Guest guest Posted September 16, 2004 Report Share Posted September 16, 2004 >Sentinelassam >The Transformation of Nagpur > >Tavleen Singh > >When I went to Nagpur last week to meet the women who killed Akku Yadav it >was >my first visit in nearly ten years and the transformation in this city is >so >unexpected and extraordinary that I consider it worthy of being the subject >of >this week's column. Ten years ago Nagpur was a typically Indian town, >filthy, >crowded, unplanned and unsightly. Our disdain for town planning has >resulted in >us building since Independence some of the ugliest, dirtiest towns on the >Planet. Our former colonial masters had no such disdain so in Raj days >India >had beautiful towns and cities in which even the poor lived in relatively >attractive surroundings. Trees lined the streets and there used to be parks >for >children and public areas where people could meet on hot evenings to take >the >air. > >It was when colonialism was replaced by socialism that our problems began. >Our >socialist rulers appear to have thought of town planning as a needless, >capitalist frivolity so the towns that they built were built without a >thought >to planning. The consequences have been disastrous. By the seventies once >beautiful towns and cities had become slums with desperate shortages of >such >essential ingredients of urban life as clean drinking water and >electricity. >The fact that last week middle class women in Delhi took to the streets to >demand at least enough water daily to take a bath speaks for itself. Our >problems of urbanization have multiplied because our socialist rulers also >believed that only they had the right to build housing. Ostensibly this was >done to protect "the poor" from real estate sharks but the net result of >the >approach was that nobody built any housing for the poor so they were forced >to >plan their own cities and towns in the form of the jhugghi-jhonpri colonies >! >that are now the dominant feature of our big cities. The problem is so >serious >that the Prime Minister drew attention to it in a recent speech pointing >out >that we now had 30 cities with a population of over a million and needed to >give serious attention to the problems of urbanization. > >Alas, mostly what we have heard from politicians are speeches and this is >what >makes the Nagpur story so interesting because behind its transformation is >a >politician by the name of Nitin Gadkari. > >Gadkari is not well known outside Maharashtra but is quite famous here as >the >man who built the Mumbai-Pune highway. It was a project that had been in >the >process of being built for more than twenty years but never got off the >ground >till Gadkari became Minister in Charge of Public Works in the Shiv Sena-BJP >government and resolved that he would build it before the government's term >was >over. He achieved this goal and also built several roads and flyovers in >Mumbai >that he is remembered by but what he did for Nagpur has remained relatively >untold. > >Nagpur is so transformed in the past ten years that it is probably the only >Indian city in which - by and large - you do not see uncollected garbage or >open drains. You see parks and broad roads and slums so clean that you >hesitate >to call them slums. Even here the streets are wide, there are trees lining >them >and there is a total absence of that stench of rotting garbage that is so >much >a feature of the average Indian slum. Sadly, not all the citizens of Nagpur >remember that the transformation of their city is thanks mainly to Gadkari >because although it was he who laid out the plan the government fell before >he >could implement it so it is a Municipal Commissioner called T. >Chandrashekhar >who gets most of the credit. > >As one of those who knows that real credit should go to Gadkari I sought >him out >when I was in Nagpur. This former RSS devotee lives about five minutes away >from the spot where the RSS held its first shakha more than half a century >ago. >It is an old fashioned locality full of old-fashioned buildings that seem >to >teeter towards each other but Gadkari's house is a new-fangled version of >the >old design. It rises, like a pink wedding cake, upwards in layers and a >lift >takes you up layer by layer. He was ensconced in a large living room with >marble floors and sofas arranged against the walls. > >Over cups of sweet tea in pretty glass cups he told me how the >transformation of >Nagpur had happened. You see, he said, since I come from this city I wanted >to >do something for it that would be remembered. So, with the help of experts >I >drew up a plan in which we concentrated on such things as roads, drainage >and >drinking water. There used to be a perpetual shortage of water in the city >and >now this has been solved as has the problem of drainage. He explained how >but, >sadly, I do not have the expertize to explain it to you more fully. I can >tell >you, though, that Gadkari is not exaggerating when he says they built 36 >parks >in the city and that you can see them everywhere. You can. Even on the edge >of >slums. > >Gadkari, once in full flight on his favourite subject, is unstoppable and >so >from what he has achieved for Nagpur he went on to tell me of his plans to >replicate the Nagpur model in other small towns across India and would have >done it if the Vajpayee government had not lost the elections. This may >have >come as a blow but Gadkari has not stopped dreaming his urban dreams and >now >pins his hopes on the Shiv Sena- BJP alliance coming to power once more in >Maharashtra after the October elections so that he can do for other towns >in >Maharashtra what he has done for Nagpur. > >Of course, all this will cost money. The transformation of Nagpur cost more >than >Rs 400 crore but Gadkari is not one to let costs deter him. If he had, he >points out, then there would never have been a Mumbai-Pune highway. When >you >are determined to do something the money somehow comes, it becomes >available. >"For me politics is a means of social and economic change. If I cannot make >a >difference I would see no point in being in politics." > >This is not a column that usually has anything good to say about >politicians but >this is because there are not many politicians like Nitin Gadkari around. >So, >why is he so low-key in the BJP? Why is he not more celebrated? > >When I asked the question in Nagpur I was told the answer in one word. >Politics. >Maharashtra's more powerful politicians would like to restrict him to >Nagpur >because if there is one person in the State who would make the best >possible >BJP chief minister it is Gadkari and if he becomes a really good chief >minister >then he would get noticed at the national level and become more important >than >them. > >It would be sad for all of us, though, if Gadkari does not find his way >into >national politics because urban renewal is something our towns and cities >desperately need. Meanwhile, our politicians and policy-makers would do >well to >go to Nagpur to see the transformation that comes about in people's lives >and >in their attitudes if they can escape the squalor of our urban environment. > >------------------------------- >This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. > > _______________ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! hthttp://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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