From samirfayaz at yahoo.com Thu Dec 2 07:33:28 2010 From: samirfayaz at yahoo.com (Samir Shaikh) Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2010 18:03:28 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?utf-8?q?=28no_subject=29?= Message-ID: <739770.26406.qm@web113303.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> http://frances.com.tr/super.php?ID=986 From veena at doccentre.net Thu Dec 2 15:49:07 2010 From: veena at doccentre.net (veena) Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:49:07 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Bangalore Platform: Waste Management; Dec 4, 3pm at CED Message-ID: <4CF7729B.10509@doccentre.net> _*Bangalore Platform *_ Management of waste in an environmentally sustainable manner is a challenging task, especially in the time of Climate Change. It involves reusing and recycling of all types of waste ranging from domestic waste to industrial waste. Wilma Rodrigues, Executive Director of Saahas , will take us through these various issues involving waste - waste segregation at source, and retrieval of recyclable material at the individual, household and municipal level, and the larger issues of sustainable cities, issues of inclusion of the informal sector, and impacts on livelihoods of marginalised urban communities. She has recently returned from the Annual Congress of the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) held last month at Hamburg, Germany. Saahas has been engaged with these issues in Bangalore for nearly 2 decades. Date and Time: *December 4, 2010 (Saturday); 3 to 5pm* Venue: Centre for Education and Documentation, Domlur Centre for Education and Documentation No.7, 8th Main, 3rd Phase, Domlur 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560071. Ph.25353397. Email:cedban at doccentre.net The Bangalore Platform is an open civic space for reflection and action through greater understanding of the science, policy and ethical issues in the context of Climate Change Directions: http://www.doccentre.net/About/ced-map.pdf or call 9341248784 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From samirfayaz at yahoo.com Fri Dec 3 19:54:38 2010 From: samirfayaz at yahoo.com (Samir Shaikh) Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 06:24:38 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?utf-8?q?=28no_subject=29?= Message-ID: <247868.34996.qm@web113307.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> http://diecoolentanten.di.funpic.de/super.php?yahooID=159 From harishpoovaiah at gmail.com Sat Dec 4 12:59:37 2010 From: harishpoovaiah at gmail.com (Harish Poovaiah) Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2010 12:59:37 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: INVITAION - WORKSHOP ON FIGHTING CORRUPTION In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: FYI -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: cac-Inv-01.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 612964 bytes Desc: not available URL: From sollybenj at yahoo.co.in Wed Dec 8 21:18:19 2010 From: sollybenj at yahoo.co.in (solomon benjamin) Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 21:18:19 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: RC21-IJURR-FURS Summer School in "Comparative Urban Studies" Call.... Message-ID: <33383.60331.qm@web137303.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear all, for your interest! cheers Solly ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Date: Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 8:12 AM Subject: RC21-IJURR-FURS Summer School in "Comparative Urban Studies" Call.... To: mgoldman at umn.edu RC21-IJURR-FURS Summer School in "Comparative Urban Studies" Apologies for cross-posting Dear Colleagues, It’s a pleasure to inform you that the call for grant applications and the programme of the second RC21-IJURR-FURS summer school in “Comparative Urban Studies” is online. You can find details on the programme, the scholars involved and the application form at the following address: http://www.rc21.org/summerschool2011/index.php We are looking for brilliant candidates worldwide and would very much welcome your help to spread the call among potentially interested parties. The deadline is very tight: December 21st, 2010. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Best regards, Yuri Kazepov RC21 President p.s. Should you have difficulties in visualizing the application form, this is the direct link: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHJHNjUzZ0V1Y0NLZ2ZpWXZZZWdCSHc6MQ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From samirfayaz at yahoo.com Thu Dec 9 03:05:02 2010 From: samirfayaz at yahoo.com (Samir Shaikh) Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 13:35:02 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?utf-8?q?=28no_subject=29?= Message-ID: <274993.24865.qm@web113318.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> http://www.cfecgcreunion.com/super.php?yahooID=600 From diyamehra at gmail.com Thu Dec 9 14:11:30 2010 From: diyamehra at gmail.com (Diya Mehra) Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 14:11:30 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Event at YODAKIN---design for dwelling In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Join us for a talk on Design for Dwelling by Mumbai-based architect, independent scholar, Fulbright scholar, and author of Space for Engagement: The Indian Artplace and a Habitational Approach to Architecture (published by Seagull in 2009). Architecture is increasingly designed to impress rather than to engage people. It also lacks a vocabulary for thinking about dwelling and engagement in relation to space. Himanshu Burte hopes to discuss a new approach to filling this gap and point towards a 'habitational approach to architecture'. Sunday 12 December 2010 6.30pm YODAKIN, 2 Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi 110016 -- Arpita Das Co-founder and Publisher YODA PRESS Editorial address: 79 Gulmohar Enclave, New Delhi 110 049 Permanent mailing address: 268 Sector A, Pocket C, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110 070 Tel.: 91-11-41787201; 26863631 e-mail: arpita at yodapress.com, arpitadasribeiro at gmail.com website: www.yodapress.com Director YODAKIN 2 Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi 110016 Tel.: 91-11-26536283 arpita at yodakin.com www.yodakin.com -- Diya Mehra Doctoral Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin Research Fellow, Centre de Sciences Humaines New Delhi -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: himanshuburte.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 3356 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cugambetta at yahoo.com Thu Dec 9 10:12:15 2010 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 20:42:15 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: [Fwd: Urban Studies Foundation - International Fellowship] Message-ID: <288064.77526.qm@web57408.mail.re1.yahoo.com> ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: Urban Studies Foundation - International Fellowship From: "Ruth Harkin" Date: Wed, December 8, 2010 11:08 am To: "Ruth Harkin" -------------------------------------------------------------------------- <> <> December 2010 Dear Colleague Urban Studies Foundation Global South Scholarship We are writing to you regarding a new scholarship for early career urban scholars working in the global south to work up to a year at a well-resourced and active research environment in the north in collaboration with a northern mentor. The scholarship will be funded by the Urban Studies Foundation, a charity registered (in Scotland) for the purposes of furthering urban research. The Foundation is closely allied to Urban Studies, each of us being editors on the journal. Full details of the scholarship scheme are attached. The scheme is highly dependent on identification of an exceptionally promising urbanist somewhere in the global south who would benefit from such a scholarship in affording sabbatical time to analyze and write up already completed fieldwork. The identification of such a scholar is the principal reason for contacting you. We are advertising the post electronically in a number of sites, as well as approaching established scholars working on urban problems who may have on-going or prospective collaborative ties with early career researchers in developing countries. As you will notice from the attached, the northern mentor is anticipated to play a relatively active role in ensuring that the goals of the scholar's visit are attained. This could result in jointly written publications and/or pave the way for future collaborative ties. The role of the mentor will vary depending on circumstances. There will be a small travel budget for the mentor to liaise with the scholar in his/her home country at the beginning or end of the scholar's sabbatical leave. (The post is being simultaneously advertised in a number of websites, in particular jobs.ac.uk.) Thus, if you know a likely candidate for the scholarship, we would appreciate if you could bring the opportunity to her/his attention. Furthermore, if you are willing to act as his/her mentor, we would welcome hearing from you directly. Kind regards Professor Ronan Paddison Dr Deborah Bryceson Dr Danny MacKinnon Urban Studies Foundation University of Glasgow S204, Adam Smith Building GLASGOW G12 8RT UK Tel: +44 (0)141 330 4657 Fax: +44 (0)141 330 3651 Urban Studies Foundation, Registered Charity Number SC039937 APOLOGIES FOR ANY CROSS POSTING -- Dr Charlotte Lemanski Department of Geography University College London Pearson Building, Gower Street London, WC1E 6BT Tel: +(0)20 7679 5511 Fax: +(0)20 7679 7565 http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfacsp/ Also: Research Associate, Brooks World Poverty Institute -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: USfellowship Main Advert.doc Type: application/msword Size: 33280 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: USfellowship Further Particulars.doc Type: application/msword Size: 38912 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cugambetta at yahoo.com Fri Dec 10 10:21:21 2010 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 20:51:21 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Research position at NIAS - Provincial Globalisation programme In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <790131.87356.qm@web57413.mail.re1.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Carol Upadhya To: Curt Gambetta Sent: Thu, December 9, 2010 11:45:53 PM Subject: Research position at NIAS - Provincial Globalisation programme For circulation on Urban list: National Institute of Advanced Studies Announcement of Postdoctoral Research Position The National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) is a multidisciplinary research institute located in Bangalore. We are searching for a postdoctoral level social scientist to work in our research programme under the School of Social Sciences entitled ‘Provincial Globalisation: The Impact of Reverse Transnational Flows in India’s Regional Towns’. This is an international collaborative programme of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam (UvA), and NIAS, funded by the WOTRO Science for Global Development Integrated Programme (the Netherlands). Eligibility: The selected researcher will design and carry out an independent project on transnational migration and resource flows from migrants. Candidates should have finished the PhD degree in any social science (except economics), preferably with specialisation in migration, transnational, and/or development studies. The successful candidate will have strong analytical skills, a sound conceptual/ theoretical grounding in his/ her discipline, the ability to utilise and combine diverse data sources at different scales, and excellent writing and organisational skills. The postdoctoral researcher will work in an international multidisciplinary team that includes specialisations in anthropology, sociology and economics. This is a full-time two-year position based at NIAS. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. About the programme: Provincial Globalisation is a five-year research programme, initiated in January 2010. It is designed to explore processes of globalisation in India at the regional level by tracing the transnational flows of resources transmitted by migrants to their home regions. The studies will document a broad range of ‘reverse flows’ – economic resources such as household remittances, investments in land or businesses, and financial support for NGOs; ‘social remittances’ such as ideas and know-how; and cultural transactions such a religious philanthropy. The objective is to examine the influence of these resource transfers on political, economic, and social-cultural structures and processes through comparative study of selected provincial towns and their rural hinterlands. Applications: Applicants should submit their curriculum vitae including the names and addresses of three referees, a sample of published work, and a brief research proposal (3-5 pages) based on the detailed outline of the research programme, which will be sent to applicants upon enquiry. Interested candidates may write to Provincial.Globalisation at gmail.com for further details. The deadline for applications is January 15, 2011. Short-listed candidates will be invited to NIAS for an interview. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From debsinha at gmail.com Fri Dec 10 23:23:52 2010 From: debsinha at gmail.com (Deb Ranjan Sinha) Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:53:52 -0500 Subject: [Urbanstudy] (no subject) In-Reply-To: <274993.24865.qm@web113318.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> References: <274993.24865.qm@web113318.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <004401cb9893$364f4410$a2edcc30$@gmail.com> Has anyone else noticed that the email account of Samir Shaikh (samirfayaz at yahoo.com) has been sending out nothing but spam on urbanstudygroup since September? Can the listadmin please do something this? Thanks! Deb. -----Original Message----- From: urbanstudygroup-bounces at sarai.net [mailto:urbanstudygroup-bounces at sarai.net] On Behalf Of Samir Shaikh Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 4:35 PM To: urban_greens at yahoogroups.com; urbanstudygroup at sarai.net; vaibhav_mane at yahoo.com; vaish_sathe at yahoo.co.in; ar_iyervenkat at yahoo.com; turvi76 at yahoo.com Subject: [Urbanstudy] (no subject) http://www.cfecgcreunion.com/super.php?yahooID=600 _______________________________________________ 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 From cugambetta at yahoo.com Sat Dec 11 00:53:38 2010 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2010 11:23:38 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] (no subject) In-Reply-To: <004401cb9893$364f4410$a2edcc30$@gmail.com> References: <274993.24865.qm@web113318.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> <004401cb9893$364f4410$a2edcc30$@gmail.com> Message-ID: <380756.58407.qm@web57414.mail.re1.yahoo.com> Dear Deb, Yes, the matter has been resolved. Apologies to all for the inconvenience. The quickest way to resolve these issues is to be attentive to the behavior of your own email accounts (ie: re-subscribe under an email ID that is not sending spam/viruses, and unsubscribing the offending ID, which you can do on the Urban Study Group page http://www.sarai.net/mailing-lists/mailing-lists/urban-study). Though we like to err on the side of caution before unsubscribing list members (hence the delay in this case, due to correspondence), in the future, repeatedly spamming email ID's will be removed by the moderators and the list member will be notified and asked to re-subscribe under a new email ID. I hope this is amenable to everyone. -Curt ----- Original Message ---- From: Deb Ranjan Sinha To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net Sent: Fri, December 10, 2010 12:53:52 PM Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] (no subject) Has anyone else noticed that the email account of Samir Shaikh (samirfayaz at yahoo.com) has been sending out nothing but spam on urbanstudygroup since September? Can the listadmin please do something this? Thanks! Deb. -----Original Message----- From: urbanstudygroup-bounces at sarai.net [mailto:urbanstudygroup-bounces at sarai.net] On Behalf Of Samir Shaikh Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 4:35 PM To: urban_greens at yahoogroups.com; urbanstudygroup at sarai.net; vaibhav_mane at yahoo.com; vaish_sathe at yahoo.co.in; ar_iyervenkat at yahoo.com; turvi76 at yahoo.com Subject: [Urbanstudy] (no subject) http://www.cfecgcreunion.com/super.php?yahooID=600 _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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 From yanivbin at gmail.com Sat Dec 11 10:03:35 2010 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:03:35 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] India State of the Cities Report - NIUA is the National Partner Message-ID: How can elected local govts become autonomous city management agencies? and why shd they? They are under the state governments. Pl see last line Is a National commission on Urbanisation II a pre- condition? If so for what ? FYI www.citiesalliance.org/ca/ca_projects/detail/16638 *India State of the Cities Report* *Project ID: * * | Project Status: * Approved ------------------------------ Project-At-A-Glance Approval Date23-Sep-2010CountryIndia Closing DateN/A City/Area(s)Multi-City (42 cities) , Multi-City (42 cities) Total Project CostCities Alliance: $ 350,250 Co-financing: $ 200,000 Total Budget: $ 550,250City/National Partner National Institute of Urban Affairs Project Focus Cities Alliance Member(s) Sponsoring the ProjectUN-HABITAT , World Bank Other Project Focus Grant Recipient/ Implementing AgencyNational Institute of Urban Affairs Region OECD-DAC-LIST (Based on the most current list available at the time of project approval)Lower Middle Income Countries and Territories Project Summary: In India, there is a strong realisation that its urban areas need to improve for the country to achieve fast and sustained economic development. Within that framework, the Government of India (GoI) has launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), which incentivises reforms in key areas -- urban governance, service delivery, financial management and devolution of functions to local bodies -- and links them to grants for infrastructure investments in the major Indian cities. Despite the strong focus on urban reforms through JNNURM, policy-makers are still struggling to evolve mechanisms to develop municipalities *as autonomous city management agencies* in order to combine urbanisation with economic development. In this context, it is proposed to prepare the India State of the Cities Report (SoCR) to address issues that are critical for sustainable economic development of cities and to provide inputs for formulating an urban development approach for the country. Project Objectives: The broad objectives of India SoCR are to: a) Assess the urban infrastructure deficit and its impact on the national economic growth; b) Analyse the relationship between socio-economic development in states and cities, and spatial concentration of population; c) Assess the urban policies, and institutional and financing framework; d) Evaluate policy initiatives taken by countries facing similar problems like China, South Africa and Brazil, among others, to efficiently manage fast urban growth; and e) Identify areas for change in urban policies and recommend strategies to strengthen urban institutional and financing frameworks to meet urban infrastructure deficits and achieve balanced and inclusive development across states. Project Activities: a) Setting of National Steering Committee and national launch through workshop and webpage b) State level steering committees and launch workshops c) Diagnostics in selected 42 cities e) Diagnostics in selected 6 states f) National level diagnostics and preparation of India SoCR g) Dissemination workshop in states h) National dissemination workshop Expected Impact & Results: The output of the project will be the India State of the Cities Report and the outcome should contribute to addressing issues that are critical for sustainable development of urban areas in the 12th Five Year Plan as well as the National Commission on Sustainable Urbanisation II. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yanivbin at gmail.com Tue Dec 14 17:29:09 2010 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:29:09 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] INVITATION BOOK LAUNCHING at 16 DEC 2010 In-Reply-To: <1292304026.S.42123.27187.pro-236-104.rediffmailpro.com.old.1292305397.21940@webmail.rediffmail.com> References: <1292304026.S.42123.27187.pro-236-104.rediffmailpro.com.old.1292305397.21940@webmail.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: FYI ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Rajendra Ravi Date: Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 11:13 AM Subject: Fw: INVITATION BOOK LAUNCHING at 16 DEC 2010 Dear Friends, This is invitation of book launching function titled FINDING DELHI on December 16th at 6.30PM at Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, New Delhi. Many of you likely don't know about Finding Delhi, a book recently edited by Bharti Chaturvedi. The book's contributors are diverse-from well known urban practitioners to workers in the informal sector. Our book came as a response to the dramatic changes in Delhi as it tried to become a world class city. We asked : What kind of opportunities became available for some, and how much was taken away from others? We suggested : Dream your own dream for your city, don't borrow the dreams of other cities. Our book is on the top 10 non-fiction books this week, and has received excellent reviews, such as this :http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp?filename=hub201110VEXING.asp# It would be great if you could join the Finding Delhi contributors, our publishers, Penguin India and me to think aloud about our cities. Kindly confirm your participation on the function. With regards and best wishes, Rajendra Ravi -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Invite_.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 27569 bytes Desc: not available URL: From yanivbin at gmail.com Fri Dec 17 19:41:30 2010 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 19:41:30 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Remaking of cities On how the elite take over land in the new global city. Message-ID: *Vol:27 Iss:26* *URL: http://www.flonnet.com/fl2726/stories/20101231272607400.htm* ------------------------------ *BOOKS* * Remaking of cities * C.T. KURIEN * On how the elite take over land in the new global city. * IN the long evolutionary process of human societies, urbanisation has been a rather late phenomenon. In the early stages where human effort had to be devoted substantially to the gathering of the essential wherewithal for living, there was hardly any permanent settlements at all; humans moved to where there was some chance of getting food. Settled agricultural production is a relatively recent phenomenon, only about 15,000 years old. Urbanisation came still later. The early cities were centres of either commerce or administration. In either case, the distinguishing feature of these human agglomerations was that they were not dependent on the production of food, so much so that even today one of the defining aspects of an urban area is that only a small proportion of the workforce (not more than 25 per cent in the Indian definition) should be engaged in agriculture and related activities. After the Industrial Revolution, which resulted in non-agricultural production taking place in large mechanised factories (as against the small manufacturers of the earlier period), cities turned out to be largely centres of industrial production. Whether as administrative, commercial or industrial centres, cities became human settlements not dependent on land, unlike the rural areas with agriculture as the main activity. Thus, cities provided the opportunity for humans to redefine social relations. Robert Park, the urban sociologist, has claimed that “in making the city man has remade himself”. There is a general recognition that in the present era of globalisation urban areas are undergoing a major transformation. As indicated by the subtitle of the volume under review, its theme is “transformative cities in the new global order”. But what of the title itself, Accumulation by Dispossession? The theme developed in the volume, which consists of selected papers presented at an international conference held in Mumbai in 2006, is that land is re-entering the economic, political and social life of these cities, especially those closely connected with globalisation, in a very powerful manner and that the accumulation that the few make in and through these cities is at the expense of dispossession of many. Consider our cities typically impacted by globalisation – Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, for instance, and many other centres rapidly entering the group. In varying degrees they are characterised by the twin factors that drive contemporary globalisation – finance and information and communication technology (ICT). What is the modus operandi of these two activities? To locate their operations they need land, and in most instances, it is through the political processes of the State government concerned and of the municipal corporations that the land is made available to them. If land is thus made available to finance and IT enterprises, some others must be excluded from land, thus reflecting the contradictory processes of inclusion and exclusion so characteristic of the aggressive capitalist globalisation that is going on. There is a fairly standardised procedure getting established as well, summarised in the Introduction to the volume thus: “At city level it is characterised by increasing constraints in planning and the political capacity of elected municipal governments, privatisation of basic services, withdrawal of the state from urban development, escalating support for public-private partnerships, especially in infrastructural projects, increasing gentrification to expand space for elitist consumption, and growing exposure to global competition reflecting the power of a disciplinary finance regime and a hegemonic cultural framework.” The consequences are also indicated: “The resultant spatial forms… exposit a deep interaction between the local and the global, featuring systemic selection of modern urban functions in specific areas, relocation of poor people and less profitable activities to periphery and their replacement by newer functions, mega-structures and modern infrastructure.” * NEW CITY * The papers in the volume attempt to document these observations mainly with reference to some Indian cities. A very clear case is Hyderabad, which, it has been claimed, has become a “new” city in the past couple of decades, particularly under the chief ministership of N. Chandrababu Naidu, who claimed to be the CEO of the State. Sure enough, the city has undergone a major transformation. For one, its population (now estimated at six million) has almost doubled in a matter of two decades, and a very high proportion of it consists of people from other parts of the State and of the country. But there is also “a section of population comprising realtors, traders, local venture capitalists and politicians who have gained a lot in the process of accumulating land for themselves or for external investors”. And, of course, in a short period the city claimed some 8 to 10 per cent of the country's software exports. Road construction within the Hyderabad Urban Agglomeration has been one of the major projects in recent years. Some 2,000 hectares of private land is being acquired, under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894, for the project, paying only 10-15 per cent of the market value. The area within a kilometre on either side of the road has special building rules; one of them is that the minimum size of a plot for individual housing is 500 square yards. Not surprisingly, many of those who have been dispossessed have nowhere to go. Similarly, a large number of people who had made the banks of the river Musi their home have been declared encroachers and evicted to beautify the river, which soon became part of the National Urban Renewal Mission. There are some schemes for the rehabilitation of slums, but what has been going on, according to the writer of the paper, is “selective carving” dictated by the flow of global capital, leading to dispossession or alienation of the majority of the people. Bangalore, often praised as the Silicon Valley of the East, has a similar story, too. IT and ITeS (information technology-enabled services) have already overshadowed garments, silk and general manufacturing that the city was once known for and even the more modern high-skilled technical establishments. Land for the global enterprises and for transport connections – such as the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) – became a priority consideration and the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) was set up to handle the matter. Soon came Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) and other land-claiming projects, many of them of public-private partnership. Foreign capital was allowed access to urban land. Land prices started shooting up, the allocations determined by the iron laws of the market and the will of politicians. A body of high-profile citizens known as the Bangalore Agenda Task Force was set up representing ‘civil society', whose de facto power became a threat to the elected bodies responsible for the administration of the city. The city is now characterised by immense concentration of wealth and its gaudy demonstration in most walks of life on the one hand, and extreme pressure on vast sections of the population in their attempt to make a living, on the other. Mumbai is by far the best case study that illustrates the characteristics of the new global city. Although initially it was reputed as the industrial centre of India, the city soon became one of the financial hubs of the East, certainly not as powerful as Tokyo but comparable to Bangkok and Taipei. Consequently, from the 1980s when globalisation led by finance capital emerged as a powerful force, there was talk of making Mumbai the new geographic centre for global finance between the major Western cities and Tokyo. It was recognised that for this to happen many changes would have to be effected in the city – for instance, getting rid of the crowded industrial areas and strengthening infrastructure facilities. In other words, a new geography was considered as an essential step for which relaxation of land acquisition rules and control of labour were considered unavoidable. Then came the McKinsey Report, whose objective was to make Mumbai one of the top 10 cities of the world. The report and its Vision Statement became the basis for a series of brain-storming sessions involving major government departments, business groups and non-governmental organisations. Fairly soon, the Vision Statement became the Government of Maharashtra's Task Force Report for “Transforming Mumbai into a World Class City with a Vibrant Economy and Globally Comparable Quality of Life for its Citizens”. By 2005, the approach was accepted as the basis for the Central government's Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, with Mumbai being given top priority. Mumbai's urban renewal has specific features of its own – capturing public spaces, cleaning up, and mega projects of various sorts. But in sum, it is a repetition of the organised minority versus the unorganised majority. Dhaka, the capital city of neighbouring Bangladesh, has a similar story to tell: “20 per cent of the high- income group occupy 70 per cent of the residential land characterised by high land and with good infrastructure and social services”. It is somewhat surprising that the only Western city examined is Vienna. The omission of Shanghai, the only city in the non-capitalist world that plays an important role in global finance, is also glaring. The volume offers a detailed background to the land scam politics that has become a distinguishing feature of public life in the country now. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yanivbin at gmail.com Sat Dec 11 10:10:04 2010 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:10:04 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] proposed new Model Act for BSUP fund In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi All, The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has prepared a draft Model law in preparation for the launch of Rajiv Awas Yojana in the coming months This is to ensure legal backing for a 25 % share in the annual municipality budgets for the urban poor It could be used as a precondition for RAY . It has taken over 5 years since the launch of JNNURM for the Mo HUPA to put this as a condition similar legislative backing is required for the allocation of land for EWS / LIG in all public or private layouts regards Vinay -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: BSUP_Fund.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 86464 bytes Desc: not available URL: From sumandro at gmail.com Fri Dec 17 10:38:14 2010 From: sumandro at gmail.com (sumandro) Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 10:38:14 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] just femme - panel discussion - is bangalore women-friendly? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Citizen Matters and JustFemme present *"Is Bengaluru women-friendly?"* *Date:* Dec 18, 2010 *Time:* 4pm to 5.30pm *Venue:* NGMA, No. 49, Manikyavelu Mansion, Palace Road, Bangalore-560 052 *The Bangalorean panelists* *Prakash Belawadi*,a well-known journalist, theatre enthusiast and a filmmaker from Bengaluru. "Among the most significant markers of a civilised society is that it is conscious and sensible to the female half of itself", he says. Earlier this year, he ran for a Bengauru city council seat on the Lok Satta party ticket. *Mithila Jha*, an Urban Planner, currently working with BMTC. Over the past two years, she has been involved in projects seeking to popularise the Volvo bus services. She holds a Masters degree in Urban Planning from MIT, Cambridge, USA. Her interests are in marketing public transport and make it more accessible and user friendly. *C K Meena*, a long-time Bangalorean, known for witty columns on life in Bengaluru's ever-changing cityscape, has written two books of fiction - the semi-autobiographical Black Lentil Doughnuts and the crime thriller Dreams for the Dying. *Deepika Nagabushan*, a freelance photographer who likes to capture people and stories. As an active member of Bangalore Photography Club she was recently involved with Frames of Mind 2010, a photo exhibition. She is a marketing communication professional working with Schneider Electric. *Suneel Kumar (IPS)*, is Additional Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) for Bangalore. He will speak from the vantage of the state police and law enforcement. *Siri Srinivas*, a gen-next sharpie, born and raised in Bengaluru, an engineer and working at a global financial major in the city. *Moderator* *Vasanthi Hariprakash*, is presently Special Correspondent at NDTV's Bangalore bureau and an award winning RJ and journalist. She has 16 years of media experience that spans across print, radio, online and visual media. http://justfemme.in/petemaatu-panel-discussion -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From esg at esgindia.org Fri Dec 17 15:59:54 2010 From: esg at esgindia.org (Leo Saldanha ESG) Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:59:54 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Public Consultation Must in Metro or any Infrastructure Project: Unprecedented decision of High Court of Karnataka Message-ID: <4D0B3BA2.2000709@esgindia.org> ***PRESS RELEASE* 17 December 2010 Public Consultation Must in Planning and Building Metro or any Infrastructure Project /Unprecedented Decision by High Court of Karnataka holds Officials directly accountable for any lapse/ *Background:* Environment Support Group and ors had challenged the construction of the southern reach of Bangalore Metro as being in gross violation of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act and other statutes in a Public Interest Litigation (WP 13241/2009, accessible online at: http://www.esgindia.org/campaigns/metro/legal.html). This was associated with widespread protests over the highly illegal development of the Southern Reach of the "Namma Metro" project that fundamentally violated the Comprehensive Development Plan of Bangalore and in the process destroyed many parks and public spaces, and neighbourhoods. The protests and the Petition highlighted how the Metro authorities callously disregarded sanctity of public commons, especially portions of Lalbagh and the boulevards along K. R. Road and Nanda Road as they destructively tore through the city's fabric with an ill-thought Metro line. A majore issue of law that was raised in the PIL was the highly questionable decision of the Government of Karnataka authorising the sale of the portion of Lalbagh as an industrial site acquired for Metro station under the KIADB Act. A Government Order authorised the Deputy Commissioner of Bangalore to sell the Lalbagh land from Horticulture Dept. to Bangalore Metro at a market price. Thus making this world famous and historical living heritage of the city a tradable commodity -- a shocking precedent. Comprehensive arguments on the Petition by all parties were heard by the High Court and the matter was reserved for judgement in June 2009 by a Division Bench of the High Court headed by Justice Mr. Gopalagowda. However, with his elevation as Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, the judgement was not delivered and the matter had to be reheard. In the meantime, the Metro authorities bulldozed their way with the Southern reach of the Metro, even extending it illegally, unmindful of the serious and irreversible consequences involved. *The ruling:* Diposing the Petition on 16^th November 2010, a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court constituted by Chief Justice Mr. J. S. Khehar and Justice Mr. A. S. Bopanna observed that the "factual controvery brought out through the ... writ petitions" have been "rendered infructuous", given the substantial development of the Phase I of the Southern Reach of the Metro. However, the Court took full cognisance of the submission made by the Petitioners that *"if a direction is issued to the State Government, as also, the Bangalore Development Authority to ensure that in future, in case they desire to change the land use, as has been depicted in the master plan, the competent authority shall follow the procedural mandate depicted in Section 14-A of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961 And likewise in case of making a town planning scheme, the State Government, as also the Bangalore Development Authority shall comply with the procedure contained in Sections 29, 30, 31, 32 and 34 of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961".* Thereafter, the Court observed that "Mr. Basavaraj Kareddy, learned Prl. Government Advocate, who represented the State and Mr. K. Krishna, learned counsel, who on our asking accepts notice on behalf of the Bangalore Development Authority, agree, that the provisions referred to hereinabove, shall be complied with, without any deviation whatsoever". Based on this submission by the Counsels representing the Karnataka Government, the Court in a clear message to all urban planning and infrastructure development authorities in particular, and the Executive in general, warned that *"(n)eedless to mention, that in case of violation of direction issued by this Court, based on statement made to this Court, the concerned officer/official shall be held responsible, for his having disobeyed the order passed by this Court, as also, the prescribed mandate of law".* *Implications of the Judgement to Bangalore Metro and other infrastructure projects:* Such an order is unprecedented in the annals of jurisprudence of the Karnataka Judiciary as it is for the first time that the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act and its progressive provisions mandating public participation in urban planning and infrastructure development have been fleshed out and made determinant to any urban planning effort and infrastructure development in Bangalore and other cities of Karnataka. This path breaking ruling will also serve persuasive in securing similar relief in other States where Metro and other mega infrastructure projects are being implemented, or proposed, in gross violation of land use planning laws. The judgement has enormous consequences to the further development of the Bangalore Metro (or any other infrastructure project or town and country planning scheme). Bangalore Metro has been largely developed in blatant disregard of the public consultation requirements as laid down in the KTCP Act. While much of the 43 kms. long Phase I of the Metro has been built (or in various stages of in-completion), and the situation as far as this phase is a /fait accompli/, the subsequent phases of the Metro will have to fully conform with this decision of the High Court. Metro authorities cannot bulldoze their way through neighbourhoods in violation of the KTCP Act, merely on the justification that the project is in the public interest. Every directly and indirectly affected person who in the past has had to go through the arduous struggle of pleading with authorities, can now demand such mega-projects are developed only in strict accordance with law, else the officials involved will be hauled up for Contempt of Court. Leo F. Saldanha Sunil Dutt Yadav Coordinator Advocate Environment Support Group 1572, 36^th Cross, Ring Road, Banashankari II Stage, Bangalore 560070. INDIA Tel: 91-80-26713559-61 Email: esg at esgindia.org Web: www.esgindia.org NOTE: Copy of the judgment will be uploaded to the ESG Website shortly ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Implications of the Karnataka High Court direction in WP 13241/2009 (PIL of Environment Support Group and ors. vs. Bangalore Metro and ors.^1 ) for the implementation of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act * The Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act (KTCP Act) is amongst the most progressive legislations enacted in the post-independent period. Reflecting the thinking prevalent at the time of its enactment, the objective of the law is "regulation of planned growth of land use and development and for the making and execution of town planning schemes in the State". Concerned about the wholistic development of the State without disparities, our Legislators in 1961 thought it fit to include in the Preamble to the Act the following: "Physical planning has to precede economic planning as otherwise cities, towns and villages of our country will grow to unmanageable sizes without proper planning resulting in unhealthy surroundings. *Physical planning with co-ordinated effort on a large scale is necessary if the people are to live in a better, healthier and happier environment*. The proposed (law) is expected to solve the Town Planning problems." (emphasis added) The Act elaborates the specific objectives as follows: "(i) to create conditions favourable for planning and replanning of the urban and rural areas in the^[State of Karnataka], with a view to providing full civic and social amenities for the people in the State, (ii) *to stop uncontrolled development of land due to land speculation and profiteering in land*, (iii) to preserve and improve existing recreational facilities and other amenities *contributing towards balanced use of land*; and (iv) to direct the future growth of populated areas in the State, with a view to *ensuring desirable standards of environmental health and hygiene*, and creating facilities for the *orderly growth of industry and commerce*, thereby promoting generally standards of living in the State." (emphasis added) Subsequent to the enactment of this law, particularly during the Emergency period, the progressive results that could have been achieved for the benefit of society by implementing this law faithfully were derailed by the creation of a para-statal, bureaucratic and publicly unaccountable Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in 1976. This was at a time when there was no internal democracy due to imposition of Emergency. The BDA, thereafter, became a terrible model for subordinating the due role of public and elected representatives to participate in planning and development. Very soon many similar authorities that were accountable to none but the Government in power were created: Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Development Authority, Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Area Planning Authority, Bangalore International Airport Area Planning Authority, to name a few. Needless to state, the mandate to consult the public in urban planning and development, as detailed in the KTCP Act, has rarely been followed by any of these agencies. The result has been reckless urbanisation and infrastructure development, almost always undemocratically, fuelling a phenomenal increase in corruption based on transactions relating to land use and land development. A serious effort to check this menace was made by enacting the Constitutional 74^th Amendment (Nagarpalika) Act in 1992. This law significantly introduced the need for establishment of representative and transparent Metropolitan/District Planning Committees with a mandate to develop 5 year plans relating to land use, natural resource management, social and economic development and environmental protection. State Governments, however, have systematically sidestepped this Constitutional mandate. This has resulted in land use planning and urban and infrastructure developments becoming subjective to machinations of powerful and corrupt lobbies. The public interest, thereof, has been completely ignored. *Post-Parastatals, questionable roles of BATF and ABIDE in defining our futures:* Over the past decade however, Karnataka Government has found the time to initiate unaccountable planning interventions through the creation of unconstitutional bodies such as Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) and Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure and Development Task Force (ABIDE). Members to these elite bodies are appointed by the Chief Minister and not surprisingly more often than not included people from his coterie. Again unsurprisingly, the visions and plans developed by these folks has largely reflected the demands of the upper classes of society based on their rather limited and skewed understanding of the complex processes of urbanisation. The result has been an endless stream of experimentation, more recently promoted by the peculiar emergence of Advisors and Strategic Urban Advisors. This has resulted in Governments coming up with its own slew of mega-projects to serve their political legacies, often playing to the demands of influential lobbies. Statutory public participation provisions of the KTCP Act have been given a quiet burial in the process. It is in this despairing scenario that the current decision of the High Court comes in as a major relief to the wide public. *How the High Court decision affects implementation of the KTCP Act and the future of our settlements:* This order shatters a popular myth that KTCP Act does not apply to mega projects like the Metro, road widening, construction of elevated express-ways, development of airports, and the like. Attacking that /status quo ante/attitude prevalent in public authorities, the order holds officials connected to land use planning accountable for not enforcing various provisions of the Act. To ensure there is no confusion or misinterpretation (deliberate or otherwise) of the import of its order, the Court has issued the order on the basis of agreement to comply with the law "without any deviation whatsoever" at the serious risk of facing Contempt action. The KTCP Act mandates the involvement of the public, especially affected public, at various stages of planning and implementation of development plans. The Act requires that town and country planning authorities (such as the BDA) consult the public during the intent to make a plan, formulating a plan, and finalising a plan to begin with. Once the assent of the State has been obtained for the Plan, should there be any need to amend the land use plan the Act requires that the procedure to be adopted must consult the public once more. Often implementing agencies consider the Comprehensive Development Plan as the final word on development of projects. But this is not the position in law. The KTCP Act in fact requires that for the implementation of the Plan, a Scheme has to be developed providing a variety of details and maps, again in consultation with the public at the various stages of its development: Intent to formulate a Scheme, Formulation of the Scheme and Finalisation of the Scheme. Rarely, if ever, have these provisions been implemented in Karnataka or any other State. Significant to note is the fact that four decades before the enactment of the Right to Information Act (2005), the KTCP Act required that public authorities must actively disseminate detailed maps and other connected information to the public. The Act in fact makes public participation fundamental to decision making, be it in the development of a layout, road-widening, park development, change of land use, Metro constuction, airport development, industrial development or any other item of urban planning and infrastructure development that comes under the purview of the Act. *Renewing the journey to correct the imbalance and undemocratic nature of urban and infrastructure development:* The absolute lack of implementation of the provisions of the KTCP Act has reduced our cities and towns to chaotic human habitations where the Fundamental Right to Live in reasonable comfort, security and in a clean environment has been seriously compromised by neglect by authorities to basic tenets of public involvement in planning and development. The High Court order makes a substantial intervention to correct this malaise of our societies. In any city where mega projects are being built or proposed to be built, they are largely undertaken without any statutory public involvement in planning and development of mega projects. This has created havoc in the lives of hundreds of directly affected communities Decisions are undertaken in-transparently on the basis of consultation with the Cabinet and senior bureaucracy, commonly to suit the benefits of vested lobbies. Thousands of crores of rupees are invested in such projects, causing variety of disturbances to our society and the environment, and rarely, if ever, are elected bodies and the public consulted on such matters. This High Court direction is a significant step forward in stemming this rot and its benefit is directly proportional to its active use by the wide public. The order directly affects the functioning of all planning and development authorities in Karnataka, and will have highly persuasive value in seeking similar relief in other States. While it is truly unfortunate that we have reached a stage in our society where Courts have to act on the basis of PILs merely to ensure faithful implementation of the law, the fact that such directions are issued revitalises our faith in the Rule of Law. Leo F. Saldanha leo at esgindia.org Environment Support Group 1572, 36^th Cross, Ring Road, Banashankari II Stage, Bangalore 560070. INDIA Tel: 91-80-26713559-61 Email: esg at esgindia.org Web: www.esgindia.org 1 WP 13241/2009, accessible online at: http://www.esgindia.org/campaigns/metro/legal.html) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Press_Release_Bangalore_Metro_ESG_PIL_171210.doc Type: application/msword Size: 24064 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Note_Metro_Case_ESG_PIL_Dec2010.doc Type: application/msword Size: 33280 bytes Desc: not available URL: From sumandro at gmail.com Fri Dec 17 16:56:26 2010 From: sumandro at gmail.com (sumandro) Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:56:26 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: [ESG-LIST] Public Consultation Must in Metro or any Infrastructure Project: Unprecedented decision of High Court of Karnataka In-Reply-To: <4D0B3A5B.8090708@esgindia.org> References: <4D0B3A5B.8090708@esgindia.org> Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: ESGINDIA Date: Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 3:54 PM Subject: [ESG-LIST] Public Consultation Must in Metro or any Infrastructure Project: Unprecedented decision of High Court of Karnataka To: esglist at lists.esgindia.org, bangalore_issues at lists.esgindia.org, corporate_list at lists.esgindia.org, sec_kar at lists.esgindia.org, moef at lists.esgindia.org * **PRESS RELEASE* 17 December 2010 Public Consultation Must in Planning and Building Metro or any Infrastructure Project *Unprecedented Decision by High Court of Karnataka holds Officials directly accountable for any lapse* *Background:* Environment Support Group and ors had challenged the construction of the southern reach of Bangalore Metro as being in gross violation of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act and other statutes in a Public Interest Litigation (WP 13241/2009, accessible online at: http://www.esgindia.org/campaigns/metro/legal.html). This was associated with widespread protests over the highly illegal development of the Southern Reach of the “Namma Metro” project that fundamentally violated the Comprehensive Development Plan of Bangalore and in the process destroyed many parks and public spaces, and neighbourhoods. The protests and the Petition highlighted how the Metro authorities callously disregarded sanctity of public commons, especially portions of Lalbagh and the boulevards along K. R. Road and Nanda Road as they destructively tore through the city's fabric with an ill-thought Metro line. A majore issue of law that was raised in the PIL was the highly questionable decision of the Government of Karnataka authorising the sale of the portion of Lalbagh as an industrial site acquired for Metro station under the KIADB Act. A Government Order authorised the Deputy Commissioner of Bangalore to sell the Lalbagh land from Horticulture Dept. to Bangalore Metro at a market price. Thus making this world famous and historical living heritage of the city a tradable commodity – a shocking precedent. Comprehensive arguments on the Petition by all parties were heard by the High Court and the matter was reserved for judgement in June 2009 by a Division Bench of the High Court headed by Justice Mr. Gopalagowda. However, with his elevation as Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, the judgement was not delivered and the matter had to be reheard. In the meantime, the Metro authorities bulldozed their way with the Southern reach of the Metro, even extending it illegally, unmindful of the serious and irreversible consequences involved. *The ruling:* Diposing the Petition on 16th November 2010, a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court constituted by Chief Justice Mr. J. S. Khehar and Justice Mr. A. S. Bopanna observed that the “factual controvery brought out through the … writ petitions” have been “rendered infructuous”, given the substantial development of the Phase I of the Southern Reach of the Metro. However, the Court took full cognisance of the submission made by the Petitioners that *“if a direction is issued to the State Government, as also, the Bangalore Development Authority to ensure that in future, in case they desire to change the land use, as has been depicted in the master plan, the competent authority shall follow the procedural mandate depicted in Section 14-A of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961 And likewise in case of making a town planning scheme, the State Government, as also the Bangalore Development Authority shall comply with the procedure contained in Sections 29, 30, 31, 32 and 34 of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961”.* Thereafter, the Court observed that “Mr. Basavaraj Kareddy, learned Prl. Government Advocate, who represented the State and Mr. K. Krishna, learned counsel, who on our asking accepts notice on behalf of the Bangalore Development Authority, agree, that the provisions referred to hereinabove, shall be complied with, without any deviation whatsoever”. Based on this submission by the Counsels representing the Karnataka Government, the Court in a clear message to all urban planning and infrastructure development authorities in particular, and the Executive in general, warned that *“(n)eedless to mention, that in case of violation of direction issued by this Court, based on statement made to this Court, the concerned officer/official shall be held responsible, for his having disobeyed the order passed by this Court, as also, the prescribed mandate of law”.* *Implications of the Judgement to Bangalore Metro and other infrastructure projects:* Such an order is unprecedented in the annals of jurisprudence of the Karnataka Judiciary as it is for the first time that the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act and its progressive provisions mandating public participation in urban planning and infrastructure development have been fleshed out and made determinant to any urban planning effort and infrastructure development in Bangalore and other cities of Karnataka. This path breaking ruling will also serve persuasive in securing similar relief in other States where Metro and other mega infrastructure projects are being implemented, or proposed, in gross violation of land use planning laws. The judgement has enormous consequences to the further development of the Bangalore Metro (or any other infrastructure project or town and country planning scheme). Bangalore Metro has been largely developed in blatant disregard of the public consultation requirements as laid down in the KTCP Act. While much of the 43 kms. long Phase I of the Metro has been built (or in various stages of in-completion), and the situation as far as this phase is a *fait accompli*, the subsequent phases of the Metro will have to fully conform with this decision of the High Court. Metro authorities cannot bulldoze their way through neighbourhoods in violation of the KTCP Act, merely on the justification that the project is in the public interest. Every directly and indirectly affected person who in the past has had to go through the arduous struggle of pleading with authorities, can now demand such mega-projects are developed only in strict accordance with law, else the officials involved will be hauled up for Contempt of Court. Leo F. Saldanha Sunil Dutt Yadav Coordinator Advocate Environment Support Group 1572, 36th Cross, Ring Road, Banashankari II Stage, Bangalore 560070. INDIA Tel: 91-80-26713559-61 Email: esg at esgindia.org Web: www.esgindia.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Implications of the Karnataka High Court direction in WP 13241/2009 (PIL of Environment Support Group and ors. vs. Bangalore Metro and ors.1) for the implementation of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act * The Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act (KTCP Act) is amongst the most progressive legislations enacted in the post-independent period. Reflecting the thinking prevalent at the time of its enactment, the objective of the law is “regulation of planned growth of land use and development and for the making and execution of town planning schemes in the State”. Concerned about the wholistic development of the State without disparities, our Legislators in 1961 thought it fit to include in the Preamble to the Act the following: “Physical planning has to precede economic planning as otherwise cities, towns and villages of our country will grow to unmanageable sizes without proper planning resulting in unhealthy surroundings. *Physical planning with co-ordinated effort on a large scale is necessary if the people are to live in a better, healthier and happier environment*. The proposed (law) is expected to solve the Town Planning problems.” (emphasis added) The Act elaborates the specific objectives as follows: “(i) to create conditions favourable for planning and replanning of the urban and rural areas in the [State of Karnataka], with a view to providing full civic and social amenities for the people in the State, (ii) *to stop uncontrolled development of land due to land speculation and profiteering in land*, (iii) to preserve and improve existing recreational facilities and other amenities *contributing towards balanced use of land*; and (iv) to direct the future growth of populated areas in the State, with a view to *ensuring desirable standards of environmental health and hygiene*, and creating facilities for the *orderly growth of industry and commerce*, thereby promoting generally standards of living in the State.” (emphasis added) Subsequent to the enactment of this law, particularly during the Emergency period, the progressive results that could have been achieved for the benefit of society by implementing this law faithfully were derailed by the creation of a para-statal, bureaucratic and publicly unaccountable Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in 1976. This was at a time when there was no internal democracy due to imposition of Emergency. The BDA, thereafter, became a terrible model for subordinating the due role of public and elected representatives to participate in planning and development. Very soon many similar authorities that were accountable to none but the Government in power were created: Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Development Authority, Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Area Planning Authority, Bangalore International Airport Area Planning Authority, to name a few. Needless to state, the mandate to consult the public in urban planning and development, as detailed in the KTCP Act, has rarely been followed by any of these agencies. The result has been reckless urbanisation and infrastructure development, almost always undemocratically, fuelling a phenomenal increase in corruption based on transactions relating to land use and land development. A serious effort to check this menace was made by enacting the Constitutional 74th Amendment (Nagarpalika) Act in 1992. This law significantly introduced the need for establishment of representative and transparent Metropolitan/District Planning Committees with a mandate to develop 5 year plans relating to land use, natural resource management, social and economic development and environmental protection. State Governments, however, have systematically sidestepped this Constitutional mandate. This has resulted in land use planning and urban and infrastructure developments becoming subjective to machinations of powerful and corrupt lobbies. The public interest, thereof, has been completely ignored. *Post-Parastatals, questionable roles of BATF and ABIDE in defining our futures:* Over the past decade however, Karnataka Government has found the time to initiate unaccountable planning interventions through the creation of unconstitutional bodies such as Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) and Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure and Development Task Force (ABIDE). Members to these elite bodies are appointed by the Chief Minister and not surprisingly more often than not included people from his coterie. Again unsurprisingly, the visions and plans developed by these folks has largely reflected the demands of the upper classes of society based on their rather limited and skewed understanding of the complex processes of urbanisation. The result has been an endless stream of experimentation, more recently promoted by the peculiar emergence of Advisors and Strategic Urban Advisors. This has resulted in Governments coming up with its own slew of mega-projects to serve their political legacies, often playing to the demands of influential lobbies. Statutory public participation provisions of the KTCP Act have been given a quiet burial in the process. It is in this despairing scenario that the current decision of the High Court comes in as a major relief to the wide public. *How the High Court decision affects implementation of the KTCP Act and the future of our settlements:* This order shatters a popular myth that KTCP Act does not apply to mega projects like the Metro, road widening, construction of elevated express-ways, development of airports, and the like. Attacking that *status quo ante* attitude prevalent in public authorities, the order holds officials connected to land use planning accountable for not enforcing various provisions of the Act. To ensure there is no confusion or misinterpretation (deliberate or otherwise) of the import of its order, the Court has issued the order on the basis of agreement to comply with the law “without any deviation whatsoever” at the serious risk of facing Contempt action. The KTCP Act mandates the involvement of the public, especially affected public, at various stages of planning and implementation of development plans. The Act requires that town and country planning authorities (such as the BDA) consult the public during the intent to make a plan, formulating a plan, and finalising a plan to begin with. Once the assent of the State has been obtained for the Plan, should there be any need to amend the land use plan the Act requires that the procedure to be adopted must consult the public once more. Often implementing agencies consider the Comprehensive Development Plan as the final word on development of projects. But this is not the position in law. The KTCP Act in fact requires that for the implementation of the Plan, a Scheme has to be developed providing a variety of details and maps, again in consultation with the public at the various stages of its development: Intent to formulate a Scheme, Formulation of the Scheme and Finalisation of the Scheme. Rarely, if ever, have these provisions been implemented in Karnataka or any other State. Significant to note is the fact that four decades before the enactment of the Right to Information Act (2005), the KTCP Act required that public authorities must actively disseminate detailed maps and other connected information to the public. The Act in fact makes public participation fundamental to decision making, be it in the development of a layout, road-widening, park development, change of land use, Metro constuction, airport development, industrial development or any other item of urban planning and infrastructure development that comes under the purview of the Act. *Renewing the journey to correct the imbalance and undemocratic nature of urban and infrastructure development:* The absolute lack of implementation of the provisions of the KTCP Act has reduced our cities and towns to chaotic human habitations where the Fundamental Right to Live in reasonable comfort, security and in a clean environment has been seriously compromised by neglect by authorities to basic tenets of public involvement in planning and development. The High Court order makes a substantial intervention to correct this malaise of our societies. In any city where mega projects are being built or proposed to be built, they are largely undertaken without any statutory public involvement in planning and development of mega projects. This has created havoc in the lives of hundreds of directly affected communities Decisions are undertaken in-transparently on the basis of consultation with the Cabinet and senior bureaucracy, commonly to suit the benefits of vested lobbies. Thousands of crores of rupees are invested in such projects, causing variety of disturbances to our society and the environment, and rarely, if ever, are elected bodies and the public consulted on such matters. This High Court direction is a significant step forward in stemming this rot and its benefit is directly proportional to its active use by the wide public. The order directly affects the functioning of all planning and development authorities in Karnataka, and will have highly persuasive value in seeking similar relief in other States. While it is truly unfortunate that we have reached a stage in our society where Courts have to act on the basis of PILs merely to ensure faithful implementation of the law, the fact that such directions are issued revitalises our faith in the Rule of Law. Leo F. Saldanha leo at esgindia.org Environment Support Group 1572, 36th Cross, Ring Road, Banashankari II Stage, Bangalore 560070. INDIA Tel: 91-80-26713559-61 Email: esg at esgindia.org Web: www.esgindia.org 1 WP 13241/2009, accessible online at: http://www.esgindia.org/campaigns/metro/legal.html) _______________________________________________ Esglist mailing list TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS LIST, SEND AN EMAIL TO ' esglist-request at lists.esgindia.org' WITH SUBJECT 'unsubscribe' -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Press_Release_Bangalore_Metro_ESG_PIL_171210.doc Type: application/msword Size: 24064 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Note_Metro_Case_ESG_PIL_Dec2010.doc Type: application/msword Size: 33280 bytes Desc: not available URL: From veena at doccentre.net Tue Dec 21 11:35:43 2010 From: veena at doccentre.net (veena) Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:35:43 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] JUMBLE BOOK SALE at CED, Bangalore - Dec 21-24, 2010 Message-ID: <4D1043B7.8030806@doccentre.net> JUMBLE BOOK SALE at CED, Bangalore from December 21 to December 24, 2010. CED Bangalore invites you to this special Jumble Sale of Books. These are extra copies that we have removed from our Library. The books cover subject categories from Globalisation and social movements to Gender, Human rights, Health, Environment and other general books, also a lot of them on Marx & Lenin. Dates: DECEMBER 21-24, 2010 Venue: CED Bangalore, #7, 8th Main, 3rd Phase, 2nd Stage, Domlur, Bangalore 560071. (Call us at 25353397 for directions, bus routes etc.) Timing: 10.30 am to 5.30pm Please pass this on to people, groups and institutions that you think might also benefit from this opportunity. Look forward to seeing you, your colleagues and friends at the JUMBLE BOOK SALE! Warm regards, CED Team Bangalore From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Wed Dec 22 22:29:19 2010 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:29:19 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] TDR in Bangalore Message-ID: Dear all, Here is the piece I wrote on TDR - http://zainab.freecrow.org/2010/12/tdr-contents-and-discontents/ The e-zine Citizen Matters ran an edited version of this on - http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/2632-tdr-panel-reccommendations Please feel free to circulate, criticize, comment, etc. Best, Zainab -- Zainab Bawa Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher http://writerruns.wordpress.com/ ... ambling along roads and courses, not knowing whether I am running towards a destination or whether the act of running is destination in itself -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yanivbin at gmail.com Fri Dec 24 20:28:04 2010 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2010 20:28:04 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] BIG BROTHER WATCHES Message-ID: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101222/jsp/opinion/story_13332047.jsp *BIG BROTHER WATCHES * Citizens’ groups are up in arms over the recently introduced National Identification Authority of India Bill. *Manjula Sen* finds out why. Person or number?: A unique identity number will be provide to each Indian citizen by the UIDAI. The National Identification Authority of India Bill (NIAI), 2010, was introduced in the Rajya Sabha early this month, nearly two years after the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was set up in February 2009. The UIDAI intends to provide a unique number to each resident in the country, a number which will “primarily be used as a basis for efficient delivery of welfare services.” Towards this end, a biometrics-based database of every Indian citizen would be maintained by the government. The UIDAI was established by an executive order of the Union government, with its chairman Nandan Nilekani handpicked for the Cabinet minister-ranked job by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The pilot project called Aadhaar rolled out in September this year. The NIAI Bill is essentially aimed at making the UIDAI a legally sanctioned body and setting out its powers and functions. Though the law is obviously necessary, several legal experts and citizens’ groups say that the bill leaves a lot to be desired. One major point of concern is that the bill does not offer enough safeguards against breach of privacy, profiling and “function creep”, the process where data collected for one function may end up being used for another purpose. In fact, the draft bill had called for checks against profiling, but this has been ignored entirely in is current version. Again the bill does not clearly specify whom the ID number will be applicable to. It says the number would be given to “individuals residing in India and certain other classes of individuals.” Critics say that the term “certain other classes” is too vague and ambiguous to be acceptable. In a detailed critique, the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), a Bengaluru-based research and advocacy group, says that the term is a broad generalisation that lends itself to potential misuse. Narrowing the term to “individuals residing in India” would be much better, it argues. CIS also points out that the bill seems to do more with the regulatory authority of the UIDAI rather than with measures to protect the rights and interests of citizens. “Lots of important details have been left to be defined by the UIDAI. This is dangerous because it affords it far too much discretionary powers. The bill only protects the interests of the UIDAI. It does not protect the rights of citizens and residents,” stresses Sunil Abraham, executive director, CIS. Again, the proposed law does not contain adequate measures to redress transactional and system errors or fraud. Possible fraud scenarios include the misrepresentation of information, multiple registrations by the same resident, registration for non-existent residents, and so on. Others point out that the loose language and intermixing of terms in the bill pose the threat that data will be collected and used for purposes other than those stated. The devil is in the detail, says Pratiksha Mehta, legal counsel for a consumer retailer. “The language of the bill is very generic, leaving scope for loopholes in the way data is accumulated and shared,” she says. Another cause for concern is that the bill holds only the UIDAI accountable for violations. Rather, say critics, it needs to hold enrolling agencies (those that collect data), registrars, and other service providers entrusted with the job of collecting information accountable. Furthermore, the bill does not specify how enrolling agencies will be appointed. Nor is there any provision to penalise data collectors for misusing or sharing data. “There is zero data protection provision in the bill,” says Abraham. Of course, the bill has its supporters too. They point out that it is actually an improvement on its draft version in some aspects. For instance, it now expressly prohibits the dissemination of any information that is stored in the Central Identities Data Repository (a centralised data base of a whole population). It also raises the level of authorisation for “disclosure of information in the case of a national emergency” from a single minister to a joint secretary equivalent in the central government specifically authorised to do so by an order of the Union government. But the worries over the bill refuse to go away. Another major complication in the NIAI Bill is to do with biometrics. Enlisting for a UID number is meant to be voluntary. However, under the Citizenship Act, it is an offence not to provide biometrics information. “This is the legal loophole that the UID project is using to convert its so called ‘voluntary’ scheme into a mandatory surveillance project,” Abraham contends. Again, while it does not explicitly bar denial of essential services in the absence of a UID, service and product providers such as insurance agencies, banks, telecom operators, the tax department and medical agencies could end up making UID a condition for availing of their services. And the law does not state explicitly that these agencies cannot do so. “The winter session of Parliament is over and the UIDAI must urgently work in the direction of making Aadhaar/UIDAI constitutional,” fumes Praveen Dalal, who heads an information and communication technology law firm. Dalal, who has written to various government agencies as well as to UID project head Nandan Nilekani, believes that Aadhaar or the UIDAI in its present form is “unconstitutional” primarily because neither the Aadhaar project nor the UIDAI is governed by any legal framework. “And their legal framework must be ‘constitutionally valid’, that is, it must pass the tests of Part III (Fundamental Rights) and other Parts of the Constitution of India.” There was no response from Nilekani to an email questionnaire by this paper at the time of going to print. In an online signature campaign against the bill addressed to the President and several public and government agencies, petitioners claim further anomalies: Personal and household data are being collected through the Census 2010 with a view to establishing a National Population Register (NPR). It is proposed to make this information available to the UIDAI. This is in contravention of Section 15 of the Census Act, which categori-cally states that information given for the Census is ‘not open to inspection nor admissible in evidence’.” Clearly, with the entire UID project fraught with controversial issues related to citizens’ rights, the NIAI Bill and its provisions too will be hotly debated before they can come into being as law. [image: Top] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cugambetta at yahoo.com Fri Dec 24 23:06:55 2010 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2010 09:36:55 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?utf-8?q?Fw=3A_CSH-CPR_Urban_Workshop_/_N=C2=B011_/?= =?utf-8?q?_Facts_and_Figures_of_Elections_in_Urban_India_/_Arundhati_Mait?= =?utf-8?q?i_and_Bhanu_Joshi?= Message-ID: <478258.42218.qm@web57401.mail.re1.yahoo.com> __________________________________________________________ Urban Workshop Series As part of our Urban Workshop Series, the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), Delhi are delighted to invite you to a workshop by Arundhati Maiti and Bhanu Joshi of Centre for Policy Research on Facts and Figures of Elections in Urban India. Date: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 Time: 3:45 pm Venue: Conference Hall, Centre for Policy Research, Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021 Arundhati and Bhanu will present work in progress on electoral outcomes in urban India. The presentation will look at electoral outcomes for state legislature and parliamentary elections in urban Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. It also looks at local body elections in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Vasai Virar and Navi Mumbai. It analyses the nature of electoral participation and the congruence and divergence of electoral outcomes. Arundhati Maiti is a Research Associate at the Centre for Policy Research. She has a degree in Regional Planning graduate from the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi and has worked with the Planning Commission and AC Nielsen India. Bhanu Joshi is Research Assistant at the Centre for Policy Research. He graduated in Journalism from University of Delhi in 2010 and has a keen interest in urban politics and political representation. _______________________________________________________________________ This is the eleventh in a series of Urban Workshops planned by the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), New Delhi and Centre for Policy Research (CPR). These workshops seek to provoke public discussion on issues related to the development of the city and try to address all its facets including its administration, culture, economy, society, and politics. For further information, please contact: Marie-Hélène Zerah at marie-helene.zerah at ird.fr or Partha Mukhopadhyay -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CSH CPR Urban Workshop 11 Dec 28.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 81935 bytes Desc: not available URL: From yanivbin at gmail.com Thu Dec 30 14:30:08 2010 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 14:30:08 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?windows-1252?q?Punjab_didn=92t_submit_a_single_pro?= =?windows-1252?q?ject_under_JNNURM=3A_Dr_Isher_Judge_Ahluwalia?= Message-ID: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/punjab-didnt-submit-a-single-project-under-jnnurm-dr-isher-judge-ahluwalia/730836/ Punjab didn’t submit a single project under JNNURM: Dr Isher Judge Ahluwalia *Express News Service* Posted online: Thu Dec 30 2010, 22:26 hrs *Chandigarh : * Punjab failed to submit even a single development project under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Despite Amritsar being the mission city of JNNURM, it did not submit any project to the Centre that could be funded under the mission. These startling revelations were made by Dr Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson, Board of Governors, the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). “Even after five years of the implementation of the mission, Punjab failed to develop any project that could be implemented under JNNURM. It is one state that failed to submit even a single development project where funds released by the Centre under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) could be utilised. More saddening is the fact that despite Amritsar being the mission city of JNNURM, it did not have a single project that was submitted to the Centre under the mission,” shared Dr Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson, Board of Governors, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). She further added that mere release of funds by the Centre under JNNURM amounting to a crore of rupees did not result in their utilisation in development projects by the states. To get the sanctioned money, states are required to show development and progress in certain projects, which they failed to do. Talking about states that undertook several development projects, including Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, she said Rajkot has set such an encouraging example for all the other cities. Rajkot has developed an innovative solid waste management programme where it has not only turned itself into a cleaner city but also converted its waste into a source of revenue. Similarly, she cited an example of Nagpur that developed an integrated water management project to deal with the water crisis. Stressing the need for water and solid waste management, Dr Ahluwalia suggested setting up of the water harvesting and waste processing plants. The government, she said, should consider the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission in which performance-linked development programmes are envisaged. She said urban development should be linked to the development of rural sector as well. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yanivbin at gmail.com Thu Dec 30 23:29:25 2010 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:29:25 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Ashoka Changemakers launches affordable housing competition Message-ID: http://www.thinkchangeindia.org/2010/12/09/ashoka-changemakers-launches-affordable-housing-competition/ Ashoka Changemakers launches affordable housing competition Posted by Vinay Ganti on 9 December, 2010 in Competitions, News , Opportunities Comments (0) *Guest Post* Ashoka’s Changemakers has launched an online competition to find the best solutions to integrate and develop affordable, inclusive and sustainable urban housing. This challenge especially seeks to identify solutions that respond to communities’ needs, work with the existing infrastructure, respect local, indigenous culture, materials, and practice, and can be applied to a wide range of locations. All solutions that demonstrate innovation, sustainability and a social impact, whether they are rooted in land rights and management, new technologies, transportation, financing, credit for the poor, and standards for accessibility, work-life balance, health, public safety, environmental quality, and citizen security, are encouraged! The most competitive entrants will be collaborations that incorporate affordable, inclusive, and sustainable ideas with tangible plans to be adapted and implemented in urban environments. Submit your entry by February 2, 2011 to be eligible to win. Three winning innovations will receive a cash prize of US $10,000 each. We also have an Early Entry prize for the two best entries submitted by 5PM EST, December 12, 2010 who will each win a prize of US $500. To take advantage of this opportunity, we strongly urge you to submit your entry as soon as possible. This competition is being launched in anticipation of the 2012 Summit of the Americas , and in support of U.S. President Barack Obama’s Energy and Climate Partnership for the Americas (ECPA). It is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, and is a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of State, and the American Planning Association. The most competitive entrants will be showcased and reviewed at an event that closes the competition in June 2011 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. where they will be viewed by public and private partners, including prospective funders. Use the Changemakers community as a resource! The sooner you submit your entry, the more time the community has to comment on it, make suggestions and leave feedback, which you can use to improve your idea and proposal. Visit the site to submit your innovation to the competition, and you may get in touch with Rachna Pandey Donthi for further details and clarifications c hangemakers.onlinecompetitions at gmail.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: