It’s nothing short of a miracle that Bhubaneswar has been at the top of the selected cities to be made smart among the first twenty. The news has driven some thinking Odisha people mad with joy as if life would jump a few huge steps in improving the quality of life. There are some realists who would believe that the make-believe city has been found to be most in need of help; hence, the placement at the top. It is very unfortunate that the other entity of the twin metro has been found to be unfit to become smart. Cuttack is thus destined to remain dull and primitive.
Super-brain experts have considered rating on five major domains: basic infrastructure keeping water supply and sanitation in perfect shape along with efficiently functioning solid waste management systems, superb road network without potholes and curvatures to create mini pools with the slightest ‘heavenly downpour’, truly commendable public transport system never forcing commuters to use private petroleum vehicles no matter how small, robust IT connectivity meaning anyone can stop and use the Internet even in an urinal, and of course, most importantly e-governance facilities at everybody’s hand.
What has never been made clear is the non-negotiable ‘No-slum’ status without which no city under the sun can ever get smart. The whole world knows on all the counts that Bhubaneswar is an established disastrous location. The most magnificently unique city of temples has been so badly defaced that successive governments should have been heavily dethroned by the people.
Incidentally, three new cities were conceived in the post-Independence India, Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar and, very lately, Gandhinagar. The other two are absolutely slum-free whereas Bhubaneswar is at least 350-slum rich. The road network within the city is commendably dangerous, either perpetually under repair or totally ignored for years. There is no explaining further on the other counts as people know the truths. It seems the super brains drove from the airport to the Raj Bhavan and took a joy ride from there to the Infocity area where multinational IT outfits have set up glossy, glittering facilities creating a miniscule Silicon Valley illusion only if the beholder is glaring at the structures between November and March. The rest of the year saps the most resilient visitor due to highest grade heat coupled with the worst humidity. The devastated temple town invariably bags the hottest city tag every year by March while the rest of India is looking for a bit of sunshine due to cool climes of spring.
All the same, there is celebration and revelry everywhere that Bhubaneswar is going to become the most livable city with the best facilities, thereby attracting investors from all over to dump money like crazy to manufacture, provide supreme quality service and employ thousands of young people. Water supply and waste management issues have never been shared with the experts, for sure.
The Smart City is just a buzz phrase, a wrong idea pitched in the wrong way to the wrong people. Songdo in South Korea is a ‘smart city’ whose roads, water, waste and electricity systems are dense with electronic sensors. A lone woman drives straight to the rail station and steps directly on to a train; her electric car then drives off to park and recharge. A heart attack victim in the street gets emergency services from a drone equipped with a defibrillator without delay. Flying maintenance robots atop apartment blocks autonomously repair cracks, leaks and clear leaves from gutters.
The smart city concept dates back as far as the invention of automated traffic lights, first deployed in 1922 in Houston, Texas. The one noteworthy achievement of smart city-style thinking in modern times is the train indicator boards on the london Underground. But the rise of ubiquitous internet connectivity and the miniaturisation of electronics in ordinary devices make the concept crystallised into an image of the city as a vast, efficient robot -- a vision that originated with giant technology companies such as IBM, Cisco and Software AG, all of whom hoped to profit from big municipal contracts. Indeed, many people think london is the smartest city of them all just now. Instead of a smart phone, one will have a smart drone in pocket soon.
However, India is certainly wasting heavily on 100 smart cities at this point in time. The rural locations need help to have the productive youth sticking out there with opportunities in the agro sector as India is still essentially a farm economy. The smart cities would attract more young people from the already human-deplete villages. Thirty crore poor in India struggle to survive and fend for basic living. India occupies the 55th position in the list of 76 ‘horribly starving’ countries with 30 crore citizens without access to regular electricity and potable water. Smart cities will devour poor citizen’s precious money to spoil the young and deprive millions of poor of the right to live with dignity.
Many companies including IBM, Oracle, CISCO and others are eyeing the opportunity to provide smart tech to the cities in collaboration with the local governments. As per seriously concluded studies, only 31% denizens of the smart cities are likely to get smart solutions to waste management, traffic control and other benefits. The rest 69% is bound to suffer from deplorable sanitation, poorest quality transportation and drinking water problems. The depravity is so entrenched that 56% of rural households are landless and derive income from life-threatening manual labour. The highest earning member in 74.5% of rural households earns below 5,000 rupees, as per the provisional data of socio, economic and cast census released by the government. Much needs to be done to contain rural household sustainability and mindless migration from rural dwellings to urban which will have smart facilities which will degrade quality of life.
The super experts forecast that economy will boom, resulting in job creation and wealth generation. According to a 2014 study, 4.5 crore people remain without any livelihood sources, too large to be catered to by the smartest cities that install intelligent machines to drastically cut down human work force on purpose.
The Modi Government has currently pledged 48,000 crore for 100 smart cities across the next five years. But the formula for generating the rest of the funds is yet to be worked out. Pratap Padode, Founder and Director of Smart City Council India, said a smart city would have to be self-sustainable and generate revenues in the long run; the best way is to charge citizens for the facilities. This will dislodge the poor most certainly because they shall never have the paying power.
The smart city project may be only a tiny part of the development canvas. But ‘smart villages’ can save a nation like India.
Digital India, Swachh Bharat and such other projects are fine by rhetoric but badly designed to end up as publicity stunts only. While the entirety of the efforts by the government should not be dismissed, we need policies aimed at a holistic development. A balanced approach to the Indian problem is not welfare schemes at large, for there is nothing such as a free lunch.
Bhubaneswar with all its natural water streams buried with concrete foundations and poisoned by sewerage systems; the best of heritage structures having been dwarfed and relegated to nowhere due to highly flawed legislations, is only a terrible apology of a city. The little breezy town of yore is virtually on the brink of decay. The Smart City status will doubtlessly smash its already ailing heart much earlier than apprehended May lord Shiva’s ‘trident’ save the budding spoilt city!
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)