Sent from my Samsung device ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Paul p <falconcit...@gmail.com> Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2018, 20:03 Subject: Panjim Smart City? To: navhind times <navh...@gmail.com>, cc: lpost <lp...@navhindtimes.com>, navhind <navh...@navhindtimes.com>
Smart city - Panjim One interpretation of the name is that Panaji or Ponji is said to mean the “land that never gets flooded”. Our forefathers who coined that interpretation would be turning in their graves if they saw the situation in Panaji during the monsoons. The recent floods have exposed the inherent weakness that has crept up in the capital city that old timers do not recollect. Episodic flooding in Panaji even during low tides is directly linked to rapid urbanization and consequent damage to existing drainage systems. In a recent interview one government official, trying to pass off the floods, as due to the concretization of the city. So, I would like to ask that same official how it got concretized to such dangerous levels? Was there no planning or foresight involved at all. Moreover, now that the cause has been discovered what are the immediate steps being taken and why wait until the onset of the monsoons to even begin the rectification process? Did they not know that Goa has monsoons, from time immemorial, during the same four months? It just proves that IAS qualification does not bestow common sense. The preparation work could have been started one or even two months prior to the "normal monsoon period" thereby opening the blocked drainage system well in advance. Do not let that same official tell us this year we experienced a heavy rainfall. Panjimites have long memories of floods for the last few years, so NO it is not a one-time phenomenon. I really wish the Goan politician or bureaucrat would have the moral responsibility to own up to lapses and not blame it on the weather. Panjim is planning to embark on a Smart City plan. I would like to give a very basic definition of a smart city. A smart city is an urban area which is highly advanced in terms of infrastructure, real estate or housing facility, markets, communication and commuting facilities. It is a city where information technology is high and all essential services are easily available for the residents. A smart city has a systematic plan, good citizens, business opportunities, sustainable environment, efficient traffic management and good government. It provides assured water and electrical supply, sanitisation and waste management, safety and security of citizens. Some of the smart cities in the world are Vienna, Aarhus, Amsterdam, Cairo, Lyon, Malaga, Malta, the Songdo International Business district near Seoul, Verona, Toronto, London, Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Barcelona etc. Panjim's attempt to be a smart city is laughable if one only looks at the examples of the smart city provided above. Is it anywhere, at any level, comparable to any of them? First become a proper city, then go in for a smart city. The entire exercise will only provide luxury cars and villas to the planners and the inner circle, the poor Panjimite will pay for those. The entire concept of Panjim as a Smart city is not viable at all and whoever promoting it is taking all of us on a very dangerous slippery path. What Panjim needs is a few smart people or even half smart people. What Panjim does not need is these over smart people. Has anyone realised that a city does not become smart overnight, it is a long process, sometimes taking over 20 years? What the people in charge should concentrate on instead, should be the improvement of basic necessities like water, electrical supply, sanitisation and waste management. If one reads the dailies, one can see that Panjim has not delivered on any of the above. There was a recent report of sewer water overflowing through manhole covers. The tenants of that society have been complaining for years. To no avail. This is not an isolated incident, Water contamination problem that has plagued the city on several occasions. Has anyone considered how easily e-Coli bacteria could spread to the entire water distribution system? There was the recent episode of systemic failure in the power supply thereby leaving the whole area and surroundings without power for twenty hours. Then it transpired that there was much more than met the eye, and some major skulduggery was involved. Besides this one incident of major failure by the Electricity Department, the city suffers from numerous power outages every day. A major city is NOT supposed to have power outages so frequently - every day. The roads are in shambles. Good roads are dug up and replaced with inferior quality ones, ostensibly to fill up the pockets of the contractors and thereby the kickbacks involved. A good example is the Dona Paula Miramar road The pothole repair ritual is repeated every month and the pothole reappears magically within a few days. Has anyone done a study on injuries and fatalities which are pothole-related? Has anyone done a study on man-hours lost due to navigating potholes? The repairs are cosmetic and are washed away by the next shower. Why are the concerned ministries, ministers and civic bodies not being held responsible? Who is letting them off and why? Surely, a simple investigation will expose chicanery and corruption. These are the burning issues that need to be resolved first before talk of Smart City is brought up again. The powers that be, should and must come down heavily on errant departments and make an example of these miserable lot of ministers and babus so that any sort of malpractice is dealt with on a war footing and cut short. I would suggest that the loss to the exchequer should be compensated by these errant ministers. If they could pocket the profits then why should they not be made accountable to compensate the state for major losses incurred through their sheer negligence and incompetence? The guilty ones should be stripped of any portfolios and ignominiously booted out and asked to make reparations. Then and only then, can we even think about Panjim as a Smart City. P.Saldanha