Urban Update July 2016

ISSN 2349-6266 RNI No DELENG/2014/57384

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

UrbanUpdate Volume III, Issue III

Rs 100

July 2016

Cities under

Threat Building safe cities needs a radical surgery of existing urban safety and security mechanism

The project is funded by the European Union.

The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

Union Ministry of Urban Development has empanelled AIILSG on the list of consultants qualified to work for Smart City Mission.

AIILSG has been selected to work for Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

Community Based Interventions

Professional Empowerment Project Management

Advisory Services Customised Training

Knowledge Management Capacity Building Information, Education and Communication (IEC)

Policy Research

All India Institute of Local Self-Government No. 6, F-Block, Bandra Kurla Complex, TPS Road-12, Bandra-East, Mumbai-400051, Maharashtra Tel.No.: +91-22-26571713, 26571714, 26571715, Fax: +91-22-26572286, Email: contact@aiilsg.org

UrbanUpdate A monthly magazine published by the AIILSG — a project funded by European Union’s ‘Equi-City’ programme for India.

Ranjit Chavan President-AIILSG Capt. Anant Modi Editor-In-Chief Director General-AIILSG, dg@aiilsg.org Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor Abhishek Pandey Editor Ravi Ranjan Guru Executive Editor

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Printed at Artz & Printz, 208, DSIDC Shed, Okhla Industrial Area Phase-I, New Delhi-110020 Published at Sardar Patel Bhavan, 22-23, Institutional Area D-Block Pankha Road, Janakpuri, Delhi-110058 Despite careful selection of sources, no responsibility can be taken for accuracy of the contents. The magazine assumes no liability or responsibility of any kind in connection with the information thereof. The views expressed in the articles are the personal opinions of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the All India Institute of Local Self-Government.

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The project is funded by the European Union.

The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

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July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

EDITORIAL

City Safety; more vigilance, more cooperation, greater safety

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Capt. Anant Modi Editor-In-Chief dg@aiilsg.org

Resilience of cities to acute shocks and disaster events is a related concern for policy makers. The level of resilience is an outcome of the city’s ability to prevent, anticipate, prepare, respond and bounce back from the effects of both acute event based shocks and some undesirable aspects of urbanization

he recent tragic event in Nice, France underscores the vulnerability of cities in the face of sudden extreme shocks. Over 80 people were reported dead in the ghastly incident, a terror attack as per initial reports, on 14th July, during Bastille Day celebrations. This was the 7th such attack in France over a period of 18 months.

While not all criminal events are as tragic and large in scale, cities all over are confronted with the issue of safety and security, often a result of relentless urbanization. Instances of chain snatching, thefts and burglaries, molestation and rape are commonplace in our cities. Large migrant populations and increasing numbers of local youth, ill-equipped as they are to meet the stringent demands of the organized labour market, present ready targets for criminal elements to exploit. The sociological pattern of many cities can become conducive to crime. For example, the increasing numbers of households moving in and out of the city and across locations in the city results in an atmosphere of unfamiliarity and unconnected households; those which are strangers to large parts of the community. They present vulnerable targets for potential violators. The risks to children and the elderly are heightened in cases of working husband and wife families. All these constantly challenge the resources of policing agencies while creating new avenues for security breaches.

Terrorism is a threat which is becoming increasingly complex, sophisticated and savage with the potential for high impact. Security setups in all countries now have specialized anti-terrorism cells deploying hi-tech methods and global intelligence sharing

to counter this menace. Citizens on their part need to build intra and inter community networks that foster enhanced cooperation and vigilance and to work with local police authorities to thwart attempts of terrorists.

Resilience of cities to acute shocks and disaster events is a related concern for policy makers. The level of resilience is an outcome of the city’s ability to prevent, anticipate, prepare, respond and bounce back from the effects of both acute event based shocks and some undesirable aspects of urbanization.

Natural disasters such as floods, cyclones and earthquakes, and manmade disasters like fires, landslides, stampedes and building collapses are frequent events in cities of the world. Therefore the need to equip cities to cope with these, i.e., the need for disaster risk reduction and for building resilience.

The discourse is of greater relevance to cities primarily due to the large and concentrated populations, lifestyles and city systems which result in severe impact and damage including greater loss of lives. Particularly at risk are the urban poor because of their suboptimal living conditions often located in disaster prone sites and their limited access to relief measures. On the other hand, cities have enhanced access to technology and innovation, institutional and other resources including partnerships at the global level which can significantly improve their ability to formulate solutions and build resilience.

City safety and city resilience are the twin issues which need to be addressed through innovation, technologically aided policing, enhanced inter-city and international cooperation and above all a vigilant and community oriented lifestyle of citizens. We can then move towards safer, more secure and resilient cities.

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

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Quotes

PIN POINT BUZZ

Governments and the private sector must align their investment and infrastructure decisions with the Sustainable Development Goals, and with the goal of limiting global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius. If possible, we must strive to lower it down to 1.5 degrees Centigrade Ban-Ki Moon Secretary General, United Nations

The day is not far when with the vision and the inspiration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the city of Jaipur would rank number one in the Smart City Mission. Under the Swachh Bharat Mission too, Rajasthan is ahead of other states.

Bikaner has already become open defecation-free district in the state and seven other districts would also become open defecation-free

Narendra Modi @narendramodi Prime Minister of India

It’s imperative that we embrace latest technology in our development. World over, technology is guiding several fascinating transformations

Tom Dallessio @TDallessio President, CEO & Publisher, Next City

#ClimateChange is a game changer for urban development

Vasundhara Raje Chief Minister of Rajasthan

Manohar Lal @mlkhattar Chief Minister of Haryana.

Fund flow is fine. Capacities are being enhanced. We are committed to make GGN the smartest of the smart cities!

My new role as a Vice Chair of the C40 will ensure that London is a beacon to the world and helps to generate the opportunities that will accelerate the pace of change to create better cities for all.

It’s been speculated for many years that energy policy and climate change policy are two sides of the same coin, and as a result, policy thinking should be better aligned and coordinated.

Sadiq Khan Mayor of London

Josh Frydenberg Environment & Energy Minister, Australlia

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July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Mohammad Bin Zayed Ali @MBZNews Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces

The sustainability of nations depends on the preservation of their noble values, regardless of the level of achievement it has attained”

Inside

Volume 3, Issue 3

Inside July 2016

Article

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Of safe cities and governance!

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A clarion call to action

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From city of gardens to city of garbage

Bengaluru is considered one of the most livable cities owing to its wonderful climate and the lucrative employment opportunities it offers. However, the civic amenities in the city have gone from bad to worse

Every day millions of Indians travel out and come back home using our roads. In 2015, about 146,000 Indians did not make it back home. Nearly 2.6 million came home with serious injuries. Every death due to a road accident is a tragedy, not just for that family but for the entire nation

AIILSG organises stress management workshop for Mumbai Police

The objective of the workshop was to train police officials on stress management techniques to help them live happier lives and provide safer environment to urban dwellers

Pin Point Newscan

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Cities under threat Building safe cities needs a radical surgery of existing urban safety and security mechanism. There is a growing need that local governments improve their safety mechanism to make cities impregnable through traditional ways and means such as improving intelligence systems and also through enrooting inte grated technological tools for crime and conflict prevention

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City Images Urban Agenda

Public, policing go hand in hand Building a good rapport with the local community is a major challenge for police officials in Indian cities. This is crucial for weaving a sturdy safety net of surveillance and policing to nip criminal activities in the bud

ONE ON ONE

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Vigilance, intelligence, public dialogue will make cities safer

Sanjeev Dayal, former Director General of Police (Maharashtra) speaks to Urban Update and gives a ringside view of the safety mechanism in our cities. In the freewheeling interview, Dayal suggests a range of solutions to control and mitigate terrorist attacks, and improve safety of cities

RegularS

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Cover story

LEADerspeak

Workshop

40

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Among the essential conditions for any society to be called developed and modern, an element of safety of its citizens should be of paramount importance

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

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feature | Equi-City

Moving towards Equi-City ‘Equi-City’ programme, conceptualised and funded by European Union, is envisaged to endorse equitable provision of municipal services alongside promoting diversity and capacity development of local government organisations Equi-City Team

T

he targeted city, Nagpur, is expected to be benefited in terms of overall growth, sustainability and market viability while justifying diversity besides establishing superior modes of communication with stakeholders through participatory governance.

Nagpur being the first Equi-City is gaining pace with the scheduled activities of the programme and the resultant developments. This city has significant growth potential and has large scope of economic improvement and growth. Simultaneously, to fulfil the growing expectations of different stakeholders, the city local authority, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), is keen to improve service level benchmarks (SLBs) in a sustainable manner besides streamlining diversity and equality policy framework within the city.

Current Activities and Intended Outcomes

As part of the programme, some of the crucial activities have been taken up in the first phase of Equi-City. To ensure the effective programme outcomes, activities related to establishment of participatory forums, setting up different committees, research support to identify key performance indicators as well as rating system for municipal SLBs, etc. have been started.

Furthermore, to promote awareness alongside participatory governance, municipal zone level Sensitization Workshops besides awareness

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generation through innovative ideas targeting different sections of population are also being organised.

The formation of a City Development Forum (CDF), an Inter-city Forum (ICF) and creation of a Diversity Committee are some of the mainstay components of this Equi-City Programme. The programme will engage and partner with policy makers and other key stakeholders (local and sub-regional) to enable them to create enabling environment to carry out the changes.

Experts from different fields like Urban infrastructure, Environment, Health, NGOs, Management experts, Journalists, Teachers, and Social Workers were consulted and involved in formation of CDF and ICF. Eminent citizens and experts from different fields, prominent members of NMC, and elected representations would partner the aforementioned forums.

The first CDF meeting is planned to be organized in August 2016. 10 elected representatives, selected based on priority areas, will be made part of the CDF to play a role in shaping equitable outcomes. CDF is envisaged to be crafted in such a fashion so that different facets of the city get represented with a view to: ♦♦ Mobilise resources in a participatory manner. ♦♦ Steer the project to its successful conclusion and help in achieving its objectives alongside providing strategic directions, overall supervision and control over the project.

CSOs-NGOs will be targeted for

their support to the CDF, Diversity committee and ICF. They will also be called upon to organise and mobilise participatory monitoring mechanism, promote dialogue and interaction with stakeholders and information dissemination.

Drawing Competition as part of sensitisation

As part of the awareness campaign for the Equi-City Programme, a Drawing/ painting competition was organized on 13th July at Sanjay Nagar Hindi Secondary School, Nagpur. It has been a success in associating the young citizens of Nagpur with the initiative.

This has further added to the inclusivity component of the awareness campaign of the project.

Status reports

As part of its first year activities, EquiCity programme team has started the ground work on a couple of status reports, one on diversity in NMC and the other on municipal services in NMC. The first report will form a standard document for creation of diversity and equality framework and inclusive HR policy alongside setting standards for other related activities such as sensitisation workshops.

The other report is envisaged to set reference points for municipal rating system while NMC moves further towards equitable services.

The municipal SLB activity is supposed to develop and implement a system that optimises stakeholder satisfaction. Efforts are being made to

encourage widespread adoption of the rating system in the city. Furthermore, the activity aims to empower the stakeholders to review delivery of municipal services through a municipal rating system. This rating system will not only be used to promote citizens’ participation in local decision making but also to improve citizens’ attitudes towards NMC.

Equality Framework for Local Government

Equality Framework is intended to ascertain the efficient governance structure for the society. It helps any such organisation like NMC to map their strength and assess the challenges, besides identifying difficulties and opportunities.

The objectives of Equality Framework for Local Government are to: ♦♦ Recognize and eliminate any unlawful bias and provide equal opportunities for the people ♦♦ Identify, assess and sensitize the roles and responsibilities, between and within the stakeholders of the system ♦♦ Review and improve the performance of the services.

Performance Areas

Equality Framework for Local Government generally comprises five performance areas: ♦♦ Knowing your communities ♦♦ Leadership, Partnership and Organisational commitment ♦♦ Involving communities ♦♦ Responsive services and customer care ♦♦ A skilled and committed workforce

1. Knowing your communities

It includes three steps for local authorities: a) collating information; b) analysing information as per priority and organisational objective; and finally, c) sharing information between stakeholders.

Equality analysis enables the authorities to benchmark the level of services in accordance with the experience of the people especially

in the key areas of life such as health, community safety, quality of dwelling places, education, and access to work and so on.

2. Leadership, partnership & organisational commitment

It plays a vital role in order to direct strategies along the track of organisational goals and objectives of the framework. It establishes the transparency between the stakeholders with a clear and strong vision of equality. Local counsellors play a vital role for ensuring strong vision and public commitment towards equality for the public services. The framework followed in other countries, comprise seven main elements: ♦♦ Leadership ♦♦ Local vision and priorities ♦♦ Equality objectives ♦♦ Monitoring, compliance and scrutiny ♦♦ Effective communication ♦♦ Commissioning and procuring services ♦♦ Fostering good relations

3. Involving your communities

Participation of local communities proves to be effective for evaluating and developing new policies and strategies for the neighbourhood.

The encouragement for community participation can be done through focused group discussions, seminars, workshops, advertisements and social media. Involvement of local agencies and NGOs also facilitates the participation of people. The framework also emphasise the participation of people from the various disciplines in order to extract the effective results.

4. Responsive service & Customer care

As public services meet the needs of a diverse range of local communities and individuals, the framework generally emphasises on proactive approach for responsive services rather than reactive approach. A proactive approach focuses on tackling the causes of problems before they appear while a reactive

approach is based on responding to issues after they appear. Responsive services and customer care within this framework followed elsewhere usually comprises five main elements: ♦♦ Equality analysis/ impact assessment ♦♦ Integration into business planning, delivery ♦♦ Service level procurement ♦♦ Accessible services ♦♦ Human rights

5. A skilled and committed workforce

To promote equality and diversity, local bodies need to ensure that they reflect these aspirations in their role not only as an employer but also as a service provider. Thus, all their human resources (HR) policies reflect good practice in equality and diversity; furthermore, anyone aspiring to be part of the workforce of the organisation should also feel fairly treated. A modern and diverse workforce comprises 10 elements within the standard framework: ♦♦ Personnel diversity ♦♦ Human resource strategy ♦♦ Staff monitoring ♦♦ Equality analysis & Impact assessment ♦♦ Workforce engagement ♦♦ Promoting an inclusive working environment ♦♦ Equal pay ♦♦ Timely Appraisal ♦♦ Non Harassment/bullying ♦♦ Equal opportunity for learning and development.

Targeted Outcomes through Framework

♦♦ Improved quality of service by making sure that they are suitable and accessible to everyone ♦♦ Identification of any possible discrimination which may exist and means to overcoming that ♦♦ Development of a better understanding of neighbourhood and community ♦♦ Optimum utilisation of resourcesto achieve better value ♦♦ Promoting equal opportunities and healthy working relations.

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

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NEWSCAN | Feature BRIEFS News

NEWSCAN

Solar energy to power India of the future The World Bank Group (WBG) is helping India deliver on its plans with more than $1 billion in lending over FY 2017. This is the Bank’s largest-ever support for solar power in any country. The WBG is also backing the India-led International Solar Alliance which aims to promote solar use globally by mobilizing $1 trillion in investments by 2030 WASHINGTON: The World Bank Group is moving to help India deliver on its unprecedented plans to scale up solar energy, from installing solar panels on rooftops to setting up massive solar parks. This will catapult India to the forefront of the global effort to bring electricity to all, mitigate the effects of climate change, and set the country on a path to become the ‘India of the future’.

Supporting India’s solar push was a key part of WBG President Jim Yong Kim’s agenda as he visited the country recently. Over FY 2017, the World Bank hopes to provide more than $1 billion to support India’s solar plans.

“India’s plans to virtually triple the share of renewable energy by 2030 will both transform the country’s energy supply and have far-reaching global implications in the fight against climate change,” said Kim. “Prime Minister Modi’s personal commitment toward renewable energy, particularly solar, is the driving force behind these investments. The World Bank Group will do all it can to help India meet its ambitious targets, especially around scaling up solar energy.”

The World Bank has already approved

a $625 million loan that will support the Government of India’s Grid Connected Rooftop Solar program by financing the installation of solar panels on rooftops across India. The project draws funds together from the Bank, as well as from the Clean Technology Fund of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), and will mobilize additional funding from public and private investors.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, is supporting the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh set up the 750-MW ultramega solar power project in Rewa.

This will be the largest single-site solar power project in the world. IFC will help structure and implement the transaction to help attract investments of about $750 million. IFC was one of the earliest financiers of wind and solar power in India, and helped develop the country’s first grid-connected solar power project. In India, the WBG has a number of initiatives in the pipeline.

These include developing solar parks, promoting innovative solutions to generate and store solar power, and providing support for solar mini-grids.

The Bank’s backing will help increase

India is already planning to develop one of the largest solar parks in the world. The 2 GW Park in Karnataka is expected to generate enough electricity to power nearly 1 million households

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the availability of private financing, introduce new technologies, build capacity for solar rooftop units, and enable the development of common infrastructure to support privately developed solar parks across India.

India is already planning to develop one of the largest solar parks in the world. The 2 GW park in the southern state of Karnataka is expected to generate enough electricity to power nearly 1 million households. The park’s supply of clean, renewable solar energy will help reduce CO2 emissions by 20 million tons a year, and save 3.6 million tons of natural gas which is used to generate electricity. The success of the solar auction for the park highlights the potential for more such large scale renewable projects in the country.

Generating clean renewable electricity is crucial for India where nearly 300 million people—about a quarter of its population—live without access to electricity. Today, India is one of the lowest per capita consumers of electricity in the world; even when people are connected to the electricity grid, they face frequent disruptions.

Add to that the projected economic growth and the increase in population, and the demand for energy in India is expected to double by 2040.

“With around 300 days of sunshine every year, India has among the best conditions in the world to harness solar energy. The rapid expansion of solar power can improve the quality of life for millions of Indians, especially for its poorest citizens. It can also create thousands of jobs in the solar industry and underpin progress in all areas of development, helping the country fulfil its dream of becoming the ‘India of the future’,” said Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director in India.

NEWSCAN

Satyendar Jain becomes new Delhi UD Minister DELHI: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was recently relieved of the charge of Urban Development with the portfolio being given to his cabinet colleague Satyendar Jain. The move is being seen as a step to minimise the workload of Sisodia who, according to sources, wants to focus more on education sector. Jain, who now has the Urban Development Department in his kitty, also holds important portfolios like power, home, PWD, transport, health and industries.

Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain reviewed works and projects being executed by Urban Development Department in the national capital, soon after taking charge of the department. “Jain today held a review meeting with the officials of Urban Development Department on the ongoing and future projects being carried out in the capital,” a senior government official said.

SUDA starts process to develop Korba as ‘smart city’ RAIPUR: The State Urban Development Authority (SUDA) of Chhattisgarh will be developing Korba City classified as ‘Supreme Smart City’ project. The SUDA is now looking for Smart City consultants who have the experience of making project proposals of cities which are among the country’s 33 ‘Smart City Plans’ (SCPs) declared winner in the Round One or Fast Track City Challenge under Smart City Mission of the Union Urban Development Ministry.

The Chhattisgarh Government has decided to develop industrial city of Korba as ‘Smart City’ through its own resources. This was informed by Urban Administration and Development Minister Amar Agrawal on his visit to the city early this year to review the work of Korba Municipal Corporation.

Notably, the State-level Technical Committee of the Urban Administration and Development Department which met for the first time in Naya Raipur had also approved the proposed formation of Project Development and Management Consultancy (PDMC) for implementation of Centre’s Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) Mission. As

many as nine districts of Chhattisgarh have been identified for AMRUT project.

The districts identified for AMRUT mission are-- Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg, Bhilai, Rajnandgaon, Korba, Raigarh, Ambikapur and Jagdalpur, said official sources.

Notably, the Central Government had released the first installment of Rs 55.3 crore out of the approved Rs 573.40 crore for State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) under AMRUT project for the current financial year in Chhattisgarh.

Moreover, Chhattisgarh Government is also mulling over plans to mobilise additional financial resources through 14th Finance Commission recommendations for implementation of the AMRUT project in nine cities of Chhattisgarh. The action plan drawn up by the Government has already prioritized proposed investment across cities as per principle of prioritization of AMRUT. Notably, as many as 27 water supply projects to be taken up across Chhattisgarh under Centre’s AMRUT project would involve an expenditure of 440.95 crore during the current financial year.

BRIEFS

Treated sewerage water for parks, green belt in Haryana Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is planning to use treated sewerage water at public parks and green belts. At present, ground water and drinking water are used at public parks and green belts for watering plants and gardening purpose. HUDA has two sewerage treatment plants (STP). “This will save huge amount of ground water and treated sewerage water would be put into good use,” said HUDA administrator Yashpal Yadav adding that this will serve the dual purpose, it will reduce use of ground water and also increase the availability of drinking water for residents.

Nine more cities included in Smart Cities Mission

The Urban Development Ministry has allowed 9 more cities to participate in the upcoming Smart Cities Mission competition. Union UD Minister Venkaiah Naidu has allowed nine more capitals, including Patna, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Amaravati, Itanagar, and Gangtok to participate in the next round of competition.

The Ministry has also allowed the governments of Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh to nominate two cities (Rai Bareli and Meerut) in contravention of the rules. The Urban Development Ministry had selected 20 cities in January, 40 more will be added to the list by the end of 2016.

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

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BRIEFS

LED streets lights in 112 Urban Local Bodies The Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP), being implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture company of four Power Sector PSUs, envisages replacement of conventional street lights with LED lights by March, 2019. EESL is playing an important role as a catalyst in replacing these streetlights, while several other suppliers are also carrying out the same in cities/states. According to government reports, the target for 2015-16 was to launch the programme in 100 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) whereas EESL has already launched the programme in 112 ULBs.

MP gets its ‘Happiness Department’

Madhya Pradesh on Friday became the first state in the country to set up a ‘Happiness Department’, with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan saying it will work to ensure “happiness in the lives of common people” on the lines of Bhutan. Chouhan said, “Besides the basic necessities of roti, kapda aur makaan (food, cloth and shelter), people need something more to be happy in their lives. Chouhan had declared that the state would get such a ministry while addressing the concluding session of the two-day long executive meeting of the state BJP at Rewa. Bhutan is the only country to have the gross national happiness index.

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NEWSCAN

Mexico City Prioritizes Building Efficiency with New Regulations

MEXICO: Mexico City’s Environmental Ministry (SEDEMA), headed by Secretary of the Environment Tanya Müller García, announced the final publication of updated construction regulations for the city. The regulations include energy efficiency measures for new and retrofitted buildings and are part of a series of actions the local government is taking to build a more sustainable city by improving buildings and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector.

The update will provide new Complementary Technical Standards to enable more energy-efficient buildings.

The standards include guidance on materials for construction, equipment (electrical, plumbing, drainage, sewage, solar water heaters and efficient lighting and air conditioning) and design (building envelope and insulation).

“The previous regulations didn’t take into account energy efficiency for buildings. With this new regulation and the Complementary Technical Standards, important topics like thermal insulation, solar-powered water heaters, efficient lighting, mechanical systems, thermal and optical features in glass, energy efficiency in pumping systems and elevators, are now addressed,” says

Julia Martínez, Director, Economy, Environment and Climate Change at CTS EMBARQ Mexico.

With these new changes, both users and owners of new and retrofitted buildings meeting these guidelines will notice savings on their electricity bills.

It is estimated that efficient buildings will reduce their energy usage by up to 20 per cent.

In September 2014 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, Mexico City and its mayor, Miguel ÁngelMancera, pledged to improve energy efficiency in buildings. SE4All is a United Nations initiative which includes the aim to double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency by 2030. The Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA) is a project of the SE4All initiative.

As one of six Accelerators, the BEA’s public-private collaboration approach helps sub-national governments advance adoption of best-practice building policies and projects. The BEA’s global network of over 30 businesses, NGOs and international organizations currently provides tools, expertise, technical capabilities and support to over 20 cities seeking to accelerate and transform markets to deliver energy efficiency benefits to their citizens.

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NEWSCAN | World Cities BRIEFS Summit

NEWSCAN

World Cities Summit aligns focus on urban, social innovations to build resilient cities New initiatives and collaborations announced at World Cities Summit aim to create new opportunities against a backdrop of rapid global urbanisation SINGAPORE: About 110 mayors and city leaders representing 103 cities from 63 countries and regions from around the world gathered at the World Cities Summit 2016 to discuss changes, challenges and innovations emerging in their cities. These cities included Seoul, Antwerp, Hamburg and Rotterdam. Their interactions at the Summit — a premier platform to develop real-world solutions that address urban sustainability challenges — highlighted the global need to focus on social, technology and governance innovations to build resilient, liveable and sustainable cities of the future.

Held from 10 – 14 July, the fifth edition of the World Cities Summit (WCS), together with Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) and CleanEnviro Summit Singapore (CESS), was attended by more than 21,000 visitors and participants including ministers, mayors, government officials, industry leaders and experts, academics, as well as representatives from international organisations. This year,

besides established tracks on urban governance and long-term planning and development, WCS also provided a platform for discussions on the softer aspects of a sustainable and liveable city – community and culture – in particular how heritage and culture can be integrated into the urban planning and design of cities.

WCS 2016 also featured a full-day track on innovations for a smart city.

As part of this expanded focus on innovation, the inaugural City Solutions Singapore was launched as a seamless global marketplace to drive end-to-end sustainable development and showcase solutions, as well as to provide a platform for new partnerships and business opportunities. The expo had over 1,000 participating companies, from industry leaders to innovative start-ups in urban development, water, waste and cleaning management.

A key highlight of the expo was the “Towards a Smart and Sustainable Singapore” pavilion, showcasing collaborative efforts of more than 16

Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong visiting exhibits at the World Cities Summit Expo

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July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

local government agencies. One of the showcases was the CityScope - a real-time interactive urban planning tool that uses augmented reality and Lego-like bricks to simulate urban environments for test-bedding purposes.

Besides adopting innovation in technology to build greater resilience, cities are also looking to innovate the way in which they engage their people and involve them in cocreating solutions for a better living environment.

The Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize 2016 Laureate, Medellín, Colombia, shared at the Prize Lecture on how leveraging on co-creation and the collective inputs of its citizens have helped tackle its most pressing issues, improved the economy, as well as its citizens’ employability and quality of life. The four cities accorded Special Mentions – Auckland, Sydney, Toronto and Vienna – further demonstrated how open community engagement and social integration have contributed to their successful urban transformations.

Culture is one key aspect. For the first time in 2016, there was a dedicated WCS track exploring how heritage and culture can be integrated into the urban planning and the design of cities.

“We are seeing greater genesis of synergies and collaborative efforts between private companies, international organisations and government agencies at WCS,” said Larry Ng, Managing Director of the World Cities Summit. “The combination of technology, social and governance innovation will form the foundation of the resilient, liveable and sustainable cities needed to address the challenge of rapid urbanisation in Asia and beyond.”

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City Images

FOR SAFER WALKING

Using bright and bold colors, these “3D” roadblocks-cum-crossings span China’s roads to deceive drivers. Here, instead of using the

road surface as a color like some Indian cities did recently, blue or red is added to amplify the three dimensional effect.

Some experts are skeptical of the 3D road marking’s ability to implement safer conditions for pedestrians.

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Report cleanliness issue through mobile app in Bhubaneswar Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) will use an app developed by the Centre under Swachh Bharat Mission.

The app, ‘Swachhata’ will enable citizens to post their complaints related to sanitation and hygiene in their areas. They can also track the status of their complaints through the app.

The app is being developed jointly by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and National Informatics Centre Services Inc (Nicsi), a central government-owned department.

Chandigarh to have common server for all parking lots

Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh will soon have a common server through which all the parking lots of the city would be monitored.

The common server would have details of how many cars entered every hour at each parking lot and if there is any haphazard parking in the city.

Municipal Commissioner Baldeo Purushartha said that they were working to implement smart parking solutions in the city. He said through the common server, the MC would be able to monitor the lots themselves.

“The control room would be in the MC office through which officials can monitor the parking lots and accordingly issue directions,” said an official.

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States, ULBs urged to address climate change concerns Central government mainstreaming such concerns, says Urban Development Secretary NEW DELHI: The need for State Governments and Urban Local Bodies to be alive to the reality of adverse impacts of climate change and take necessary measures to address the same was emphasized at a Conference here today.

Speaking on ‘New Climate Economy’ at a conference organized by ICRIER, Rajiv Gauba, Secretary (Urban Development) stressed on the need for urban planning to be adequately ‘climate sensitive’ in the context of rapid urbanization taking place in the country.

Gauba said that though urban areas account for only 2% of land, they account for 78% of total energy consumption and over 60% of carbon dioxide emissions which triggers climate change. Stating that India’s urban population is set to be doubled by 2050, he stressed on the need for fundamentally different and transformative policies and urban planning to mitigate the adverse

impact of climate change. He urged the States and Urban Local Bodies to rise to the occasion through necessary interventions.

Gauba stated that the new urban missions launched by the Ministry of Urban Development seek to address climate change concerns. He further said that Smart Cities by definition are climate sensitive. Other initiatives like Model Building Bye-Laws, Transit Oriented Development Policy aiming at reducing travel through densification, Swachh Bharat Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) also address climate change issues.

“With urbanization becoming inevitable and even desirable and in the context of efforts to improve living standards, we will have to keep sustainability at the centre of our urban planning” said Rajiv Gauba.

UNDP launches engagement platform on urban development SURABAYA: To address the needs of the urban poor, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently launched a new online platform ‘UNDP4Urban’. The UNDP said the aim of the platform is to better understand and address the needs of the urban poor, a “critical prerequisite for sustainable development” and key to the SDG aim of ‘leaving no one behind’. The UNDP launched the platform to coincide with the third preparatory committee for Habitat 3 in Indonesia. The Habitat 3 conference, formally known as the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development, will be held in Ecuador in October. Magdy Martínez-Solimán, UN assistant secretary general and director of the UNDP’s bureau for policy and programme support, said: “The online platform will serve as an engagement forum of urban networks and coalitions for the public, the private sector and development experts, to share insights and information on various development issues.”

The public will be able to use the platform to share their views and experiences on innovative urban projects and also any recurring challenges related to urban issues in their cities.

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India preparing projects worth $2-3 billion for funding by AIIB: Jaitley BEIJING: India is preparing a basket of projects worth USD 2-3 billion for funding by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in several areas like urban development and energy and is ready to set up an office of the Chinabacked bank in New Delhi.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made the offer to set up AIIB branch in India while addressing the Board of Governors Session of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank headquartered in Beijing recently. Speaking on the role of AIIB, the Finance Minister Jaitley said “AIIB presents a much needed additional financing window dedicated to infrastructure projects and meeting the financing gap that may be beyond the capacity of the individual countries and the existing MDBs. “India has a huge unmet demand for investment in infrastructure and is preparing a basket of projects worth USD 2-3 billion for AIIB funding in the areas of urban development (including smart cities), energy, urban transport, railways, inland waterways and water supply,” Jaitley said.

“

India has a huge unmet demand for investment in infrastructure and is preparing a basket of projects worth USD 2-3 billion for AIIB funding in the areas of urban development (including smart cities), energy, urban transport, railways, inland waterways and water supply Arun Jaitley Union Finance Minister

In his address, Jaitley said the AIIB has come up amidst huge expectations in a difficult time for the global economy. “The overall recovery of the global economy remains very modest and global growth rate projections have been revised downwards, even though the Asia-Pacific region remains the growth engine for the world,” he said.

Finance Minister Jaitley offered India’s support in establishment of a Regional Office of AIIB in New Delhi to effectively cater to this potentially large

portfolio and speed up the process of project development, monitoring and implementation.

Notwithstanding the global headwinds however, India continues to maintain a high growth rate at 7.6 per cent in 2015-16 compared to 7.2 per cent in the previous year. “AIIB presents a much-needed additional financing window dedicated to infrastructure projects and meeting the financing gap that may be beyond the capacity of the individual countries and the existing MDBs (Multilateral Development Banks),” Jaitley said of AIIB’s role.

The Finance Minister, Jaitley also met Lou Jiwei, Finance Minister of China and had talks on bilateral economic cooperation, upcoming G20 Summit in Hangzhou and the BRICS Summit in India. Both sides shared views on the global macroeconomic situation and agreed on the need to further coordinate in order to enhance economic growth.

AIIB was officially established last year with an authorised capital of USD 100 billion in which India and 56 other countries joined as founding members.

China is the largest shareholder with 26.06 per cent voting shares. India is the second-largest shareholder with 7.5 per cent followed by Russia 5.93 per cent and Germany with 4.5 per cent.

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AMC to take over city water supply

60% Indians will live in cities by 2050: Govt

Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has decided to take over the city’s water distribution system but faces staff crunch in the execution.

Civic chief Om Prakash Bakoria said they would outsource the work and may appoint technical persons, who are already working in the project.

After the project was launched in 2014, all the 207 employees and engineers of the municipal body were transferred to the company. “The AMC will not face any financial hurdle in running the show as it will not have to give operational and maintenance grant to the utility company,” he said.

NEW DELHI: About 60% population of the country will live in cities by 2050 as India’s rate of urbanisation is “dramatic”, minister of state for urban development Rao Inderjit Singh said in the Lok Sabha.

As per the 2011 census, 31% population in the country lives in urban areas and more and more people would migrate to cities in coming decades, he said. “By 2050, 60% population of the country will live in cities as India’s rate of urbanisation is dramatic,” he said in the Question Hour.

The minister said under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), government plans to strengthen big cities first and smaller cities would be strengthened in the second stage. The Mission

Municipal Corporation launches ‘Transforming Vijayawada’ campaign

The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has started ‘Transforming Vijayawada’ campaign with a view to making poster and writing-free walls.

As part of the campaign, 1,000 students clean the walls on two important roads of the city and paint various pictures reflecting our culture and arts. Mayor Koneru Sridhar and Municipal Commissioner G Veerapandian inaugurated the ‘Transforming Vijayawada’ campaign at the VMC Indoor stadium recently.

Speaking on the occasion, the Commissioner G Veerapandian said that students were divided into batches and each batch was given specific area for cleaning up the walls and drawing the pictures.

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provides for improvement of basic urban infrastructure in the fields of water supply, sewerage, septage, storm water drainage, urban transport and development of green space and parks with special provision.

Singh said assistance by World Bank or foreign financial institutions is not being provided under AMRUT and the projects and activities under the Mission are funded through central government, states and Union Territories and urban local bodies as per applicable sharing patterns.“States, UTs and urban local bodies may, however, raise funds required against their share through own resources or any other means, including through World Bank or foreign financial institutions,” he said.

Swachh drive to highlight municipal workers’ efforts NEW DELHI: The Union Urban Development Ministry aims to highlight the “efforts of the unsung heroes” - the municipal workers - during its fortnightly thematic drive under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).

The focus of the drive, scheduled from July 16 to 31, is on municipal workers and to spread awareness about their efforts to ensure cleanliness in the society, an official release said today.

Through this drive, the ministry aims to highlight the efforts of Municipal workers and recognise them as one of the key pillars of SBM, it said. To make the thematic drive more vibrant, the ministry is encouraging citizens to tie friendship bands to municipal workers, share a meal with them or present some gifts to them, as a mark of appreciation for their efforts, it added.

“We introduced fortnightly thematic drives to increase citizen participation in the mission; today, we have reached a milestone. We are requesting the citizens to appreciate the efforts of the unsung heroes,” said Praveen Prakash, Mission Director and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development.

As part of the drive, the urban local bodies will provide new uniforms including shoes, gloves and safety kits to the municipal workers. Also, multiple health camps will be organised across the country for all the municipal workers, the release said. In a letter to all state mission directors and Municipal Commissioners of 75 cities, Prakash asked them to reach out to media for covering various events associated with the drive.

Each press clipping and video clip would be awarded 1 and 3 points respectively and these will be counted in the final scores in the next round of ‘SwachhSurvekshan’ to be conducted in January next year, he said.

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India unlikely to see many new cities: Debroy

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BMC to set up Waste to Energy plant A Waste to Energy plant will be set up in Bhuasuni Dump yard.

A meeting was conducted under the chair of Chief Secretary of Odisha on dump yard issue.

UD Minister, Culture Minister, All MLas of the city, Mayor and Commissioner of BMC were present at the meeting.

BMC will stick to the orders of Honorable High Court of Odisha for setting up of the plant. It may be noted that the waste to energy plant has already got clearance from the Pollution Control Board which clarifies that the plant will no way affect the nearby villages.

The plant will be helpful for treatment of the waste material with all environment friendly process. The plant will produce around 12.5 MW electricity.

JMC to hike fine on ‘owners’ of stray cattle NEW DELHI: The country is unlikely to see many greenfield or privately developed cities in the future as most of the efforts would be on revamping existing urban areas, said NitiAayog member Bibek Debroy.

“I think rare will be the case where India will have completely private funded cities. That is unlikely to happen, nor is there going to be a case where we will have completely greenfield cities,” Debroy said.

“There may be a few, but by and large we are talking about brownfield cities,” he added. Debroy was of the view that almost half of the increase in urbanisation between 2001 and 2011, is in census towns, which raises governance problems of their own. “Urbanisation in India was somewhat chaotic. It has not been planned very well. Most of the times when we complain about the nature of urbanisation, about the inefficient use of resources, those are fundamentally complaints about the bad management of the urbanisation,” he said.

Talking about public private

partnership, he said: “I hate the expression PPP. Therefore it has to pinned down phrase. Too many people do too many things when they use PPP.”Elaborating, he said: “For the most part, we are not really talking about completely privately developed cities. I am highlighting this because I have noticed that Paul Romer who is soon to become Chief Economist of the World Bank and much of Romer’s work is on propagating not just as an academic, but also commercially the idea of completely privately developed cities with as far as I know with dubious success and not academic but commercial.”

Niti Aayog also organised a twoday workshop on improving urban infrastructure through best practices in public financing. The workshop focused on areas such as PPP process -- key success factors from government perspective, PPP models and payment mechanisms, planning and preparation for PPP projects. The workshop was attended by municipal commissioners of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam.

Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) plans to increase the minimum fine imposed on owners of cattle found roaming on the streets from around Rs 500 to Rs 10,000. The move came after chief minister Vasundhara Raje directed the civic body to increase the penalty on cow owners who allow their cattle to roam freely on the city streets. As of now, owners claim their animals from JMC within seven days and only have to pay Rs 500 and additional expenses incurred on account of seizure and feeding the cattle. Apart from penalty, the owners have to pay Rs 300 for seizure and a nominal amount, which is incurred on feeding the cattle. The amount collected is very nominal and the cow owners are careless.

The JMC is now planning to create a system that is more effective and acts as a deterrent.

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Regions and cities launch investment plan for a citizen-centred EU Connecting Europe through territorial investments, reacting to people’s needs and the need for cooperation were among the main priorities of the declaration adopted at the 7th European Summit of Regions and Cities in Bratislava Bratislava: The EU must address an alarming fall in public investment in order to tackle growing regional disparity, support sustainable growth and restore faith among citizens, politicians across Europe said today during a two-day Summit of Regions and Cities in Bratislava.

Meeting in the Slovak capital a week after Slovakia took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first time, local and regional leaders adopted a declaration that calls on the EU to improve regulation and attract greater private-public investment to create more jobs and tackle the investment gap.

“If we are to restore faith in the EU, we must demonstrate how joint EU operations benefit citizens’ daily lives. Citizens demand results, which is why investment – in people, places and ideas – must start locally. Around 60% of public investments within the EU are made by local and regional authorities. Policymakers need to redirect all their efforts to increasing public and private investment in all

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the European regions. It is no longer business as usual. We must spread a new and innovative entrepreneurial mind-set across Europe,” said Markku Markkula, President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR).

The recommendations adopted by the CoR – the EU’s assembly of local and regional governments –come during its mid-term review of both the EU’s 2014-20 budget and its Cohesion Policy beyond 2020, a policy intended to even out regional differences. A report recently published by the OECD found that many of Europe’s regions and cities have seen public investment drop substantially since 2008.

PavolFrešo , the Governor of Bratislava Self-Governing Region, said: “EU funding accounts for around 80% of investment by public authorities in Slovakia, so EU money is crucial to Slovakia’s development. But we need to do more with that money especially following the uncertainty following the UK’s EU referendum result. Maximising investment requires work not only by the EU but also by national, regional

and local authorities in every country.

EU funds must also be extended to cover education, social affairs, health and transport so I am glad to see this reflected in the “Bratislava Declaration”.

Ivo Nesrovnal, the Mayor of Bratislava, Slovakia’s capital, said: “This summit is an exceptional opportunity to raise Bratislava’s profile and a chance to decide how best to implement the EU’s urban agenda. The EU needs a more integrated approach to urban issues, which should respond better to the needs of cities to resolve challenges such as unemployment, climate change and social inclusion. In a situation in which more than two-thirds of EU policies and legislation affect cities, we support the idea of a more targeted approach and an inclusive discussion that brings together the various tiers of public administration. This way we could have strategic planning across administrative borders. If we want to achieve the key goals set out in the Europe 2020 strategy, EU policies must react to, and take on board, the needs of cities – Bratislava included. That means the finance, competence and status of Bratislava need to be empowered.”

The Bratislava Declaration adopted on 8 July praises a special investment fund created by the European Commission in 2015, the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), saying that it is “showing great potential”. Maroš Šefovi , the European Commission’s Vice-President in charge of the Energy Union, said: “The shift towards a more sustainable, more circular and more competitive European economy is irreversible, and so is the role of cities and regions in making this shift happen. More than ever, the European Commission is standing side by side with local authorities that are committed to this ambitious agenda. Let us build this future-proof Europe, city by city, region by region.”

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Karnataka, Bavaria ink pact on police cooperation BENGALURU: Karnataka and Germany’s Bavaria have signed a joint declaration of intent to intensify police cooperation between the two states.

The declaration was signed between the Bavarian ministry of interior for building and transport and the Karnataka home department during the visit of a delegation led by State Home Minister G Parameshwara to the German state.

Both ministries have intended to cooperate by exchange of experience in police tasks with regard to public security and order, especially in the fields of safe city planning and development, citizenfriendly policing, establishment of safe cities jointly with stakeholders including civil society.

Also, victim protection, especially protection of women and children;

cooperation between police, justice and civil society organisations; traffic security; cyber-crime and technologies for crime fighting; basic and advanced police training are covered under the tieup, a copy of the declaration released to the media said.

The document of joint declaration of intent signed between Parameshwara and Joachim Herrmann, Bavarian state, Minister of the Interior for Building and Transport in Munich, said that the cooperation will be carried out mainly through the engagement of experts, information visits and capacity building measures like workshops, seminars and conferences. The declaration of willingness is in continuation to the existing MoU between the two governments signed on April 2, 2007.

WB pledges support China & EU sign UD for urban development Agreements in Karachi BEIJING: The entrepreneurs and officials KARACHI: Following a meeting with a World Bank delegation on Wednesday, Administrator Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Laeeq Ahmed, said that the WB had pledged its cooperation in short-term and long-term infrastructure development projects in the city. The delegation, represented by financial analyst Rebecca Hrvatin, project director and lead analytical manager for Asia & Pacific Anna Hughes, associate director YeeFarm Phua and others, was in relation to the Karachi Transformation Strategy (KTS), a project helped by World Bank to transform the city and conduct different studies, including a fiscal management assessment.

Dubbed as the economic powerhouse of the country, the KMC administrator mentioned that Karachi’s strategic importance played an important role in determining productivity throughout Pakistan; hence, the city’s urbanisation was a shared vision.

of both the Chinese government and the European Union have officially signed 12 agreements and memorandums of understanding to bolster efforts on urban development in Beijing. The documents list the pledges of both parties regarding solutions on urban development issues, including environmental protection and innovating the agriculture sector.

The agreement would also ensure that new opportunities will be open to both Chinese and European investors and traders as noted by Xu Shaoshi, the head of the National Development and Reform Commission. According to Marten Bjork of Pacific Energy, “Chinese investors have growing interest in technology firms based in Europe in recent years, and we are looking forward to enhance cooperation with Chinese government and companies. What we are aiming for is a win-win result.” Since 2012, a total of 12 city partnerships and 130 joint projects have been done under the Chinese-EU urbanization partnership.

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Ahmedabad Corp allocates Rs 50 lakh for heritage conservation

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation had decided to allocate Rs 50 lakh, over two years, for conservation and restoration of heritage monuments in the city. A proposal was sent to the standing committee for approval. According to AMC officials, ahead of the Unesco ICOMOS expert evaluation mission coming to the city, it is pressing that the AMC allocate funds for restoration and preservation of the heritage monuments in the city.

The proposal states that the municipal commissioner will be given the power to divert Rs 50 lakh for the same.

SDMC’s first Janta Darbar sees 1,200 complaints The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) held its first Janta Darbar in West Delhi’s Hari Nagar area during which the mayor and municipal officials lent an ear to the problems faced by local residents. The Darbar, which will be organized by all the municipal corporations before they go to polls next year, lasted for more than three hours and saw more than 1,200 complaints. “The event was a success and we tried to solve as many problems as we could.

While most of the grievances were addressed on the spot, some had to be redirected to the heads of departments present at the event,” said Shyam Sharma, South Delhi Mayor.

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COVER STORY | Urban Safety

COVER STORY | Urban Safety

Cities under

Threat

22 July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Building safe cities needs a radical surgery of existing urban safety and security mechanism.

There is a growing need that local governments improve their safety mechanism to make cities impregnable through traditional ways and means such as improving intelligence systems and also through enrooting integrated technological tools for crime and conflict prevention

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ities are under threat from multiple fronts— terrorist activities, increasing crime rate, social unrest, organised criminal activities, natural disasters, and many more. Making cities safe places to live is a challenge for national and city governments around the world. Despite having resources and man power in plenty, urban areas are more vulnerable to such threats than rural areas. Cities have always been the target of terrorists’ attacks and prone to an array of criminal activities ranging from murders, rape and burglary, to extortion, kidnapping and so on. Any incident that takes place in a city like Delhi or Paris is more likely to get global media attention. In case of terror attacks, attacking cities serves the purpose of terrorists and multiplies the desired outcomes of their acts.

The unplanned growth of cities often leads to gaps in public service delivery system that includes law enforcement too. It is imperative that central and state governments should encourage collaboration between urban planners, civil society, government officials, and different types of security forces incharge of maintaining law and order in their respective cities to prevent crimeand create a safe environment for citizens to live.

Urban terrorism

Abhishek Pandey Editor, Urban Update ap.urbanupdate@gmail.com

Regular terrorist attacks on cities demonstrate that cities, even after affecting millions of people to terrorism and suffering immeasurable damage to infrastructure and financial resources, are susceptible to terrorist acts. Cities globally have improved security standards, surveillance mechanism, and devoted more security personnel to guard public places in urban settings but attacks on cities have not stopped. Cities are

attacked rampantly not just in global south or in developing countries but all over the world. Recent terrorist attacks in the cities of developed nations—the USA, Belgium, France and Germany— extend an enlarged sense of urban vulnerability. The major cities of these countries are considered to be well prepared and equipped with better resources to thwart such attacks in comparison to cities in developing countries as in Pakistan, Iraq, Bangladesh or in India. According to a report by the Institute for Economic and Peace, there has been a steep rise in the number of deaths from terrorism, rising from 3,329 in 2000 to 32,685 in 2014.

Indian cities are not alien to terrorist attacks. Most of the major cities in the country—Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, etc. have suffered the waves of terrorism acts and lost over 2000 citizens and security personnel in the last 20 years. One of the most deadly terrorist attacks in Indian history happened on November 26, 2008. Terrorists symbolically targeted the financial capital of the countryMumbai leaving around 200 people dead and hundreds injured.

Cities have been the target because they are centres of power, economy, politics and population. Studies suggest that the significance of cities multiplies the desired outcomes of terrorist acts.

This trend underlines the fact that urban dwellers and city systems as a whole need better, enhanced security cover to continue going about their daily lives.

It is widely accepted that no city can prosper under continuous threat. All of us have witnessed that cities caught between any kinds of conflict remain underdeveloped and lose their sheen over time. Private individuals living in cities are increasingly becoming the targets of terrorists worldwide. If the lives of the people are not safe in a city

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COVER STORY | Urban Safety

‘Ring of Steel’: London’s Vanguard

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ondon is among the frontrunner cities which have provided a glimpse of the relation between urban planning and reform in security management mechanism of cities.

In the early 90s, the city of London built a Ring of Steel to secure the business district of Central London by implementing a range of safety measures.The Ring of Steel was created in 1993 to protect the City from the threat of terrorism after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had identified the capitalist financial center as a perfect target for their bombing campaign.

According to an article published in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, In July 1993, what was referred to in the media as a Belfaststyle, `ring of steel’ was activated in the City, securing all entrances to the central financial zone. Essentially, the entrances into the City were reduced from over thirty to seven where road-checks manned by armed police were set up. The City’s Ring of Steel represented a far more symbolic and technologically advanced approach to security, which tried to avoid the `barrier mentality’ of Belfast in favour of less overt security measures. In the City of London territorial approaches to security were backed up by the retrofitting of everadvanced CCTV in both private and public and spheres.

“Publicly the police, through an innovative partnership scheme known as `CameraWatch’, encouraged private companies to install CCTV in liaison with neighbouring businesses, whilst at the entrances of the ring of steel, as well as strategic points around the Square Mile, the most technologically advanced CCTV cameras available were installed.

In February 1997, 24-hour Automated Number Plate Recording (ANPR) cameras, linked to police databases, were fitted at entrances to the ring of steel. These digital cameras were capable of processing the information and giving feedback to the operator within four seconds.” Initially, the physical infrastructure, such as

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then it becomes unattractive to tourists, businesses and even the locals prefer to migrate to a safer place to live and work.

Increasing crime rate in cities

installation of bollards and check points at key places, was set in tune to make the city impregnable. In later years, technologically advanced tools were also put in place.

Today, over 500,000 security cameras keep a watch on the ongoing activities at streets, market areas, subways, buses and elsewhere to keep the city safe from any kind of potential threat from terrorists or for that matter, any kind of criminal activities. Many cities across the globe including New York and San Francisco have followed the trail by implementing selective measures to secure their cities, public transport systems and public places.

It is important to note that London hasn’t witnessed any major terrorist attack since 2013. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police credited better co-ordination with security services, improved intelligence gathering and the city’s massive network of closed-circuit television cameras. He says that police had disrupted eight terrorism plots, including a couple that involved assaults on police and military officials.

In the last one decade, digital surveillance system of London has been beefed up to thwart any possible terrorist threat. Many global cities which are facing safety issues can pick up the best practices implemented by the London law and order enforcement agencies to make their public spaces safe.

The unplanned growth of cities often leads to gaps in public service delivery system that includes law enforcement and security system too. The scale and speed of urbanization has left gnawing gaps in law and order management.

According to the recent report Global Terrorism Index-2015 released by the Institute of Economics and Peace, 13 times as many people are killed globally by homicides than die in terrorist attacks. At least 437,000 people are victims of homicide each year, which is over 13 times the number of victims of terrorism. While, the fear ensued by terrorist act is multifold for many reasons, the data shows that people are also getting inflicted by local violence.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau data, Surat is the safest city among the 53 cities of India. The data released in 2014 revealed that the city has the lowest crime rate (cognizable crimes under Indian Penal Code)—95.9.

While, Indore recorded the highest crime rate 885.9 during 2014. Surat has improved its safety as it had the crime rate 530.1 in 2013 which was much higher than 2014 figure. It is to be noted that ‘Suraksha Setu’ that is part of Safe City Surat project by Gujarat police for community policing has won the special jury award in an event organised by

FICCI. The project was meant for safeguarding the city from crime and terror. The project is utilized by the Police authorities to keep a virtual eye on the city movements and monitoring for any illicit or anti-social activities.

The Utility and Disaster Management and Planning commissions are taking aid of the hi-tech Information Management Technology for assistance in mechanized co-ordination and planning of their resources in and around the city. Rakesh Asthana, Additional Director, CBI and Former Commissioner, Surat said that this is one of the projects in India which is designed for surveillance, crime prevention and detection, traffic management and support and enforcement, providing disaster management and support and pollution control measures.

Violence against women

Making cities safe for women is a challenge for most of the cities globally.

Unsafe environment in urban spaces not just does physical harm to women but also restricts their free movement in cities and limits their access to the enormous opportunities that cities offer for employment, for education, for leisure and for personal development.

There are multiple factors which need to be considered while planning to make cities safer for women. Women belonging to different groups have varying experiences of cities. Their experience is shaped by factors such as age, economic status, ethnicity and migrant status.

All the stakeholders such as urban local bodies, law enforcement agencies, people’s representatives, community groups, civil society organizations and women groups should be engaged in decision making process and planning of public spaces to enable the free movement of women in cities. UN Women’s Global Flagship Initiative, “Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces,” builds on its “Safe Cities Free of Violence against Women and Girls” Global Programme. It was launched in November 2010, with leading women’s organizations, UN agencies,

and more than 70 global and local partners. According to the UN report, it began with funding programmes in Quito, Ecuador; Cairo, Egypt; New Delhi, India; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; and Kigali, Rwanda, and now spans more than 20 cities. The impact of the program was seen in introduction and implementation of several initiatives in different cities.

Some of them are: ♦♦ The municipality of Quito has amended a local ordinance to strengthen action against sexual harassment in public spaces. ♦♦ In Cairo, Egypt’s Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development adopted women’s safety audits to guide urban planning, and more than 100 youth agents of change (50 per cent young men and 50 per cent young women) have been engaged and are leading transformative activities in schools and other settings in the programme intervention sites to promote respectful gender relationships, gender equality, and safety in public spaces. ♦♦ Port Moresby’s National Capital District has taken steps to improve women’s safety in local markets, including budget allocations which ensure that the needs of women and men are taken into account across different municipal departments.

Cyber safety

To implement technological advancements in urban governance, city governments globally are collecting data and analyzing them to make policies for improving the operational efficiency and improve the standard of living of their citizens. A 2014 study

by Hewlett Packard found that 70 percent of IoT devices are vulnerable to an attack. Of 10 commonly used IoT devices, each had an average of 25 vulnerabilities, the report found.

Municipal corporations in India have not yet started collecting data extensively, using sensors and otherwise, like their global counterparts but when the central government has already given the

Indian cities are not alien to terrorist attacks. Most of the major cities in the country—Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmadabad, etc. have suffered the waves of terrorist acts and lost over 2000 citizens and security personnel in the last 20 years. One of the most deadly terrorist attacks in Indian history happened on November 26, 2008.

Terrorists symbolically targeted the financial capital of the countryMumbai leaving around 200 people dead and hundreds injured

mandate for building smart cities, IoT or sensor enabled devices would play a major role in collecting data.

Digital security is a growing concern worldwide. Since Indian cities are at the nascent stage of implementation of Internet of Things assisted technology, it is the right time for cities to build impregnable vanguards to avoid misuse of data that can compromise the safety of citizens and mitigate the effects in case any such incidents take place.

This also calls for adequate training of municipal personnel that are going to handle data that belongs to the public.

In most cases, the benefits of IoT will outweigh the risks, but companies and consulting agencies trying to introduce such technology in cities must address what could go wrong before something happens.

Follow the writer on Twitter @abhishekpandey

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

25

Leaderspeak | Community Policing

Ranjit S Chavan President, AIILSG

Public, policing go hand in hand Building a good rapport with the local community is a major challenge for police officials in Indian cities. This is crucial for weaving a sturdy safety net of surveillance and policing to nip criminal activities in the bud

C

ommunity policing is not a widespread model in managing law and order issues in Indian cities. Police and the general public seldom see eye to eye.

There is a need to break the walls of fear, silence and suspicion between police and the public.

Urban areas are sprawling exponentially, and police officials are getting overburdened with managing law and order situations in ever expanding cities with limited manpower. India has poor police personnel-population ratio that is far below the global standard. There are only 106 policemen per one lakh people— less than half of the UN recommended figure of 222. With such an inadequate force, police personnel in Indian cities face an enormous challenge of keeping citizens, their assets, and cities safe.

Building cordial relationship with local communities can help police officials in making their respective territories crime free. If there is any mischievous or unlawful activity going on in a particular community, locals know it first. If police and community have good rapport and locals do not fear harassment over sharing information or feel free to tell their grievances openly, such police-community relations can bring about a significant change on the security front at local level. Friendly relationship between police and public can benefit law enforcement agencies in controlling criminal incidents.

Such initiatives are targeted to engage communities in responsible participation in crime prevention at the local level. This not just conserves the resources, both of the

26 July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

community and of the police, in addressing the security concerns of society. Experience shows that by seeking the active co-operation of the public in performance of police duties, the process of Law Enforcement becomes far more effective.

The fundamental concept behind encouraging community policing is that if police officers are given ample time and fixed beats, they can learn about local concerns, address critical problems of crime and disorder of their respective territories. They can easily help the department in controlling potential criminal incidents or social brawl before they get out of control. While discharging their duties by taking locals in confidence, they can also improve frayed relations with skeptical communities.

Success in Kerala

Kerala Police pioneered in engaging local people to improve safety of neighborhoods and develop good relations with local community.

The state had initiated the Janamaithri Suraksha Project in 2008. Since its inception it has been popular among citizens. The project has made tremendous impact on Kerala society. Further a number of initiatives such as establishment of Coastal Vigilance Committees and Road Safety Programmes are being implemented in the State. These programmes are also based on the philosophy, principles and practices of Community Policing.

As per the concept formulated by the Kerala police, community policing involves a philosophy of policing which is distinct from the traditional approach to policing; it is of

crucial importance that appropriate training inputs are given for developing the right attitude and for imparting the relevant knowledge and skills.

Appropriate training is being given to the Beat Officers, Assistant Beat Officers, and Community Liaison Groups, etc. Janamaithri Suraksha Samithi members have an important role in implementing the project.

Selected persons have to be effectively trained. 1361 persons received training in Police Training College for Janamaithri Suraksha Project.

In order to popularize the concept, Janamaithri Kendrams were opened in District and Battalion Headquarters.

These centres help people to come and interact with the police. To give publicity about the Project and to attract more and more engagement from local communities, various activities were undertaken. Pamphlets, booklets and other materials were distributed at local level. These documents are supplied to houses in the Beats which also provide them with information such as Beat Officer’s phone number, and other Police telephone numbers and various services available with the Police.

Recently Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also applauded the efforts of the State police and directed that such initiative should be implemented in other states too.

He said during an event organised

by Kerala police earlier this year that the Home Ministry is exploring the possibility of expanding the Student Police Cadet (SPC) Programme, a school based capacity development initiative of the Kerala Police, at the national level. A similar initiative was also started by Pune Police in which students were given opportunity to do an internship with police. Students used to go to a local police station for

A senior police officer inaugurating a cleaning drive organised by the Janamaithri Suraksha Samithi and the residents’ associations in Thiruvananthapuram

eight days to understand about basic policing and their rights and duties as responsible citizens.

Global experience

Cities world over are implementing community policing in varying formats. The main objective of these initiatives is to make law enforcement agencies friendly. The spread of such initiatives is wide in many developed countries while developing nations are still at the nascent stage or yet to take the first step in this direction.

According to a study on community policing by M Borwankar, the United Kingdom is one of the countries where community policing has been so successful that it has been reflected at the national level. The government had developed National Community

Safety Plan-2006-09. Every local ward across London now has a fully staffed ‘Safer Neighbourhoods’ policing team. These teams work closely with local communities to target antisocial behaviour and crime. Six teams consisting of a police sergeant, two police constables and three Police Community Support Officers, work in every neighbourhood in the UK capital.

Such initiatives, after having reviewed local social dynamics, can be up-scaled elsewhere too for building crime-free cities. There are many states like Gujarat and Maharashtra who have initiated similar programs in their states for forging better relationship with citizens. Cities in developing countries can look out for models to adapt to suit local environments since there is no ‘one size fits all’ model.

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

27

Numerographs

BEST TO WORST Terrosim incidents and criminal activities in cities are on the rise. City governments along with security forces and other stakeholders need to devise an innovative strategy to provide a safe environment to their citizens

Compiled By Kartik Bhutani, Editorial Assistant Designed By Meenakshi Rajput, Graphic Designer

245

According to IHS , there were million professionaly installed video surveilance cameras active operational globaly in 2014.

Global Terrorism Index Report (2000-2014)

10 Safest Cities in India

Incidents

Thailand Libya

Death

Kannur

Somalia

Injured

Malappuram

Crime Rate (NCRB 2014)

959

Surat

113.8 139.7 144.8

Yemen

Dhanbad

India

Amritsar

Syria

Kanpur

178.5

Pakistan

Varanasi

180.4 185.4

Nigeria

Kolkata

Afghanistan

Chennai

Iraq

Coimbatore 0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

168.7

193.9 199 0

30000

50

100

150

200

Deaths In Teerror Attacks in India 409

Globally, from 2013 to 2014 the number of deaths from terrorism increased by 14, 574 which represents an

80% increase.

Source: National Crime Records Bureau-2013 & 2014, Global Terrorism Index-2015, Safe City Index-2015

267

148

Safest cities in the world Rank

Cities

Digital Security

1 2 3 4 5 42 44

Tokyo Singapore Osaka Stockholm Amsterdam Delhi Mumbai

87 84 77 75 69 63 68

28 July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

69

38 0

17 16

200 6 200 7 200 8 200 9 201 0 201 1 201 2 201 3 201 4 201 5

13 18

Health Infrastructure Security Security Score on safety index 76 90 75 89 77 86 76 82 74 91 54 58 45 56

Personal Security 89 90 90 88 82 73 74

opinion | Urban Safety

Shaping

Smart Cities as Safe & Secure Habitats

T

Dr Sudhir Krishna Former UD Secretary Government of India, and Chairman, 5th Delhi Finance Commission sudhir.krishna@gmail.com

he concept of smart cities is now closer to the ground and has brought the core framework issues in sharper focus. The framework for smart cities is now accepted to include safety and security for the citizens as one of the critical parameters. The Mission on Smart Cities (MSC) and the Atal Mission on Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) would, between them, cover 500 cities and close to 50 per cent of the urban population of the country. This is a very ambitious framework and gives the hope of a major push to planned urbanization of the country and, in turn to a resurgent India. The phrase used last deserves to be underscored, as for close to six decades after Independence, our national policies indirectly neglected investment in urbanization, while overtly pushing not only for rural development but also for a reverse migration from cities to the villages.

The result was a near chaos in the cities, as migration to the cities is a near natural phenomenon, globally, and the unprepared cities could not cope with the migrants, leading to proliferation of slums and

also to the breakdown of the civic infrastructure and services, much to the chagrin of the existing residents of the cities. However, from 2005-06, thanks to the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM), cities got attention for their infrastructure needs and public funding started flowing for improvement of water supply, sanitation, public transport systems, etc. in the cities. The JnNURM also combined urban governance reforms concomitantly with the investments, by making the former a precondition for the flow of Central Grants to the States and Cities for development/renewal of civic infrastructure and services. The results of JnNURM were impressive in many ways and wherever it could not give positive results, it threw up very cogent lessons for the future policies and management of urban development programmes.

Trends in urbanisation

Urbanisation, which was of the order of 17% at the time of Independence, has by 2011, touched the level of 31.2% and is expected to reach 50% by 2050. The country has accepted this trend as a reality as well as a positive development.

We as a nation are no more shy of urbanization.

In this scenario, the MSC and AMRUT have given a hope for a second push to planned urbanization.

Another issue to take note of is that the AMRUT is probably as important as the MSC, even though the limelight has gone largely to the MSC. This can be concluded mainly from the fact that smaller cities are growing much faster than the larger cities. As per the comparative population data of census, the growth of population in the Mega Cities between 2001 and 2011 was almost half than that between 1991 and 2001, as shown in Table-1 below.

Table-1: Trends in Population Growth of the 3 Mega Cities vs All Cities in India: 1991-2001 & 2001-2011 City Mumbai Delhi Kolkata All Cities

1991-2001 30.5 47.0 19.6 27.4

2001-2011 12.1 21.0 6.9 31.8

Source: Census of India, 2001 & 2011.

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

29

While the data in the above two tables highlight the need to accord enhanced attention to smaller cities, the reality would remain that all cities deserve attention as all have remained practically neglected for decades. Thus the combination of MSC and AMRUT becomes a very powerful means to usher in progressive development in cities of all sizes. Urban areas provide greater opportunities for social and economic growth and development of all, but more particularly of the disadvantaged sections such as the elderly, children and women, and cities attempting to become smart must make due provisions for the safety and security of such vulnerable sections.

Safe and secure cities

The Census has also indicated the great need for giving heightened attention to the planned development

of smaller cities, as the population trends in difference classes of cities in the Table-2 below would indicate:

Table-2: Trends in Urbanisation: Growth Rate during 2001 to 2011 Class Total Population Urban Population Total No. of Cities Million Plus Cities (No.) Population Growth in Million Plus Cities Population Growth in Medium Cities (having Population of 1 to 10 lakh) Population Growth in Smaller Cities (having Population of < 1 lakh) Non Statutory Census Towns (Population varies from 5,000 to over 1 lakh)

Source: Census of India, 2001 & 2011.

30 July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Growth in Percentage 17.6 % 31.8 % 53.7 % 51.4 % 48.4 % 18.4 % 66.3 % 179 %

One of the key features of the MSC, which introduces an element of competition among the cities to become eligible for Central grants, has brought in higher level of awareness among the planners and managers on the need for better management of the cities. The MSC also moots setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for each of the selected cities, with the intention of giving a professionally sound framework for city development. The MSC proposes preparation of Smart City Plans (SCP) by the cities with the help of expert agencies. While the SCPs have been accepted to be based on the concepts of sustainability, inclusiveness, efficiency and transparency, the need for ensuring safety and security of the residents also deserves equal attention. Cities need to be safe and secure for the residents not only against crime but also in respect of natural calamities such as floods, earthquakes and fire.

Drainage plan

Flooding is one calamity, mostly natural, by which most cities get affected almost every year, particularly during the rainy season. A closer look at the causes of flooding would reveal that in all cases, it occurs owing to unplanned construction activities that obstruct the flow of storm water in natural courses. A large number

opinion | Urban Safety

of water bodies in the form of tanks, ponds and lakes have been converted into built spaces, which took away the natural reservoirs of the storm water, leading to logging of such water at road junctions or even seeping into the built spaces. Besides causing such unwanted and harmful flooding, this also prevents the rainwater from reaching the natural nallahs, rivulets and rivers, which do not get enough flow, except for municipal solid waste and construction and demolition waste. The result is choking of the flowing water bodies.

Smart Cities need to give highest priority to preparation of Drainage Plan, based on GIS maps, which delineate the course of natural drainage system. The ‘Bhuvan’ GIS Database of the National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad, developed under the National Urban Information System (NUIS) Programme of the Ministry of Urban Development, could greatly facilitate preparation of drainage plans by and for the cities/regions. Properly guided drainage systems would not only prevent flooding of the cities, but would also nurture the water bodies and even the aquifers of the city and its surroundings.

Transport planning & Transit Oriented Development

Transportation Plan is the next high priority item for a smart city and needs to be based on the concept of “Walk to Work”, in a combination of safe walkways and efficient public transport system. The walkways need to be made free from all types of encroachments, including those made by the public agencies, such as Police Booths and Shopping Kiosks. The streets and walkways need to be adequately lighted to make them safe at all times of the day and night. Intelligent Street Light Management Systems, coupled with LED lighting, make it possible to have the roads well lit without causing financial burden on the municipality concerned.

The Transportation Plan for the City should focus on providing access to the nook and corner of the city

through public transport systems of one of more types such as metro/mono railways, Bus/BRTS and tramways.

All such public transport systems can be functionally integrated for the citizens through a common fare card.

The fare structure can provide for attractive offers for unlimited rides through passes so that the residents find it worthwhile to switch over from personalised transport systems to public transport systems.

Along the corridors of public transport systems, land use can be liberalised to encourage mixed land use, so that most people find the localities adequate for living, shopping, leisure activities, hospitals, educational needs, and even for employment. As public transport systems permit ingress and egress of larger number of persons within a short time and space, high-rise built spaces can be encouraged along such transit corridors. Such framework of Transit Oriented Development (TOD), linking land use to the transport plan, can provide most efficient and optimum use of land, which is the single most precious commodity in the cities.

Building bye laws

The Municipal Building Bye Laws are the cutting edge of legal framework for ensuring safe and secure abode for the citizens. Ministry of Urban Development has now issued the revised version of the Model Building Bye Laws (MBBL) earlier in 2016. The MBBL (Chapter-6)includes structural safety, disaster management as per Prof. Arya Committee Report and BIS Codes including Structural Design Basis Report (SDBR) for various building types. The MBBL also provide for prevention measures against “Soft Storeys” in multi-storeyed buildings and proof checking of structural design for buildings. The updated version of the National Building Code, which is expected to be launched shortly, would also be making ample provision towards specifications for safety in built spaces.

The Bureau of Indian Standards is also working on Smart City Standards, which would include the defining parameters for safe and secure cities.

Empowered local govt

Cities suffer from an excess of the number of authorities functioning in/ for the city, in a framework that leaves no single authority as fully accountable for the development or otherwise of the city. Such institutional labyrinth needs to be resolved and the Municipalities deserve to be projected as the one point source of all authority in matters relating to development and operation of the various civic infrastructure and services, be it water supply, public transportation, drainage, sewage, solid waste management, street light, health & medical care, parks and other recreation facilities, maintenance and development of lakes and other water bodies and so on.

The stature of the Mayor and other functionaries of the Municipality needs to be raised suitably, to enable them take decisions on all such matters, for planning, execution as well as operation & maintenance.

The city police needs to be made accountable to the city government, at least in respect of petty crimes and traffic management. These seemingly ‘smaller crime’ issues impact citizen greatly, particularly the more vulnerable sections such as the women, the elderly, the children and the poor.

That would also provide the citizen a singular and definite framework for securing accountability for governance decisions and outcomes.

In conclusion

We could summarise the situation narrated above by saying that the for a city to be truly smart, it would be necessary to make it safe and secure, in the context of calamities of all types- man made as well as natural.

The parameters for safety and security need to be standardized as also codified by way of amendment to the manuals for standard operating procedures of various agencies related to land use planning and construction activities These efforts need to focus on and revolve around the common man, while the implementation mechanism would need to bring the municipalities in the driver’s seat.

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

31

one on one | Former DGP (Maharashtra)

Vigilance, intelligence, public dialogue will make cities safer Sanjeev Dayal, former Director General of Police (Maharashtra) speaks to Urban Update and gives a ringside view of the safety mechanism in our cities. In the freewheeling interview, Dayal suggests a range of solutions to control and mitigate terrorist attacks, and improve safety of cities

Kumar Dhananjay Consulting Editor, Urban Update kd.urbanupdate@gmail.com

32 July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

We have seen in recent times that urban centres across the globe have come under attack from terrorists.

That has brought the question of urban safety to the fore. How vulnerable are the cities today across the globe?

The kind of attack that we have seen in recent times, this is not something that any police force in the world or any government in the world can stop, to say that a lot has happened in our country or our city. You can stop it up to a point but you cannot totally rule out such attacks that are taking place.

Why do you think urban centres are being chosen for attack?

Amongst the cities that have been attacked so far, the common thread is that the terrorist has found or had readymade centres available to them.

Secondly attack in a major city attracts worldwide attention whereas attack on a rural area would not bring them that kind of publicity.

In other words you are saying that because it makes bigger news and brings more attention that is why big cities are chosen for attack. What kind of preparation is required to stop such terror attacks? Is it possible?

As I said it is not possible to totally eliminate or stop these kinds of attacks.

Let us first understand that the call is being given to people across the globe.

It is not necessary for them to cross the border and go to the theatre of war and fight there. Instead they can do spectacular attacks where they are.

If you recall that Australian security services had intercepted a module which was planning to behead the foreign tourists in public there. In

Mumbai too, a person had planned to bomb the American International School. So it can be a vengeance attack or even a small group can plan and carry out a strike here and there and it is not possible to eliminate it totally. Yes, steps can be taken to mitigate, to reduce the intensity and reduce the number of such attacks. What is required is to actively engage the community that is seen to be majorly involved.

In India also we have seen that terrorists strike the urban centres mostly, be it Delhi, Mumbai or Ahmedabad. How vulnerable are Indian cities today?

These cities are always vulnerable.

There is always a need for the security forces and the government to remain vigilant. And to ensure that in case such attack takes place, responses are better and the sufferings can be mitigated. But I will repeat that it is not possible to eliminate such attacks completely. What is possible is to have a dialogue with the community which is seen as actively involved. The active cooperation of that community, by involving that community altogether can only help win the battle.

Whenever such attack takes place it is the local police which forms the first line of defense. How equipped are our police forces to deal with such situations and safeguard our cities?

I will say that if we compare ourselves to 2008 when a watershed event took place in the shape of attack on Mumbai, the forces have geared themselves up and are in a better position to tackle the situation if such an attack takes place.

What changes have been brought as

units have been raised to tackle the situation and they will tackle it.

The role of the local unit has been defined as per the standard operating procedures. Again what are those standard operating procedures is a confidential matter.

far as technological advancement is concerned to prepare to deal with such situation? What technological know-how has been brought in so that security forces are well prepared if such a situation arises?

There are certain changes that have made. New hardware has been brought in which is very visible to the naked eye of the people. Hardware such as better armory, better vehicles. People have been trained to operate them and they are better placed now. So they are better prepared to deal with any calamity. These are visual changes that have taken place. Of course there has been technological upgradation that has taken place throughout the country but this is not something that can be discussed in an open forum.

I understand that completely. Are police forces given any special training for such situations because generally the responsibility of the police is to deal with law and order?

See, you cannot train the entire police force. Take the case of Maharashtra which has a strong police force of two lakh twenty five thousand. It is not possible to train each and every policeman to the level of a commando.

Therefore there are special units in major cities of Maharashtra. Special

We have seen that India has come under attack over the years.

You have been the DGP of Maharashtra Police. How has the policy framework evolved with the changing times?

There has been huge amount of discussion in Maharashtra Police since 2008. Several changes have been brought in the way we work, the way to deal with it, the training program among other things. The government has been providing all the assistance.

This government also, I believe and as I have read in the media, has come out with a comprehensive policy to deal with the minorities and their perceived grievances so that the community itself, which is by and large not with this kind of terror, but certain members do gets attracted towards it, so that can be limited. The public must have the confidence to engage with the government and for that purpose a well thought out strategy has been put in place, I believe.

What is the situation of security infrastructure in our cities and the monitoring system? Like there are only a few cities where CCTV cameras are monitored round the clock. Is that a weakness of the surveillance system?

The system requires constant upgradation. So as and when the funding comes, these cities are upgrading. In Maharashtra many have gone in for this system. In Mumbai, a very ambitious six thousand camera project is being implemented. In Pune also same thing is being done and with

the help of the local bodies many cities have undertaken such projects. Like Nanded in Maharashtra has already gone ahead with hundred fifty odd cameras. So, this is already taking place but I said this is a continuous affair and funds will always remain an issue in a country like India.

Looking back at your long career in the police force, what would be your prescription to safeguard our cities?

What is that extra bit that needs to be done according to you?

I think as far as hardware is concerned, we are well on the way. We have taken the necessary steps. The government is supporting us and therefore, I think we are on the right path. Where we can perhaps do a little more is engagement with the community. That is minority community. Engage with them more receptively and as much as possible and at all levels that is required. Not at one level by ATS or one officer. It must begin at police station level and then it should go vertical.

You are saying that there has to be a dialogue with the minority community at the local level. But that is a different situation. We are talking about the attack that is inflicted from outside. The big question is how to deal with that? Isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it?

See, no attack can come from outside without local support. There can be a one off situation but otherwise that is not possible. All attacks in Mumbai and Pune have happened with some element of local support.So our task is to cut that local support as much as we can.

Have we learnt our lesson from 2008?

Will you say that, and that we are moving in the right direction?

Definitely. As I told you, several lessons have been learnt. It will not be correct to say that lessons have not been learnt.

There has been better patrolling put in place by the central government under the aegis of the navy and the coastguard at the sea. The state government is also playing its part. So definitely lessons have been learnt and we are moving forward.

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

33

Article | Urban Safety

A tough row to hoe There is a taut rope on which I dance….

In truth I do not dance.

I only move from pole to pole, To loosen the rope, to ease the pull, So I might make my escape But the tension does not ease And I move from pole to pole Tension continues And that is the dance people see.

(Ageya’s ‘Tight Rope Walker’)

of civic infrastructure but also of positive criminal administration, law enforcement and community policing.

Law assures ‘Safe Cities’ DK Arya Former DG Border Security Force (BSF)

W

e live in difficult times. Tensions of various intensities make life hard to live. People, due to socio-economic or persecution reasons try to break away from their roots and migrate to find new space for betterment. People from rural and impoverished areas, for understandable socio-economic or political reasons, demographic pressures or lure of better life, move into cities of opportunities.

Delhi had a population of 17.5 lakh in 1951, 27 lakh in 1961, 1.67 crores in 2011 and is estimated to be 1.87 crores in 2016. The NCR now has a bludgeoning population impacting Delhi. This phenomenal urban growth will not only need massive infusion

34 July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Article 14 of the Constitution assures equality of opportunity and status to all. Article 15 makes special provisions for women, children and socially and educationally backward classes of citizens. Article 21 with its long reach, among other things, assures health, shelter, growth and nourishment.

Various UN conventions and Articles 38 and 39 of Indian Constitution enjoin the state to promote welfare of the citizens and secure social order and justice-social, economic and political-to all. These provisions arm the marginalized, underprivileged or rootless migrants to demand minimum guarantees of meaningful life with dignity. Urban settled communities resist this encroachment into their peace, environment and routine.

Even migrants jostle for elbow room among themselves. Freedom from traditional social constraints in the new environment makes them aggressively assert themselves.

In urban contexts, inequality is a form of structural violence that often triggers more reactionary forms of violence. It is not only inequality of income but lack

of access to basic social services, lack of state protection, exposure to systematic corruption and inefficiencies that most acutely affect the poor. Urbanization has brought new challenges in terms of conflict, violence and urban governance and citizen security in particular. World Bank’s World Development Report 2011 highlighted the significance of violence as a development problem and focuses around criminal violence, terrorism and civil unrest. The police has a crucial role in coping with it.

The state machinery, political as well as bureaucratic, is expected to carry out the directives of the Constitution.

The criminal justice system, including police and prisons, bear the onerous responsibility of maintaining peace and social order in the resultant chaos.

Crime and the city

Haphazard and unplanned growth caused by reasons natural and migration, puts great pressure on civic amenities, crime and social peace. Urbanization though promotes economic, social and political progress but also leads to socio-economic problems.

Ghettos, overcrowded squatter settlements, slums sprawl in the midst of cities and densely populated fringes of urban areas.

Squalor and lack of basic amenities like health, water and sanitation generate angst against the state and those placed better. Television, mobile phones, cinemas, glitter of high society fascinate the marginalized young aspirants. Lure of lucre and high life makes them opt for crime and violence. Gang wars for area domination and monopoly crime business are common. This phenomenon is a natural corollary of migration and slum culture. The drug gangs of Latin America, bootlegging gangs of Chicago, harbor gangs of Hong Kong, extortion gangs of Mumbai, etc. are outcome of urban explosion. Lack of jobs, unemployment among labour, educated and semi educated people, rising number of school dropouts and lumpen elements lacking basic skill, add to social strife. The British educational system inherited by us produces skill-less products. People in general

consider police as the visible face of government and is held accountable by media and the public for whatever ails the society. Is the police responsible for failures of the criminal justice system?

Is the police geared to take a call to handle this massive problem thrown up by urbanization and resultant spiraling crime by itself? The police in bondage of politicians, hemmed by the Police Act of 1861, is unable to get free of its fetters. Despite the untiring efforts of Prakash Singh, with the support of Justices Varma and Sabharwal to usher police reforms, states are unwilling to let police free from their stranglehold.

Criminal-politician-police nexus and political control of police is the bane of Indian police.

The police is caught in a cleft stick.

It is straining to cope with bludgeoning law enforcement problems in an ever bloating urban society with poor infrastructure, archaic laws and political interference. Compare average police strength per 1 lakh population. In Spain it is 525, Russia 522, UK 224, US 195 and in India it is 138. The UN standard of police-population ratio is 222 per lakh. Delhi has 176, Bihar 94 and UP 65 policemen per lakh population.

UNODC ranks India 67th in police strength, 90th in order and security and 69th in regulatory enforcement out of 102. There are, on average, 25% vacancies all the time. There is chronic shortage of manpower, partly due to multifarious regulatory duties entrusted to police and partly due to poor man management. I recall when Babri Masjid fell on 6th December

1992, in response to emergency bugle call in Bhopal district police lines, only 3 policemen responded out of a strength of over 3500 personnel in various police branches. Mumbai had similar experience when 26/11 tragedy took place.

Indian police have too wide a charter as compared to other regulatory and investigative agencies like CBDT, Customs and ED. Apart from investigating crimes, police must prioritize law and order, regulate traffic, issue licenses, locate missing persons, impound stray cattle, dispose of unclaimed bodies, prevent public nuisance, collect political intelligence, protect vital installations, escort prisoners, undertake counter-terror operations, protect VIPs, interface with citizens, care for senior citizens, respond to emergency calls, etc. There are over 460 Acts and Ordinances which require police intervention.

Many municipal functions have been entrusted to police which increases their burden. In most other countries ‘municipal or social reform and social protection functions have special enforcement mechanisms set up under different departments’. Indian laws insist on their investigation by police Resultantly basic crime prevention has taken a back seat.

Making cities crime-free

Countering and controlling proliferation of crime in urban space needs special attention by police. In urban settlements criminal tendencies show up by deviant behavior graduating

to thefts, extortion, kidnapping, murder and formation of urban gangs.

The beat police overlook these ominous signs. The theory of ‘broken window syndrome’ becomes relevant here.

These initial signs of deviation must be handled right then. Rampant traffic violations generate a sense of impunity that one can get away with lawlessness.

Shortage of manpower concerns can be partly remedied by having an honest manpower audit and superficial functions not aiding genuine police work must be eliminated. Bifurcation of investigative and law and order duties was ordered by SC. Only Kerala and Punjab have complied with it. In 2013 MHA had suggested creation of municipal police in cities of over 10 lakh population. This force would enforce municipal laws including traffic management, relieving police to do its core function. In many countries certain special welfare laws are entrusted to specially created police units. Minorities Commission, Women’s Commission, Children’s Commission and Senior Citizen’s Commission should have specially trained police to carry out their mandate. Embargo on handcuffing arrested persons and under trials, to be escorted to courts locally and outside, is manpower intensive.

A separate armed police should be entrusted with this work.

Upgrading technology to conduct court proceedings through television or skype from place of detention will save manpower and expense.

Decriminalization of many offences like homosexuality, prostitution, suicide, adultery, minor drugs, prohibition, victimless crimes, etc. will spare police of much futile work. It is a truism that every society gets the police it deserves and that the police is the mirror image of society. To usher change in police image, the police must gear up to become proactive, community oriented, professional, bound by ethics and morality, empathetic to vulnerable groups, usher attitudinal changes, function as supportive arm of criminal justice system and help maintain rule of law.

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

35

Opinion | Safe Cities

Counterterrorism Officers in Times Square, New York

Of safe cities and

governance!

Among the essential conditions for any society to be called developed and modern, an element of safety of its citizens should be of paramount importance. There should be no two opinions about that now

U Abhilash Khandekar National Political Editor Dainik Bhaskar kabhilash59@gmail.com

36

July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

rbanisation narratives that one comes across lay much less importance on safety aspect of the entire urbanisation process. It is not in India alone but is seen world over, barring some exceptions where safe city projects are being implemented say, in Mexico or some Russian cities, besides a large chunk of European cities.

Urbanisation in India is gaining exceptional momentum as part of the newly placed thrust on it by the Narendra Modi Government and the

major policy shift is now sinking well into the public psyche. At no point of time in the last seven decades of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s independence, did the city get so much focus in official scheme of things. With cities touted as future habitat units, migration from rural into urban areas is the natural side effect.

The exodus is steadily growing.

Here then comes the safety aspect about which not many agencies in government and outside it seem to be thinking. I have been studying urbanisation trends and its various aspects and sub themes, but urban safety comes very low on the ladder of priorities of urban policy makers, scholars and practitioners. A large number of scholarly books authored by eminent people talk about scientific urban planning, land use patterns, education, agriculture, environment, urban transport mechanism, jobs creation, pollution, drinking water supply or even heritage conservation.

No complaints about that. But where is the safety angle fitted into the official scheme of things? Sadly, it is largely missing from the urbanisation discourses for a long time now. It needs to be brought into the mainstream of urbanisation dialogue before it is too late. The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) and other police research organisations have been reeling out figures of growing crimes, new types of crime, pressure on police departments to handle ever increasing population but the urban planners have yet to give their serious and adequate thought to urban safety issues. In fact, the Smart Cities Mission, in its official document, released by Union Minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu last year lists â&#x20AC;&#x153;the core infrastructure elements in a Smart Cityâ&#x20AC;? but attaches low importance to safety issue.

The approach to the 10 priorities enlists, in that order, the following: (i) adequate water supply, (ii) assured electricity supply, (iii) sanitation, including solid waste management, (iv) efficient urban mobility and public transport, (v) affordable housing, especially for the poor, (vi) robust IT connectivity and

digitalization, (vii) good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation, (viii) sustainable environment, (ix) safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly and lastly (x) health and education.

All these issues may have been frozen after due consultation with municipal corporations, urban affairs departments of the state governments and so on but when we are discussing urban safety, this is the official picture. Needless to say, other priorities enlisted by the official document are indeed important but safety of people for whom the cities are being made smart cannot lag behind other amenities. There is no logic that can support pushing the burning issue of safety way below on the priorities ladder. Across the world, safety is high on the priority list.

For example, New York City which was very unsafe and was converted into a safer city by its then Mayor because he (Rudi Giuliani) had realised that no international city of the size and stature of NY can afford to be unsafe from any angle you look at it. It affects its economy, image and has social and political ramifications.

But what is the Indian scenario? Pretty dismal. There was an unprecedented competition among cities to earn the tag of a smart city. Naidu is on record saying in Parliament that CMs and MPs would beg a “smart city” from him wherever he went while the process was on. Such was the hype created across the country for a smart city.

Safety: What it means

In today’s times each segment of the society is vulnerable to one or the other kind of danger while living in a city. Theft, burglary, murders, financial scams, rapes, road accidents, natural disasters, domestic violence against women and children, sexual harassment of women, riots, fires, cyber crimes, land grabbing and so on. There is an urgent need to insulate people living in cities from these and more emerging crimes.

Providing urban safety-so far-appears to be the sole concern of the police

department in most of the states. But is it fair that just one department be made responsible to tackle such a huge and onerous task? City Mayors and Corporators, and urban administration officials must be sensitised towards this.

The duty of social organisations and NGOs is no less as they are expected to guide and train people for responsible behaviour. Safety cannot just be left to the government. People have their own role and a definite one in this regard.

Proper driving on roads, observing road safety rules, using technology correctly, keeping their house and property safe, looking after their senior citizens and children, mainly young girls is also responsibility of people, among many other things. Safety is a joint responsibility of people and state but state is the Big Brother in this case.

Policing in cities

Police is a state subject...providing safety to ordinary people is the main job of the police but if they were doing so very efficiently, safety may not have warranted so much attention as it does now. While the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) supports modernisation of police force in states and union territories, the financial and technical help is clearly inadequate. In many big cities, it is common to see gated communities employing ever mushrooming private security services to protect their housing society and clutch of apartments. The proliferation of such illiterate guards, though not trained in any skill whatsoever, regulate the inflow and outflow of people into large set ups of high rise apartments in the metropolis. They also provide a ‘semblance of security’ (not in real terms) to lakhs of ATMs of several banks. Is that an indication that police machinery has completely failed? Or is it a new PPP model of safety measures in our cities?

We must also realise that security is a perception. But if that perception is strong, it will have desired impact in bringing down crime rates in any country. While increase in police force and their intensive training has no alternative, round the clock use

of CCTV cameras, deployment of plainclothes men, proper set ups of control rooms, vehicles with modern gadgets, society-police interface, well equipped police stations, upgrading of technologies for surveillance in market places, airports, railway stations and educational institutions is the need of the hour.

There is also another aspect of safety and that is the justice delivery system which is far from satisfactory. Supreme Court Chief Justice T S Thakur himself has said that about 70,000 judges are required today in different courts to dispose of pending cases in India. If a criminal is not really afraid of being booked and punished adequately and quickly, the rule of law cannot tighten its grip on people who indulge in crimes. More than cure, precaution is more important in this case.

But this is about law and order situation, what about safety of people from natural and man-made disasters?

Recent flooding on Gurugram streets is very fresh in the mind. People may not have lost lives like they did in Chennai last year and in Mumbai in 2005, but what about the ordeal they faced?

Who is responsible for that kind of a havoc? Was it natural or manmade? It was clear and anguishing failure of our urbanisation systems and governance.

Collaboration

Indian city managers, officials in Niti Aayog, Mayors, Police Commissioners, IGP, DIGs and SPs and Urban Development bureaucracy and academia must bring citizen safety issue on top priority to not only provide a safe environment to citizens but also improve governance system, ensure economic growth, a peaceful society and bring in happiness.

And there lies the solution of a comprehensive safety policy for cities.

The government at the Centre does not tire talking of growth, growth and growth...but that is impossible without taking the right measures to provide round the clock safety and also give people a feel that they are living in a safe city. That is also the duty of the State under the constitution!

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

37

Article | Road Safety

A clarion call to action Every day millions of Indians travel out and come back home using our roads. In 2015, about 146,000 Indians did not make it back home. Nearly 2.6 million came home with serious injuries. Every death due to a road accident is a tragedy, not just for that family but for the entire nation. A tragedy because that life need not have been lost, with just a little more care on the part of all concerned

R

oad safety is a crucial aspect of urban safety and security. The number of road deaths in India in 2013 was about 137,000, over 10% of the global figure of 1.25 million reported by WHO. It is a national issue which calls for urgent attention. The issue is more serious in our cities given the higher concentration of populations, both human and vehicular and the sheer magnitude of the numbers of vehicles involved.

Road accidents are so serious an issue that Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is known to draw attention to it in most of his statements and public interac-

V Vijaykumar Sr Advisor, AIILSG v.vijaykumar@aiilsg.org

38 July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

tions. In fact the matter was considered so grim that his ministry in March this year constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) under Yoonus Khan, Minister for PWD and Transport, Government of Rajasthan. This GoM is mandated to examine the best practices in the sector with a view to improve safety and mobility and to suggest actionable measures for implementation. This GoM has already met a few times and come up with valuable ideas.

Road safety is a multi-dimensional issue involving various stakeholders.

Motor vehicle manufacturers are one.

Regulations require them to adhere to a number of safety requirements in

each of their vehicles. The regulations vary substantially across regions and countries, but are slowly converging based on global best practices. Lately there have been instances of manufacturers being pulled up by governments in many parts of the world for failing to meet agreed safety specifications.

Other manufacturers routinely recall large numbers of vehicles to fix a faulty part or system which could have safety implications. The penalties imposed on defaulting companies and the costs of recall are mind-boggling, but they need to incur these costs in the interest of safety. Manufacturers are making renewed efforts every day to add more

safety features in their vehicles and thus increase the appeal of their products for their buyers.

There is a host of regulatory agencies which has an impact on road safety.

The testing agencies which certify the vehicle meets safety and environment standards for one. They are scientific establishments of global repute under the government of India. Then there is the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) which enacted the Central Motor Vehicle Act 1988 and notified the Rules thereunder in 1989. Rapid technological advances and growth in road traffic since then have prompted the Ministry to draw up a new set of rules-Draft Road Traffic Regulations. The ministry has also proposed a new Road Transport & Safety Bill (RTSB). Transport is a State subject and therefore calls for wide consultation across states. Thus the RTSB is still in Draft stage. Quality of roads, adequate and appropriate road furniture and lighting all contribute in great measure to safety on roads-city roads as well as highways. There have been numerous instances of fatal accidents, especially on highways, due to poor road or lighting conditions, inadequate signage and lack of crash barriers. The MoRTH is also working

India is a signatory to the Brasilia Declaration which commits to halve deaths due to road accidents by 2020 in line with the target at 3.6 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The goal is challenging looking at past performance, but not impossible considering the focus of policy makers

to ensure that there are adequate number of good quality trauma and medical aid facilities on highways. Many deaths occur due to lack of appropriate medical attention in case of accidents.

There are a number of agencies which need to work on these aspects-the Central Ministry in the case of National Highways, State governments in case of state and district roads, rural local bodies on some stretches of highways, and urban local bodies for city roads.

Among regulators are also the State transport departments and vehicle registering authorities. They are tasked with, among others, certifying the fitness of commercial vehicles at regular intervals. Squads of the department undertake spot checks on highways. Unfit vehicles are a leading cause for road mishaps. We have seen trucks with non-functional headlights on highways involved in accidents, often fatal. The traffic police department is another key regulator.Failure to book violators for offences, however small, deteriorates into an all pervading free-for-all on city streets and highways with rule breakers going scot-free.

Finally there is the all-important stakeholder namely, the citizen. Responsible driving and road use is central to the theme of road safety. No amount of regulation and good road quality can ensure an accident-free environment without good behavior by the road user. We see rampant violation of road rules like signal jumping, non-use of helmets, use of mobile phones, threeastride riding on 2-wheelers and driving/riding on the wrong (right hand) side of the road all over. Local traffic police in many large cities regularly run road safety programmes involving corporates, school and college students, and retired personnel precisely for this purpose. The primary paradigm shift in the minds of road users has to be ‘respect for other road users’. Pedestrians and bicyclists deserve particular consideration. They are making valuable contribution to the national and global cause of environment protection. We need to treat them with far greater respect if we are to encourage more citizens to take up walking and bicycling,

precisely what policy makers all over the world are striving for.

The GoM tasked with the crucial subject of road safety is addressing many of these issues. For example, ‘Good Samaritan’ laws to ensure that those who help victims of road accidents are not themselves harassed. The Supreme Court has already passed orders on this matter. Simplification of licensing and registration procedures, review of enforcement mechanisms, vehicle fitness, enhanced penalties, e-tolling and improved last mile options like 2-wheeler taxis to encourage use of public transport are among the other measures. A National Road Safety Traffic Management Board is proposed. Comprising professionals having expertise in the field, the Board will spearhead implementation of the multi-pronged strategy for improving road safety.

India is a signatory to the Brasilia Declaration which commits to halve deaths due to road accidents by 2020 in line with the target at 3.6 of the SDGs. The goal is challenging looking at past performance, but not impossible considering the focus of policy makers.

Many regions including in the developed world are seized of the problem of road safety and are making all out efforts to contain the damage. The EU for example has reduced road accident fatalities by 18% between 2010 and 2014.

Noting that pedestrians (22% of all fatalities) and cyclists (8%) comprise the more vulnerable sections with the elderly among these much worse off, some countries have targeted regulations.

Statutory reflective clothing for pedestrians, enhanced penalties for motorists violating zebra crossings and external airbags are some. Dramatic all round improvement is called for in terms of citizens’ road behavior, regulations, enforcement and robust institutional structure in order to address the worsening road safety scenario in our cities and on highways. Improvement in the conditions for one set of road users pedestrian for example need not compromise the rights of other road users, namely motorists. Enhanced road safety is a win-win for all.

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

39

Workshop | AIILSG Activity

AIILSG organises stress management workshop for Mumbai Police The objective of the workshop was to train police officials on stress management techniques to help them live happier lives and provide safer environment to urban dwellers Arzoo Arora Editorial Assistant, a2.urbanupdate@gmail.com

MUMBAI: Mumbai, a metropolitan city, has a youthful and vibrant economy. The City has an urban population of over 22 million. On the one hand the city is a hub of glamour and rich people, while on the other it houses the largest slum in the country. Such urban divide in the megacities often leads to increased crime rate, but Mumbai Police has done a phenomenal job in making

Mumbai one of the safest cities in India. However, with the time constraints and increased terror threats, workload on the Police personnel has increased immensely. Having a diverse religious and cultural milieu, the number of festivals has increased resulting in an acute shortage of policemen to ensure safety during the events. They are overburdened and unable to find adequate

time for rest. Police personnel rarely get time for leisure or for meeting their family which creates a stressful environment for them. Medical issues like diabetes and hypertension have become common among them. Addictive habits and mental health issues are also on the rise. The present working conditions illustrate high level of stress and strain that is negatively impacting their efficiency at work.

Workshop

Realizing the significance of de-stressing police officials, Sunil Velankar, Project Manager of AIILSG, conceptualized a program for the police on Stress Management. The workshop was designed in a way so as to regulate their stress positively and improve their work efficiency. Since AIILSG is an organisation working closely with various government systems and having a strong social commitment, Capt. Anant Modi, the Director General of AIILSG, rendered his complete support for the initiative. Velankar with Joint Commis-

40 July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

“Beat the stress, or it will beat you” Shital Ravi Counselling Psychologist

Stress is the ‘wear and tear’ our bodies experience as we adjust to our continually changing environment. In other words, it refers to the effect on a person when he does not have adequate resources to meet the challenges of life. It is the way your mind and body respond to the various demands made by life. Different people can tolerate different levels of stress.

Symptoms of stress

♦♦ Feeling anxious, scared, irritable or moody. ♦♦ Experiencing low self-esteem, fear of failure, inability to concentrate, worrying about the future, preoccupation with thoughts/tasks orforgetfulness. ♦♦ Grinding your teeth, increased smoking/drugs/alcohol, losing your appetite or overeating. ♦♦ Having butterflies in the stomach, headaches, pain in the neck and or lower back, susceptibility to illness and so forth.

How can I manage stress better?

Identifying unrelieved stress and being aware of its effect on our lives is not sufficient for reducing its harmful effects. However, all require work toward change; changing the source of stress and/or changing your reaction to it.

Learn to relax

Throughout the day, take mini-breaks. sioner of Police Anup Singh chalked out the program for imparting stress management techniques to a group of police officials. The workshop was organised on June 22, 2016 at Police Club Auditorium, Mumbai. Well known psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty, corporate trainer Anand Ghurye, actress and writer Sonali Kulkarni were among

Sit down and get comfortable. Slowly take a deep breath in, hold it, and then exhale slowly. At the same time, let your shoulder muscles droop and relax your body.

Practice acceptance

notion of ‘pace, not race’.

Don’t dwell upon contrasts

You can learn to notice the similarities between yourself and others rather than the differences.

Many people get distressed over things they won’t let themselves accept.

Often these are things that can’t be changed, like someone else’s feelings or beliefs. If you act in a responsible way, the chances are you will manage stress effectively.

Balance work and fun

Use your head to talk rationally to yourself

Watch your habits

Ask yourself what real impact the stressful situation will have on you in a day or a week and see if you can let the negative thoughts go. Think through whether the situation is your problem or is in your control. If so, approach it calmly and firmly.

Eat sensibly - a balanced diet will provide all the necessary energy you will need during the day. Avoid nonprescription drugs and minimize your alcohol use - you need to be mentally and physically alert to deal with stress.

Be mindful of the effects of excessive caffeine on nervousness.

Try physical activity

Talk to friends

Physical activity has always provided relief from stress. In the past, daily work was largely physical. Now that physical exertion is no longer a requirement to earn a living, stress can accumulate. Try walking, aerobics, jogging, dancing, swimming, etc.

Reduce time urgency

If you frequently check your watch or worry about what you do with your time, learn to take things a bit slower. Allow plenty of time to get things done. Plan your schedule ahead oftime. Recognize that you can only do so much in a given period. Practice the the speakers. State Home Minister Dr Ranjit Patil sent his best wishes and expressed the need for more such events.

The first session for the batch of 75 participants was conducted by Psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty. Through sharing of his daily life experiences and asking them a few questions, Dr Shetty created an interactive atmosphere.

Balance school and work demands with some fun and private time.

Hobbies are good antidotes for daily pressures. Unwind by taking a quiet stroll, watching a sunset, enjoying your friends or a hobby.

Friends can be good medicine. Daily doses of conversation, regular social engagements, and occasional sharing of deep feelings and thoughts can reduce stress quite nicely.

Know when you need help and get it

Seeking help is not a sign of weakness.

There are many resources available to help people deal with stress and problems, so take advantage of them.

Learn to say NO

Don’t feel guilty when you have to tell others NO. This was followed by a QuestionAnswer session. The participants could also avail the facility of personal counselling session with the panellists. As a souvenir of the workshop, a booklet ‘Kiran: Suyog Niyojanacha’ compiled by Mridula Sawant was given to the participants. It is a handy reference book for tips and tricks on stress management.

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

41

Article | Bengaluru

From city of gardens to city of garbage Bengaluru, the fifth largest city of India, has seen an exponential rise in its population in the last 20 years. The city is considered one of the most liveable cities owing to its wonderful climate and the lucrative employment opportunities it offers. However, the civic amenities in the city have gone from bad to worse; turning the once City of Gardens into a City of Garbage Kumar Dhananjay, Consulting Editor kumardhan@hotmail.com

T

he growth of the city has been exponential in recent years. The city has witnessed unprecedented industrial progress with the establishment of many large, medium and small scale industries and technical and professional institutions of national importance. Bengaluru is one of the most livable cities in India in terms of climate and otherwise. Its challenges are unique because it has grown much faster than any other city in the world. In the last two decades its population has doubled which is unique for any city. Bengaluru is called the garden city of the country. The city boasts of large parks and open spaces in

42 July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

addition to tree lined avenues in almost all parts of the city.

But this city of gardens is rapidly getting the tag of ‘city of garbage’.

The city produces 3500 tonnes of waste everyday and it needs to be handled quick and fast. Harish Bijoor, a prominent Bengalurean, sums it up in these words. He says “whenever I go for a walk in Bengaluru, I call it a garbage walk because I just step out and It is one of the posh area called Indira Nagar and in thirty minutes I pick up five garbage black spots. I started my walk and in two minutes I had thirty pictures of the decay of Bengaluru. I simply believe that city has become ‘garbage’luru instead of Bengaluru”.

So what has led to this mess? It is clear that governance has not been upto the mark whether at governmental level or local bodies. Traditional political mindset has also been a big reason.

Bengaluru has twenty percent of the population of the state but it has only twenty odd MLAs. R K Misra of Centre for Smart Cities says “Bengaluru has twenty percent of the total population of Karnataka, it contributes seventy percent of the taxes, it has sixty percent of the GDP of the state but political representation is less than ten percent in the assembly.

That is where all our mega cities suffer.

Be it Bengaluru or for that matter Mumbai, chief ministers enjoy the economic benefits of the cities but end up spending time energy and money away from the city. They do not realize that cities are the golden goose. You take Bengaluru out of Karnataka and seventy percent of tax and sixty percent of GDP is gone. Common sense would say that the government should focus on making the life of citizens better in Bengaluru. But then it is all about numbers. In democracy ultimately numbers matter”.

But the problem goes beyond that. BBMP, the urban local body is in a deadlock and it is because the traditional dumping ground of garbage is no longer available to them. There is a transportation issue. There is a lot of garbage transported from one place to another and that makes big money for a lot of people. There is money in

garbage. These two issues paralyze the urban local body. Where there is money there is a will but in this case there is negativity and lethargy. R K Misra of CSC says “I believe this problem is largely due to contract system.

These contractors have completely monopolized the system and almost operate like a mafia. They do not allow anybody else to bid for contracts. They pay the sanitation workers poorly.

Government has now run out of option how to deal with these guys. The government is now thinking of going back to the old days and to employ the sanitation workers rather than outsourcing”. Bengaluru outsources eighty to ninety percent of solid waste management workers. Other cities manage it on their own. Ideally when any department is privatized it improves things but in Bengaluru the reverse has happened.

Beyond the issue of governance, there is also the question of raising awareness. The issue has got aggravated because less than forty percent of Bengalureans are segregating garbage at source. BBMP official claims that a team has been set up in every locality involving resident welfare association to create awareness but in reality these meetings are rarely held. In order to crack the whip BBMP this year set strict conditions to award the contracts. According to the condition laid down in the tenders, contractors must not collect mixed waste from citizens. But in reality, experts say that even those residents who segregate

Bengaluru or for that matter Mumbai, chief ministers enjoy the economic benefits of the cities but end up spending time energy and money away from the city.

They do not realize that cities are the golden goose RK Mishra, Founder Director, Center for Smart Cities waste see the workers mixing it right in front of their eyes and then dumping it at some corner or in a landfill. This not only makes the area stink but there is a bigger danger of some serious disease outbreak. Harish Bijoor warns, “We have to ensure that we are sensitive enough to garbage. I think this city will only get up when we have a plague or a very severe phase of dengue where everybody ends up in hospital”.

Are resources a problem or is there a lack of will to act? Is it BBMP’s ineptness at dealing with the situation?

Bengaluru has a huge tax base and BBMP has a huge budget. But then no amount of money and manpower can alter the situation if agencies do not get the basics right. When the question is put to Bijoor, he says, “The money is there but the infrastructure and will to act is not there. The infrastructure to ensure that we manage the garbage locally does not exist. We have BBMP, we have wards and every ward must manage its garbage. So on paper there are segregating units, there are incinerators but to implement it on the

The infrastructure to ensure that we manage the garbage locally does not exist.

BBMP has wards and every ward must manage its garbage. So on paper there are segregating units, there are incinerators but to implement it on the ground level there is no will. There is lot of talking the talk but not walking the talk Harish Bijoor, Urban Thinker

ground level there is no will. There is lot of talking the talk but not walking the talk. This is a human issue. There are not enough feet on the ground.

There are lot of minds on paper but not enough feet on the ground.

“The other problem is that citizens are not angry and noisy as they should be, because if you don’t demand you won’t get it. That is the reality of the new society. Government is not going to keep you hunky-dory. People have to demand because they pay taxes.

Bengaluru is a high tax collection nerve centre. But people don’t have time for all these. They are busy making money and not interested in these issues” adds Bijoor.

So is this a lost battle? Is there a combined apathy of the government, local bodies and citizens alike?

Disagrees R K Misra of CSC. He says that government did not do much in the last three years. But he adds, “Bengaluru is still one of the best and progressive cities where citizens spend a lot of their time, energy and money to make city better and come forward and work with the government. Lot of efforts are on.

There are many committees but it has reached a boiling point and now we see a lot of effort on the part of government and others so we will see some result.

Citizens are on top of it, working with the government and reminding the government. The worst is behind us and things are looking positive”. There has to be some more potent idea of garbage management in the city. And one hopes that all the stakeholders will put their minds together and show the will to take the stink out of the city and restore its fast losing tag of ‘city of gardens’.

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

43

Feature | Habitat III

Setting the new urban agenda for mobility The “revised” draft of the New Urban Agenda is clearer and more concise, and includes a number of important references to transport and mobility

Kulwant Singh Former Asia Advisor, Urban Basic Services, UN-Habitat kulwant.singh@unhabitat.org

44 July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

H

abitat III will be one of the first United Nations global summits after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

On May 16th, the Habitat III Secretariat released the Zero Draft text of the New Urban Agenda (NUA), the Outcome Document of the Habitat III Conference. The Zero draft was further revised and released on 18th June 2016.

Given below is an overall assessment of the NUA from a transport perspective.

The Zero Draft of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) for the Habitat III process has highlighted the critical role of transport in furthering sustainable urban development. The NUA urges a “transformation in mobility policy”.

The Zero Draft of NUA struck a reasonable balance between specific recommendations on mobility and providing enabling recommendations on national-urban relations; urban planning; financing; policy

frameworks, and capacity building that will be the key to implementing the transport related recommendations on a city level. There is a prominent mention of public transport, walking and cycling, which is a crucial element of the integrated land use and transport planning.

Revised zero draft of New Urban Agenda

The revised Zero Draft emphasizes access to economic opportunities and social services, rather than simply access to sustainable transport systems, a key distinction between the New Urban Agenda and the SDGs. The text used on transport in paragraphs 94-99 of the revised Zero Draft is quite clear and concise. ♦♦ Take measures to improve road safety and integrate it into mobility and transport infrastructure planning and design. ♦♦ Promote the implementation of the United Nations vehicle safety regulations, ♦♦ Provide access for all to safe, affordable, sustainable urban mobility and transport systems, enabling meaningful participation in social and economic activities in cities and human settlements. ♦♦ Develop mechanisms and common frameworks at the national, subnational and local levels to appraise

the wider benefits of urban transport schemes. ♦♦ Establishing urban transport infrastructure funds at the national level, based on a diversity of funding sources, ranging from public grants to contributions from other public entities and the private sector. ♦♦ Support better coordination and mutual understanding between transport and urban planning departments at the local level. ♦♦ Provide support to local authorities to develop the necessary knowledge and capacity to implement integrated transport plans, including the provision of guidelines and the legal capacity to enforce plans upon adoption. ♦♦ Support local authorities to develop financing instruments, enabling them to improve their transport infrastructure by public transport systems.

At the same time, it is felt that the revised Zero Draft leaves room for improvement in several areas. While the NUA provides much-needed attention on sustainable passenger transport, freight transport and logistics is relatively neglected and needs more emphasis.

The “revised” draft of the New Urban Agenda correctly highlights a number of generic enabling factors — planning, capacity-building, finance, etc. — that are necessary for sustainable urban development. There is no alternative to a broad transformation of urban mobility policy. No new technology or energy carrier alone can deliver the widespread benefits of truly sustainable transport.

UN member states have already unanimously recognized the importance of transport issues on multiple occasions. In the 2012

“The Future We Want”, the outcome document from the U. N.’s major Rio+20 summit, governments recognized “the importance of the efficient movement of people and goods, and access to environmentally sound, safe and affordable transportation as a means to improve social equity, health, resilience of cities.” They further noted “the importance of mixed-use planning and of encouraging non-motorized mobility, including by promoting pedestrian and cycling infrastructures.”

The end result of the Rio+20 talks is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the 15-year global framework that went into effect in January. One of the targets for these goals pledges governments to “provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons” by 2030. Another pledges them, by 2020, to “halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents”.

Decarbonizing Urban Transport for Making Cities More Resilient: The Paris Agreement on climate change, through its ambitious target of moving toward a 1.5 degree Celsius maximum global temperature increase, makes clear that transport will need to largely decarbonize by 2050. It is generally accepted that urban transport will need to be in the lead on this, and several countries and cities have already announced major policy initiatives in this respect. The New Urban Agenda should now strengthen the links between climate action and urban mobility to ensure broad action and, based on the Paris Agreement, set urban

The New Urban Agenda is a set of strategies that is integrated, strategic, sustainable, and transformative and right based Dr. Joan Clos, Secretary General, Habitat-III

transport firmly on a decarbonization pathway.

Planning to m.inimize transport demand: Besides supply-side interventions, including public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure, the New Urban Agenda should also advocate and focus on demand management solutions — in particular, sustainable urban mobility plans through dramatically improved planning to minimize the need to travel Focus on the needs of vulnerable groups: New Urban Agenda should also focus on the needs of vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly, the poor and people with disabilities. Making transport safer, cheaper, more accessible and cleaner disproportionately benefits vulnerable groups.

Freight Transport: It is important to promote the sustainable growth of freight transport, but this will require differentiated response strategies for the movements of goods versus people.

New Urban Agenda therefore should also emphasise the key role that freight, the moving of goods, plays in enabling economic development.

Technology enabling change: New Urban Agenda recognizes the role of technology as an enabler of shared mobility services, but these can also be used to ensure user fees and charges reflect the marginal social costs and provide new sources of financing to further encourage a shift toward more sustainable modes of transportation.

There, however, is a need for strong action at all levels, including from member states. Without a dramatic change in direction, cities will become increasingly congested, road safety will become a major issue as road collisions will kill and maim millions more, and billions will be forced to breathe polluted air. The promise of cities as attractive and successful places to live in the 21st century will not materialize without the U. N. member states expressing their preparedness to provide the necessary leadership and focus in the New Urban Agenda to deliver on their past commitments and transform urban mobility.

www.urbanupdate.in | July 2016

45

URBAN AGENDA | Disaster Management

Are Indian cities ‘disaster’ ready?

Many recent natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and cyclones have raised concerns over the preparedness of Indian cities to tackle them in an efficient manner to reduce the loss of life and property. The million dollar question is: do our cities have a plan and system to keep citizens safe during disasters…

P

eople living in cities become more vulnerable to after-effects of natural disasters such as earthquake, storms and floods because of dense population and haphazard urbanization. Many people died and many others suffered loss of property in the city of Chennai after torrential rains because the natural waterways were blocked or encroached upon due to unplanned urban sprawl.

Chennai is not a case in isolation.

Similar situation could happen in any city. Every city faces a different kind of threat. If the coastal cities in India are facing flooding problems, sea rise, etc. then there are cities which are at the risk of getting hit by severe earthquakes.

According to government data released in March, a total of 81 new towns and cities were added to a list of areas prone to earthquakes, bringing the total to 107. Eight new cities and towns have been added to a government list of urban areas vulnerable to earthquakes of “very severe intensity”.

The national capital Delhi being in seismic zone 4 (high activity) is one of India’s most vulnerable metropolitan cities when it comes to earthquakes. The city has the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) which makes sure the city has no imminent threat. The authority also equips each locality to use funds

46 July 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

allocated for disaster management activities. It trains search and rescue teams, police and fire personnel to handle situations of disaster and chalks out plans to prepare against disasters.

But are other cities which are at the danger of similar threats ready to handle the situation efficiently? Not just government agencies but also communities should be ready to play a proactive role in case of emergency.

Awareness among people about rescue strategies and precautions is must for making things easier for disaster management authorities. Recently, Swiss Re, a global reinsurance company, has analyzed the disaster potential for 616 of the world’s largest cities. Cities were identified based on their potential for earthquakes, storms, storm surges, tsunamis, and river floods. Each city was ranked based on the effect each scenario would have on city residents, by combining population distribution data with vulnerability estimates for each disaster. It comprises fatalities, injuries, evacuations, those whose homes would be damaged or destroyed, and those who would be unable to access their workplace. In this study, the Indian city Kolkata ranked 7th in the list of top ten most vulnerable cities in the world.

According to the report, “Kolkata is situated near the world’s largest river delta, which makes it susceptible

Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor bhau1008@gmail.com

to flooding nearly every year. The drainage system, which is more than 140 years old, covers less than half of the city. Cyclones, tsunamis, and storm surges could also affect the city, which is ill-prepared to deal with a natural disaster.” Disaster management agencies at local level should do similar studies to plug the gaps in their preparedness of handling disaster.

In the month of June this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the first ever National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP). It aims to make India disaster resilient and significantly reduce the loss of lives and assets. The NDMP focuses mainly on the priorities and goal of Sendai Framework of the United Nations for Disaster Risk Reduction. The priorities under the framework are understanding disaster risk reduction, strengthening disaster risk governance, investing in disaster risk, reduction for the resilience, enhancing recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. The plan also focuses on preparing communities to cope with disasters, and emphasizes on a greater need for Information, Education and Communication activities. Each city should take proactive initiatives to provide a safer environment to their citizens and enable such an environment where community stands tall in case of any kind of impending disaster.

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!!! Congratulations !!!

Raipur

stands among the top five cities in Fast Track Competition for

Smart Cities Mission