Most of the CCTV cameras installed under the Dehradun smart city project to monitor traffic violations, among other things, are reported to be not functioning. The same was the case with the streetlights till the District Magistrate forced those responsible for maintenance to fix them on a priority basis. Once scrutiny shifts elsewhere, it can be stated with certainty that matters will return to where they were. Roads are dug up for various reasons and left in that state for months, sometimes entirely forgotten. Contractors give the task to sub-contractors, payments are delayed, workers disappear for festivals to their home states, leaving everything in limbo. It is the ordinary citizen that is left to bear the brunt.
The reasons for this state are obvious – corruption, bad planning and lack of a maintenance culture. Projects are often chosen because some middleman or company has brokered a deal that is accepted only because there is a payoff for the politicians and officials concerned, not because it is immediately required. So, before one ‘improvement’ is even over, there is something else to take its place. If the planners had the necessary skills and experience, they would bring about improvements in the natural sequence of things.
It is a fact that upgrading facilities in a city that has evolved not necessarily in an ‘intelligent’ manner is not an easy task. Priorities are difficult to determine. First, the bastis along the rivers are allowed for a variety of reasons to get established in violation of all kinds of regulations. Then they need to be demolished but the suffering caused to the people is unacceptable. The way out would be to just pay them generous amounts to vacate voluntarily, but such initiatives would be condemned as ‘wasteful’. Or they can be rehabilitated in intelligently developed colonies without expensive frills. Who has the time, the patience, the skills and motivation to undertake such a task, when the priorities are different? But is has been done in many parts of India and the world and is very much possible.
One way of doing it is by further strengthening the third-tier of democracy so that communities can decide for themselves, as they have the greatest stake in what is happening. Gated communities in many ways are already doing this. Other areas, too, should be similarly managed. If people could themselves do something about the lights on their street without having to make the rounds of various agencies, most of the job would be done without much fuss. City management should be constructed on such building blocks for a better quality of life.
