Cities should not simply look ‘smart’ but should first behave ‘Smart’ which need no extra capital input

Soorat Se Nahin Seerat Se Smart Banana Hoga Jammu Shehar Ko
Even if Smart City Vehicle goes only with J&K PSG ACT, 2011 some ‘Smartness’ can result free of Cost
To make a city Look Smart it is Smart Public Servants that matter more than Financial inputs
No doubt Citizens need to assist Administration for making city roads & lanes free of ‘Private Parking’

DAYA SAGAR

These days when one moves within the limits of Jammu City it is a common site to see ‘Jammu Smart City’ displays on the hoardings and side walls with ‘smart city’ structures being erected. Road side paths are being laid in the name of smart city. One may ask what is a smart city ? Does making a City smart mean spending money to make a city simply look physical good ? The answer is, there is no universally accepted definition for a ‘smart’ city. It means different things to different people. Even the dictionary meaning of smart could be trendy, fashionable, keen, shrewd, nifty, and even to some it may also rude/insolent . So the term smart could be used for some in a pleasant sense and even not that appreciating sense for some. Any how to be brief as regards the Mission Smart City let us try to go by the likely intentions behind mission smart city of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and see how far the people appointed to hold the reins of @’Smart City Vehicle@ have been able to conceive the motive behind the mission worth rowing in the related streams to execute Modi’s imagination.
In the imagination of a common person living and visiting a city in India the smart city wish list could also `include the availability of common services & facilities without undue encumbrances in time & money in addition to some pleasing physicals. No doubt the aspirations and needs of a citizen could ask for developing entire eco-system where administrative, institutional, physical, social and economic elements could further define layers of ‘smartness’. The present Smart Cities Mission could be seen as aiming to promote cities with administrative, physical and social environment worth providing a decent quality of peaceful living to the locals & visitors ( clean & sustainable environment, stress free availability of local services from state/ local administration)
In a way The Mission Smart City aims at building some cities with sustained development & delivery of public services with financial assistance of central government so that others also make a replica of that where core infrastructure elements and related modes of delivery of stressless local services could cover (1) social & physical security of locals & visitors (2) caring environment around particularly for women, children and the elderly (3) Hassle free mobility and cost effective public transport (4) welcome citizen participation (5) . Responsive Health infrastructure (6) Delivering and responsive public & private) education infrastructure (7) Sanitation (including management of local solid waste ) (8). Adequate & regular water supply (9) Assured regular electricity supply (10) Good governance & use of e-Governance (11) Affordable housing (12) meaningfully delivery IT connectivity and digitalization and like environment in general.
An intimate feel of the indicators listed here in would indicate that a fair degree of smartness can be created even without incurring additional financial inputs merely through making the human resources employed by government to perform their regular duty to deliver designated services and in case such element of smartness is not “erected” by government then any capital expenditure would give only some physical outlook which too may also add to ugliness in case the structures are not truthfully laid and maintained there after
To quote in case the traffic police / related man power deployed by government makes the local taxies / three wheeler taxies to render services by operating as per the fare fixed by government that would send welcome signals out to even any one visiting from outside. In cities like Jammu in case there is available law responsive local taxi service / three wheeler service available may be 25 % to 30% of the people will not use private cars for local movements in city there by reducing traffic and pollution on the roads. One may so often find the local commuters / visitors and three wheeler drivers blowing hot & cold in public places. Visitors from outside too would not speak bad in case they find local transport services abiding by rules. Similarly in cities like Jammu one would hardly find people coming out happily from the government parking lots where some parking attendant may be found over charging / parking attendant may be hardly found in uniform with identity badge. Some Jammu city road are so often found used like self parking grounds by some ( somewhere on both sides of road ) for day/ night parking which gives bad look / environment to city as well as some time becomes reason for quarrels amongst the locals / commuters. The government officers in case perform their duty sincerely the bads like quoted here can be removed worth adding understandable smartness to the City without spending additional money by government.
Similarly the fair working of traffic lights has to be first priority of those who hold the reins of ‘Smart City vehicle’ instead more caring for erecting smart city banners. The traffic lights must function in regular manner (often lights are found in caution mode during day time also ).
The traffic offenders in city like Jammu can well be observed through CCTV instead of organising check nakas near the crossings and odd places even during peak hours since such culture surely do not make the city look & behave smart inspite of spending money on face lifting / decorations.
The traffic during night/late evenings need be regulated for safe and smooth driving. MVD & Traffic Police authorities need to see that the vehicles using dazzling light for an observer approaching ahead of the vehicle /multiple lights during night hours are either made to use proper lights or made to go off road since such owners who do not use even dippers are increasing the possibilities of accidents , are making the travel time longer for others and particularly ‘harassing’ the senior citizens / elder drivers even when law exists for regulating such defaulters( SAFETY STANDARDS No. 15.1 [Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 Notification S.O. No. 873 (E) dtd. 15.12.1997, item No. 20, of Ministry of Surface Transport ). , No doubt safety of all is to be taken care but the safety of elderly drivers has to be particularly ensured.
Similarly sanitation and environment has be made healthy and safe. In Jammu city the monkeys are have created additional havoc putting the kids/young children/locals and households in severe risk but any efforts made by contacting the wild life department/ Jammu Municipality and even some animal care groups have not succeeded. Surely any city unsafe for common man cannot claim to be Smart. The status of sanitation need not be discussed here. No doubt JMC is spending a lot of money for improving the sanitation and disposal of solid / liquid waste but at the same time the MCJ/MCS should see that the smallest municipal employee is adequately paid min as regular class IV employee and the practice of employing Safaikaramcharies on casual/ cut wages is immediately stopped in case the sanitation in local city lanes & drains is to be improved effectively.
Similarly the availability of other services like that in health and education sector operated by government has to be first made to deliver in proportion to atleast the investments made in routine instead of spending money on erecting new gates etc to spend the allocations in terms of smart city allocations.
Even if Smart city Vehicle goes only with concepts contained the Jammu and Kashmir Public Services Guarantee Act, 2011. (Act No. M of 2011) and carries other government departments along with to deliver the services to assigned duties in regular manner some citizen friendly smartness would start appearing in the cites like Jammu without making any additional capital expenditure from Center /State /UT exchequer..

(The author is Sr. Journalist :: leading scribe on Kashmir affairs [email protected]).