Dharavi The World Heritage Site

Jeb Brugmann, suggests “….that Dharavi not only be preserved and steadily upgraded, but be designated a United Nations World Heritage Site to protect it from expedient development schemes that would deny India the exemplar of one of its native forms of urbanism. 

The United Nations applies four main criteria when selecting districts in cities like Havana, Liverpool, Quito, and Prague for World Heritage Site protection. Dharavi scores high on all accounts”.

Corporate Delimitation Commission's

A Bangalore-based IT entrepreneur writes in the TOI “the spontaneous outpourings in our cities over the terror tragedy have shown, there is change in the air. As India's urban population steadily grows it will demand more local empowerment. And the implementation of the Delimitation Commission's recommendations will increase urban representatives in the state legislature. But these are small steps. Crises like the one we just witnessed shows how urgent empowering our city governments have become. 

We cannot keep our cities the centres of our economic growth, innovation and places where we can dissolve our caste and our past weakened and marginal in our politics. This imbalance has led to the decline we can see in every Indian city, the apathy made concrete in our crumbling roads, massive encroachments, and our chaotic, unplanned growth. Without local governments that answer directly to its civic citizens, urban India will be mauled again when the next crisis hits”. 

Where is Indian City in the world?

May be Barun Roy answer not now but in future, but is there any hope for that?

Planners destroyed cities

Yoginder K. Alagh writes in Indian Express with less concern that “the urban pessimists in India said that urbanisation was not rising, would not and should not rise fast. They were some of my best friends and colleagues at the Sardar Patel Institute, JNU and the Planning Commission. My argument that the urbanites had a point went unheeded”. Further no sign of lust he says “I said but I was asked to keep quiet. In those days after saying India was growing fast you ducked”.

Everything is challenge in the hands of any governments.

What Sauvik says in contrast is quite possible in building the big cites with out of too much governments and their stupidity.

Lee and Lalu!

Jug Suraiya writes in TOI that “when Lee Kuan Yew boasted that in two years he could turn Bihar into Singapore, Lalu responded that in two weeks he could turn Singapore into Bihar. He might have added: And in two days Bihar could turn Lee into a Lalu”.

Read more in Atanu Dey’s post on Lee Kuan Yew on PURA