Last week, the Modi Government announced the names of the first set of twenty cities slated to become ‘smart’. The intention of building Smart Cities was a promise contained in the pre-election manifesto of the BJP. While initially the idea was to build 100 new cities with state-of-the art technology, there is now occurred a shift in the Mission’s focus from Green Field Development to Brown Field development. This shift has taken place after the BJP being put into power. In August 2014, the Modi Government asked state governments to select existing cities in each state for development under the ‘National Sustainable Habitat and Smart City Mission’.
The Government of India (GOI) allocated Rupees 7060 crores for the Smart Cities Mission in its interim budget of 2014-15. The budget of 2015-16 had a provision of Rupees 6000 crores for the Mission and the development of 500 habitations under the National Urban Rejuvenation Mission (NURM). A government panel has approved the allocation of Rupees 2.73 crores over the next ten years for the development of 100 smart cities under the NURM.
The ‘Mission Statement and Guidelines’ for the Smart Cities Mission released by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) on June 25, 2015 identified in the Mission the following strategic components for implementation: retrofitting, redevelopment, green field development and pan-city development. The MoUD is in the process of setting up the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for the Mission. Convergence with other government schemes, are also the guidelines for the release of funds for the Mission.
However, there are key issues that need to be publicly debated and discussed — regarding the very concept of Smart Cities in general and the Smart Cities Mission, in India – that are yet to be discussed publicly by opposition political parties and within the Indian parliament. From a bare reading of the concept and thrust of the policy document, it is quite obvious that the model as conceived by the GOI will lead to non-inclusive development. Smart Cities are being seen as meeting the aspirations of only India’s educated middle class.
The focus is on the implementation of technology for providing the middle classes with the instruments of online access for the use of public services. Smart technology (ICT) based solutions will require large investments from high technology vendors identified as originating from the United States coupled with the real estate builders from India. The likes of McKinsey Global Institute and Price Waterhouse Coopers have been roped in, to prepare the reports. Needless to say these investors will demand handsome returns on their investment.
While the users of these new technologies among the middle classes will pay only in part to provide for these returns, it is the Indian poor as a whole, who will be bearing the burden of public investment promised by the Modi Government. The poor will also pay for the Smart City projects in the form of displacement. The poor will pay through the loss of their existing homes to pave the way for the implementation of new projects of redevelopment and Greenfield development.
While the users of these new technologies among the middle classes will pay only in part to access these services in return, it is the Indian poor as a whole, who will bear the burden for the public investment promised by the Modi Government. The poor will also pay for the Smart City projects in the form of displacement. The poor will pay through the loss of their existing homes to pave the way for the implementation of new projects of redevelopment and Greenfield development.
The smart cities programme envisages the implementation of projects with the help of public private partnerships (PPPs). The land to be acquired for smart projects under these will affect not only slum dwellers but also the farmers living within peri-urban areas. The dream of 24×7 water supply of the middle classes will be realised but at what kind of social cost for the poor? The crucial issue of decent living (liveability) for the urban poor needs to be central to any development, including the envisaged Smart Cities concept. The resource requirements, including energy and its associated environmental impact –costs of an instrumented automated wired city —raise concerns on the front of environmental sustainability too.
The social exclusion of citizens lacking in information technology (IT) competence and categorising them as IT uneducated is also a serious issue that needs to be tackled up front. Smart Cities in the Indian socio-economic context mean dilution of the democratic right of the poor to the city itself, this time the exclusion will be routed through technology. The technology divide can be expected to deepen further through these burgeoning smart cities.
The last decade saw the initiation of e-governance programmes as part of the municipal reform agenda. Experience indicates that the poor have remained excluded from the e-platforms, and the municipalities have had to continue with the use of manual systems of capturing data and complaints in parallel with computerised systems.
Information available on the funding strategy for smart cities suggests that Rupees 7 lakh crores will be required over the next 20 years to provide for the infrastructure. Some estimates suggest that Rupees 35,000 crores per year will be required to support the Smart Cities Mission. However, it is not clear whether this amount covers on-off investments. Obviously private sector investment will be ad hoc and will further be driven solely by a profit motive. It is however not clear as yet who will have to pay for the maintenance of this infrastructure. Without a substantial share of funding coming from either the GOI and state governments, can we expect urban local bodies in poor financial health to pay for the maintenance of technology based infrastructure of Smart Cities into which the Modi Government plans to lock-in a huge amount of public investment?
Foreign and private capital will be mainly targeting investments that have a higher rate of return, and the expansion of public services to be implemented in a universal service framework will not come into existence. The guidelines and notes released do not provide information on this aspect at all.
Delivering good governance to all –Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas —implies that the government needs to pursue a universal approach on the providing of public services. If the Smart Cities by design are not targeted to undo the un-smart expansion of real estate into the wetlands and commons that served the cities’ drainage needs, it would not be incorrect to presume that we should be ready to face more urban (manmade) disasters of the likes of the Chennai floods (and earlier Mumbai, 2005) and the accompanying misery that these brought to their residents. All the cities, big and small, face the challenge of having to prepare themselves in advance to face extreme weather conditions that are expected to multiply.
Wireless technologies, sensor networks and digital (surveillance) will not make cities smart and sustainable. What Chennai saw in respect of the flooding of its own international airport will be repeated if we are not willing to undo un-smart expansion of the cities driven by corporate greed. Let us remember that the Chennai floods did not spare even the office of Infosys. How we can expect the IT infrastructure to be spared in Smart Cities?
If we are not willing to act against the big offenders among the high tech companies and real estate developers in respect of encroaching on the urban commons (land), then surely as a nation and its people we must discuss the Smart Cities mission threadbare, before-hand.
The Modi Government must be made to rethink the focus and emphasis behind this Mission of city development. While it appears that soot-boot ki sarkar wants to help its friends among the corporates, the opposition has a task cut out for itself. Opposition parties need to expose the undemocratic design of Smart cities. They should not allow the Modi Government to hide behind its self-acclaimed tag of smart governance. The process of development of Smart Cities is neither participatory nor transparent. It is an undemocratic project which needs to be opposed, tooth and nail.
(The author is the Convener National Working Group on Patent Laws; his email is dinesh.abrol@gmail.com)