Secretary that argue for a rational and intelligent approach to managing congestion in urban areas. In particular, it makes a case that the object of all travel is to ensure people move across cities in safety and comfort, thus necessitating privileges to pedestrian movement, non-motorised forms of transport and public transport. Contrarily, the BBMP's approach seems to arrogate a right for the private motor car over all other modes of travel, thereby extinguishing many fundamental rights, while also exposing the public at large to great discomfort and even harm. The PIL presents a variety of evidence to argue that the road widening programme is illegal as it has skirted fundamental public consultation processes required per the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act. In addition the draft Comprehensive Development Plan -2005 (CDP) of Bangalore Development Authority, defining land use of the city, did not contain any proposal for widening roads on such a grand scale. Surprisingly, the final CDP – 2007 introduced plans for most inner city roads to be widened without in any manner informing or involving the public, an action that is patently illegal. The PIL is a result of a long and deliberate series of proactive steps taken by the Petitioners along with *Hasiru Usiru, *a* *network of concerned groups and individuals in Bangalore. The Petitioners draw attention to the ruling of the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka in 2005 (WP No. 14104/2005) in which the Government was directed to involve the public in decisions relating to road widening and tree felling. It is submitted that despite exhaustive efforts on the part of the Petitioners and *Hasiru Usiru *urging the Government and its agencies to engage with the public in evolving such schemes, the current road widening project has been rushed through disregarding the directions of the Hon'ble Court. In this context, it is prayed that the Hon'ble Court be pleased to strike down the road widening proposals, and the consequent tree felling orders. In addition, it is prayed that the Govenment be directed to evolve rational road development proposals that met with the highest standards of law, policy and urban planning. The petitioners Environment Support Group and CIVIC Bangalore were represented by Advocate Mr. Sunil Dutt Yadav and Mr. Leo F. Saldanha, Coordinator, Environment Support Group, appeared in person. A copy of the PIL is accessible online at: *www.esgindia.org* Dr. Robert John Chandran Leo F. Saldanha Divya Ravindranath Dolly Kalita Environment Support Group 105, East End B Main Road, Jayanagar 9th Block East, Bangalore 560069 Tel: 91-80-22441977/26531339 Fax: 91-80-26534364 Email: *esgindia at gmail.com* Website: *www.esgindia.org* -- Leo Saldanha Environment Support Group 105, East End B Main Road, Jayanagar 9th Block East, Bangalore 560069. INDIA Telefax: 91-80-26341977/26531339/26534364 Email: leo at esgindia.org or esg at esgindia.org Web: www.esgindia.org ["We plant trees not for ourselves, but for future generations." - Roman Poet Caecilius Statius] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080530/9ad63988/attachment-0001.html From yanivbin at gmail.com Sat May 31 20:57:42 2008 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 20:57:42 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Housing for poor: Jamaican model that India can replicate In-Reply-To: <86b8a7050805310826j630ad1aep3b828e04b2f7ec2@mail.gmail.com> References: <86b8a7050805310826j630ad1aep3b828e04b2f7ec2@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <86b8a7050805310827i638b70b9k53a4dbee001de82d@mail.gmail.com> *Housing for poor: Jamaican model that India can replicate* May 31st, 2008 - 2:32 pm ICT by admin - By Aroonim Bhuyan http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/housing-for-poor-jamaican-model-that-india-can-replicate_10054962.html Dubai, May 31 (IANS) An affordable housing scheme being followed in the Caribbean nation of Jamaica may well be worth emulating in India, which is planning its own social housing project. Called the National Housing Trust (NHT), the Jamaican scheme takes contributions from both the employer and employee, much on the lines of India's provident fund policy, for giving affordable housing to all sections of society. "The Jamaican model, which calls for contributions from the employers and employees for providing housing to all sections of the society, certainly sounds interesting for India," P.K. Mohanty, mission director of India's Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), told IANS here. "After all, we are also planning to implement a social housing scheme on a mass scale," he said. Mohanty was here to participate in a workshop on 'Bridging Policy and Research', organised by the Global Development Network (GDN), a worldwide network of research and policy institutes, and the Dubai School of Government (DSG) this week. Established in 1976, the NHT is a unique partnership in which two percent of the gross wages of workers and three percent of employers' wage bills are channelled into the Trust. Jamaica's cabinet secretary Carlton Earl Davis said: "Our housing policy is one of Jamaica's success stories. Implemented in 1976, it has been maintained by successive governments with good results. "It helps reduce the gap in housing needs between the more privileged and less privileged. I certainly think that it can be replicated in India," said Davis, who was here to attend the workshop. Housing is a top priority for India's JNNURM which focuses on "reforms and fast track planned development of identified cities". The main thrust of sub-mission 2 of JNNURM is on integrated development of slums through projects for providing shelter, basic services and other related civic amenities with a view to providing utilities to the urban poor. It is in this context that the Jamaican model has aroused India's interest. The NHT was established to address the housing shortage, which resulted from a growing population and the inadequate annual output of houses by the public and private sectors. The trust emerged out of the need for a financial institution that could mobilize additional funds for housing and ensure that those funds were available to more Jamaican families at rates below the traditional markets rates. The trust was established following studies in the 1970s that 23,000 new housing units were required at a cost of 200 million Jamaican dollars (US$2.8 million) annually over a 10-year period in order to satisfy the then existing needs. According to the trust's website, annual contributions rose almost fourfold from J$34.20 million in 1976 to some J$130 million, 10 years later. It crossed the J$1 billion mark at the end of the 1995-96 fiscal year. "This trust is a model which we have followed from the British system," Davis, who was honoured with a special award at the Dubai workshop for his contributions to public sector reforms in Jamaica in the Dubai workshop, told IANS. "Both India and Jamaica share the Commonwealth legacy and the NHT model, based on a British system, can well be a solution to India's urban housing problems." JNNURM's Mohanty said he took inputs from Davis on the model during the course of the workshop. "It certainly looks interesting from India's perspective. I have discussed the model in detail with Davis," he said. He added that housing models in some other countries were also being looked at. "In Malaysia, for example, every developer has to reserve 30 percent of the land for poor by building one- or two-room apartments. In Brazil, there is a strong land tenure policy," he said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20080531/4958a91a/attachment.html From sebydesiolim at hotmail.com Sat May 31 21:17:40 2008 From: sebydesiolim at hotmail.com (sebastian Rodrigues) Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 21:17:40 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] On Biases and Silences in Goa Regional Plan 2021 Interim Report Message-ID: Critique of Interim Report of Goa Regional Plan 2021 prepared by Task Force in April 2008 Perhaps it would have been better idea for those who concerned about Goa, its people, its nature and its mechanisms of maintaining civil liberties and defending freedom to start planning for what I call Goa Freedom Plan 2061. In 2061 we in Goa would be completing 100 years of liberation from colonial yoke of erstwhile Portuguese rulers for few centuries; in some parts of Tiswadi taluka it lasted for 451 years! Perhaps it would be better idea to thinks through the parameters of freedom: do we as people possesses capacities to preserve our privilege as free people or are we heading towards enslaving ourselves into another long period and may be even irreversible process of bondage at some power? Are our capacities to thinks, reflect, mobilize and network sufficiently expanded to take on the tide that confronts us? These thoughts come glaringly across my mind as I read through and reflect on Interim report of the Goa Regional Plan 2021 prepared by Task Force in April 2008. The plan is a well orchestrate exercise to subvert spaces of freedom currently available and in its place institute rule of Capital to enslave everyone in Goa. Let’s examine the report from this perspective here. 1. The report seeks to implement bottom up as well as top down approach simultaneously (pages 5-6). It is absolutely ridiculous that two approaches be implemented simultaneously. It is without doubt that the actual intent of the brains behind the report is top-down approach. It is only for accumulating legitimacy that the bottom-up is mentioned without any responsible position. Transferring entire responsibility to an NGO called Peaceful Society is a deliberate irresponsible escapist action on the part of the State of Goa. 2. ‘In the ultimate analysis planning is what we want to become’ is one sentence that stands out bold on page 7. The question however is that to whom does ‘we’ refer to? Does it refer to the Industry, Beaurocrats, Businessmen, professional, migrants, labour, women in margins, Adivasis, oppressed groups within Goa, Real Estates, Gamblers from all over the world; who wants to shape Goa for 2021? The report does not give any direct answer but deductions can be distilled after careful reading between the lines. ‘We’ refer to those powerful lobbies with floating capital to invest and shrink spaces of Freedom. 3. Table 4 on page 11 projects decline population of three Talukas in 2021: Bicholim, Canacona and Pernem. What are the factors that are going to be causing this decline in population is entirely missed out. What is the basis of these projections? 4. Page 12 however makes it ample clear as to the shape that is sought to be given towards transforming Goa into another metro by 2021. It audaciously presents that large number of villages will be absorbed in municipal fence and will be re-classified as municipal. It even predicts that 12.60 lakh people will live in municipal area and 5.40 lakh people will be left in Panchayat jurisdictions. Undoubtedly it is the real estate/builders are behind these projections as without rapid constructions these projections will never become a reality. 5. The same page 12 goes further to add that Pisciculture will flourish that means more breakage of Goa’s bands in Khazan lands can be expected to be actively encouraged. It also notes that cash crops like Cashew and improved paddy cultivation will flourish. Note here improved paddy cultivation is referred as cash crop and we could only expect that likes of Syngentas, Monsantos, Zuaris will not only continue but further tighten the grip on Goa’s food systems. Now you know to whose interest this report is serving? It is catering to big Indian Capitalists like Birlas and Multinational companies from all over the world. 6. The source and methodology of projection is again at the mercy of guess work on page 12. Regarding workforce it projects 54% to be in tertiary sector, 25% in Secondary sector and 21% in primary sector. The basis of this projected change is not disclosed and hence its projection methodology is defective to the core. 7. In spite of requests by some presenters, the very real threat to Goa’s coast due to rise in sea level – thanks to global warming - has been deliberately ignored. There is not even an indirect hint on as to where the coastal people are going to be relocated in the event of submergence of he coasts. This ignorance is understandable. This is where projection exercise was needed and report has failed in this again. If the coastal populations are to be relocated in the hinterlands, hinterlands must be life worthy. Rampant mining in the hinterlands has made these areas devoid of life worthiness. The question remains to all of us where are coastal people going to be resettled once the sea level drives coast into uninhabitable situations? Perhaps the State of Goa plans to offer sacrifice of its people to the Arabian Sea. This question has remained unanswered mainly due to the domination of the mining industry. It has been instrumental in suppressing this entire issue so that their ongoing export to China goes uninterrupted. Who cares for the people any way – they may be coastal people or the hinterland people? Mining determines everything in Goa. 8. Corporate desire to shape up Goa again has come to the fore on page 20 when it is proposed that State establishes land bank. It suggests that land be given in custody of land bank till 2021 to protect it from conversions. This suggestion is only to transfer control of land in the hands of those powerful corporate houses that will be controlling the State of Goa. So you know who is behind this suggestion as well! 9. There is another legitimizing attempt when the report declares on page 20 that “Land acquisition be strictly used for government projects. If not land be ideally reverted back to its owners.” There could not be any bigger joke in the report than this; when the real need is to push for repeal of Land Acquisition Act due to such an intense abuse of this law - anything under the sun gets classified as public purpose i.e. golf course, starred hotels, industrial estates, etc – report has chosen to cover itself up in rhetoric of return of land to the owner. The dividing line between the pubic and the private has been steadily growing thinner. In fact the State itself is becoming privatized. This is a biggest threat inbuilt into the report for the parameters of Freedom. 10. On page 21 it is given that contribution of mining sector is in Goa amounts to 4% of GSDP for the year 2005-06. Why comparative analysis not undertaken for the past 50 years of mining trade in Goa and arrived at mature understanding on this? Now what you make out of this statistics that says contribution of mining is 4% of GSDP and geographical area it occupies is 8% of Goa? Why task force did not recommend discontinuation of mining trade in Goa? That is because mining companies not only have been effectively influencing this report but also has Minister of Mines as its chairman that also happens to be Goa’s Chief Minister. 11. Similarly statistics on agriculture has been presented in tricky manner. On page 22 it points out that Agriculture contributes 5.6% of GDP but occupies largest amount of land – 1367.81 Sq. Kms in 2005-06. Report what actually remain short of saying that agriculture as an option is to be closed and all land to be diverted either for mining or for industry or for real estates. In addition no reference is present at all to the Puran Shethi lands that have been submerged due to erecting of mini dams inside Mhadei River. Section on agriculture does not take into account loss of crop lands already due to various so-called development projects. 12. Similarly on the same page 22 report talks of Coconut groves but does not utter a single word about how much loss of Coconut groves already taken place in projects similar to Aldeia de Goa in Bambolim where in over 5000 coconut trees were chopped down to make way for luxury tourism. 13. Page 23 mentions about Kullagars – Arecanut cultivations – in Sattari, Ponda and Sanguem. It is indeed very crucial to question as to why Kullagars in Bicholim not referred at all. Is it because mining activities there have erased it from the memory? Also there is no estimate on future of Kullagars in Sattari and Sanguem in the context of rapid mining expansion plans. And of course there is absolute silent as to how the once owners of Kullagars – adivasis: Gawdas - have now become the laborers on the Kullagars and ownership has been fraudulently shifted in the hands of Brahmins. Mere elucidations on productions - that are absent in the report though - is not enough, one needs to get into discussion on equity as well. 14. Page 25 admits mining is creating negative impact on agriculture. However report suffers from major defect that it does not have any statistics on how much agricultural land is lost to mining for the past 5 decades and what projected loss of agricultural land is for the next two decades. Also there is no data on loss of agricultural land due to irrigation projects such as Puran Shethi on Madei River, Irrigation Pipeline in Carambolim that blocked farmers’ access to the fields, and Submergence of agricultural spaces due to constructions of Dams on various rivers in Goa. Report comments that traditional horticultural cultivation such as coconut, Mango, areca nut cashew and pineapple is ignored. Report does not try to unravel the causes to this not does it take into account where in cultivators are force to stop the cultivation of these due to open cast iron ore mining invasion. 15. Then out of blue comes an unusual statement on page 25: agriculture was a backbone of Goan economy. The point however is that in which period agriculture was a backbone of Goan economy. Why the authors of this report fail to identify the period? The report however does not make any comments on what is the backbone of Goan economy. 16. Page 26 is full of technical suggestions to manage Goa’s Khanzan land. It proposes to scrap tenancy Act to promote agriculture, transferring of maintenance of bunds to Panchayats, Formations of ‘Agency for planning and management of Estuarine and Khazan Areas’, and formation of ‘Integrated Estuarine and Khazan Area Development plan’. Clearly through these mechanisms the orientation is sought to be brought in where in the control of Khazan lands will shift increasingly towards State. The countless number of skilled people who reclaimed these lands from the Arabian Sea and various rivers for so many thousands of years have been conveniently forgotten at the stroke of pen. 17. Agriculture department has been assigned role of providing technological inputs to farmers with ‘better seeds and farming techniques’. There is however no audit of the existence of indigenous variety of seeds in Goa and how new seeds and practices have been introduced since 1961. Also there is no specification of what better seeds and farming techniques means. Better for whom? Farmers? State? Multinational Corporations? Fertilizer Companies? Pesticides companies? Seeds companies? There is absolutely no elucidations in task force report on these issues. Why? In fact the report goes one step forward and suggests exploration of Contract farming. This is another way of handing over control of agriculture to the corporate houses. How do parameters of Freedom weigh in all this? 18. Page 31 talks mentions about protecting common grazing rights. Wonder why a routine violation of grazing right in Khotigao Wild Life Sanctuary has been overlooked here. Why is that trenches have been dug preventing cattle from wondering in their traditional grazing lands? What way common grazing lands proposed to be protected – no detailed outline available in the report. In which case, the report reduces itself to mere rhetoric. 19. Page 33 alerts us that Forest produce seems on decline. The use of words like seems in the planning documents like this one are unacceptable. The document reduces its credibility tremendously. Even with the entire government machinery at its command with Chief Minister as its chairman outcome as guess work is unacceptable. The situation either has to be confirmed or rejected. If confirmed that factors needs to be identified as to why Forest produce is on decline. What measures needs to put in place to increase the same. Similarly, on Forest Policies the report is silent on future of Monoculture plantations that Forest department has been carrying on for the past four decades in Goa. It is also silent on closing down and cancellation of mining leases in Forest areas including inside Sanctuaries and buffer zones. So one can safely conclude from this position that ongoing honeymoon of the forest department with mining companies will continue into 2021 until entire forest lands disappear forever. 20. When it comes to fishing on page 37 the report is understandably silent on siltation of rivers like Zuari, Mandovi and Kushavati due to mining and resultant decline in fisheries. This is deliberately created siltation so that Goa’s rivers will be continuously at the mercy of mining companies. The report is also silent on dredging policy in the rivers like Sal for the benefit of Casinos and luxury tourism. It is silent on measures on making fish available to local population at affordable price. 21. On Page 40 Colamb mining struggle finds its echo in the report. It is recorded that the village of Columb in Sanguem taluka, where 22 mining leases are awaiting revival will cover 14 sq. kms out of total village area of 19 sq. kms! It admits that agricultural village is under the shadow of being completely consumed by mines. Task force however restricted itself in expressing helplessness as current laws permits only paltry compensation and there is no provision for any relief. Now this is indeed very frightening situation that after knowing Colamb case Task Force has refrained from recommending cancellation of the mining leases. Also it has refused to learn lesson from Columb and order investigations into other villages under mining leases and present maps of the villages that are likely to go extinct. Task force is either incompetent or is being dictated by mining companies in its agenda. In fact it on page 42 task force lifts up solution from mining companies books and attempts to make it the solution of the State government when it recommends “Social condition of the people in mining villages to be improved and the mining companies to upgrade existing water supply, sanitation facilities and provide up-to-date health facilities in the mining belt.” With this recommendation task force confirms that it is so vulnerable and actually played into agenda of the mining companies. Mining companies will destroy natural village water bodies like the one that is being done in Sivsorem mines in Sanguem and then mining companies will influence State government to get water pipeline from Salaulim water Dam! What logic is this? Or take the example of Kond village in Rivona Panchayat jurisdiction: entire village is selected for mining and the habitat of people in the village is very soon going to be history. In few years time you will not find anything else in the village other than mining pits! Task force ironically suggests that abandoned mines then be used as water reservoirs! Ridiculous positions of the Task Force does not stop here, on Page 42 it recommend mining even in the Ecologically Sensitive Zone (ESZ) – I with the permission of the Environment and Forest Ministry which is so easy to get in exchange of a brief case or two like how 73 mining leases got clearances in the past couple of years that too with People’s opposition at the time of conducting mandatory Public Hearings under the law. Besides, the report is silent on how many water bodies have been dried up due to mining for the past half century in Goa. The silence is unacceptable; Task force must labor hard and present these statistics in the report and so also projections of how many more water bodies to go dry in the next two decades. Page 43 declares to promote Eco-tourism, Heritage tourism, Event tourism and Medical tourism. It only misses Mining tourism to explain to the world how Goa’s mining industry and the Goan and Indian States has been shrewd butchers of nature and it’s People? Undoubtedly it will be huge success. There is nothing like marketing Goa’s biggest scandal in tourism market. Task force ought to take serious cognizance of this suggestion as it is destined to fetch huge foreign exchange for government of India. Innovative thinking is important! 22. Task force not only has completely failed to address adivasis in Goa – they seem absent – on the contrary it has selected one tribal village – Dharbandora - for special treatment. It mentions on page 85 that under the tribal sub-plan low cost sanitary units will be provided to few tribal villages, one of them being Dharbandora in Sanguem. On the one side through the sanitary units it tries to assert its legitimacy with the tribal population, on the hand it does something very dangerous. On page 47 it mentions about setting up of Hazardous Waste Centre in Dharbandora. In fact it mentions that it is already functioning. There is no information as to how decision was arrived at to locate this Centre in tribal area, when was it located? What has been its performance report? What are the regular health monitoring mechanisms put into place in Dharbandora and surrounding villages? What are the benefits to the village due to the setting up of this Centre? Which are the industries that are dumping their hazardous waste in Dharbandora? Syngenta – Swiss multinational company has admitted that it is dumping its hazardous waste in Dhabandora in its recent REIA report for expansion and it was criticized by Dr. Claude Alvares for doing this at February 29, 2008 public hearing at Old Goa. According to the Survey report on the scheduled tribes of Goa released by the Directorate of Social Welfare, Government of Goa, in February 2004, Dharbandora village had 1,913 tribal households. It is village with highest tribal households in Sanguem taluka and they have been given toxic treatment. Task force supervised and legitimized this entire episode. 23. Task Force report has inbuilt bias against beach shacks. It is because it champions the cause of the luxury tourism. On page 50 it identifies shacks on beaches as source of pressures of tourism. It has failed to look at take over of large tracks of lands in many instances tribal Homelands for the luxury projects purposes. Aldeia de Goa has been asserting tremendous pressures on Nauxi and Bambolim villages. The expansionists’ designs of Fort Aguada Beach resort (owned by Tatas) threatened to take over Sinquerim Plateu for Five Star hotel. Morjim Beach is continuously eyed by Five Star hotels. Canacona Beaches are continuously preyed by agents of luxury tourism. Current locations of Starred hotels blocks public access to the beaches. Starred hotels like Leela Beach Resort in Cavelossim was built by cutting down of large number of precious sand dunes. The water that is diverted for luxury tourism is several times more; task force ought to provide these statistics. Instead is has become unacceptably silent on this count too. 24. Without providing performance report of the existing government housing boards, on page 56 report suggests setting up of land estates on the lines of Industrial Estates exclusively for building affordable houses. The process followed here to arrive at decisions is inherently defective. 25. On Health front page 61 presents frightening statistics is thrown out: In Goa, majority of cases that occurred have been due to acute respiratory infection. In 2006, 25,559 persons have suffered due to this cause. Pulmonary tuberculosis reported is 2228 during the same period. However task force has not attributed any causes for this. Why? Also there is no geographical spread sheet is presented, as well as time line data of these diseases since 1961 is provided. Indeed very sketchy and superficial engagement with the subject without any devotion whatsoever. 26. 'Goa university to be Central University' is a good recommendation on page 69. Not only will it make education affordable like in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi but also it will stopped politicians from Goa messing up with University system including appointment of Vice Chancellors. Presently cost of education is very high and has become almost unreachable as State in Goa thought it was wise to keep education within the confines of economically well off. The point however that is missed is the land that is used for setting up of Goa University is actually tribal homeland used for cultivation purposes. There is no recognition of this fact at all anywhere. 27. Page 68 points to the scenario where in from 1990-2006, 106 government schools got closed down (82 primary schools and 24 middle schools). During 2006-2007, 103 government primary schools were having enrolment below 10. There is no explanation in the report for these drastic developments on education front. Has primary education in Goa reached crisis situation? Further quoting Madhav Kamat report of 2006 task force report points that 50% of all government schools have no toilets, 10% have no electricity, 37% have no water, and 64% have no compound wall. What the task force missed is, how many schools have been disrupted due to mining activities? Primary school at Sonxi near Pissurlem is half under mining dumps. How many schools are going to be uprooted with mining expansion plans? Projections to this effect must be made available by Task Force. Without paying attention to these basics of education Task force subtly goes ahead in recommending IITs and IIMs for Goa. IITs in India has been major source of brain drain; wonder from where this idea has come to Task Force. 28. While talking about water on page 79 report has conveniently glossed over water bodies including wells that are dried up due to mining. This is a gross unaccountability on the part of Task Force. What is going to be water availability in the scenario of all the mining leases getting activated in Goa? No projections are presented in the report. Its suggestion however, to implement education in water conservation at school level is good. The question is - Will mining activities leading towards drying up of water sources slashing down of mountains figure anywhere in the syllabus? The report is silent on mining threats to Public Water Supply: threats to Opa Water Works, Salaulim water dam, Assanora water works etc.This is a most criminal neglect on the part of task force. Table 24 even provides factually doubtful information: it points that WTP in Canacona on River Talpona supplies 5 MLD water to Sattari taluka including Valpoi and other 4 villages. Is water from Canacona coming to Sattari? Map No. 4 of Regional Water Supply Scheme does not indicate this. Why this factual confusion introduced in the report? The report is also silent on water meant for irrigation being diverted for industry and luxury tourism. 29. There are some important observations on ground water havoc created by industry, mining and tourism, it says, “Industry is the highest consumer of ground water meeting half of its demand through this source. In some areas of the State, especially the mining belt people prefer to use water from wells over piped water especially in the monsoon because the quality of piped water is poor due to high turbidity. In the coastal areas too there is a high level of ground water extraction because of a higher demand-supply gap.” The report overlooks situations of villages like Pissurlem in Sattari and Mayem wherein village well goes dry from November onwards. In Mayem alone 300 well go dry in summer. While in Pissurlem villagers have to depend upon mining companies for the supply of daily water requirements through water tankers. Task force ought to spend at least a week in each of these villages to understand ground reality of ground water scene. Also serious notes needs to be taken of villagers that are up in arm in Colamb, Advapal, Saleli, Sarvan, Cavrem and other parts of Goa covered by mining. On page 82, Ground water contamination sources are identified as due to mining, Coastal aquifers due to sewage contamination, Sea water intrusion in coastal aquifers due to high extraction in summer, urban sewage, solid waste and industrial disposal and industrial effluents are threats, Agricultural pesticides, fertilizers, agricultural waste disposal pose pollution threat. Although these sources are identified there are no firm steps suggested to check and stop ground water contamination. Report however is quick in providing solution to water shortage to the industry on page 83: “the supply of raw water directly to industry would reduce the demand for treated water. This should be immediately undertaken.” 30. SEZ seems still on the agenda of the State; on page 88 dealing with power supply needs the following is inserted: “if Goa focuses on promotion of industrialization such as food parks, SEZs, cold storage chains, infrastructure development etc, demand for power for overall development will be high power intensive and it may touch 1500 MW” 31. In the Eco-Sensitive Zones ESZ-I includes “land that need to be regenerated: these includes all inactive/closed/dormant mines and mining wastelands and dumps.” Now what guarantee is there considering demand from China that these mines are no going to be activated again with the permission of course from the Ministry of Environment and Forest as provided for in this report itself? Perhaps it is better idea now to begin work on Goa Freedom Plan 2061. By Sebastian Rodrigues Co-ordinator, Mand - An Adivasi Rights Resource Centre, An initiative of Gawda, Kunbi, Velip and Dhangar Federation (GAKUVED) Dulapi, Goa Volunteer, Nature, Environment, Society and Transformations (NEST) Chorao, Goa 31st May 2008 www.mandgoa.blogspot.com _________________________________________________________________ Watch hottest Bollywood videos, clips, movie tailors, star interviews, songs and more on MSN videos. http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-in