The number of times we have heard the Maharashtra government promising to turn Mumbai into Shanghai is, I guess, higher than the number of times we have seen India TV discussing the end of the world in 2012! And how many of us actually expect the government to deliver on its promise? Not many actually. It is like expecting Ashish Nehra to win a match for India in the last over! (I know the non-existing fans of Ashish Nehra will give the example of his match-winning performance against England, but that happened at a time when Homo etrectus inhabited the Narmada valley or before that!). Agreed, criticizing Ashish Nehra is not the topic of discussion here and anyways one can write a treatise doing just that!
Coming back to the main story, we were just discussing the problem of slums in Mumbai as to how it spreading like a virus (by the way the computer virus is forty years old now and we wish it a very happy birthday) and not getting solved. At the same time we hear news of corrupt politicians involved in fraud land deals all over India so you can imagine the chances of it actually happening. But I do have a suggestion though: I am sure there many such “Adarsh” societies out there in India. Our job is to find them and punish the corrupt the officials. But I just do not understand the idea of demolishing such illegal structures as it will only lead to more costs, monetary as well as environmental. And that is where the solution comes into picture: we should do what Venezuela did in 1994 when its economy suffered a huge blow and the investors ran away from the real estate. There was one 45-storey building on verge of completion when this happened, instead of demolishing it Hugo Chavez decided to let the slum dwellers occupy it! And mind you it was supposed to be eighth tallest building in Latin America at that time and also one of the most luxurious in terms of amenities. Today there are people living in it and they have also formed a society to which they contribute money for overall maintenance of the building and it is, according to my understanding, tallest slums in the world!
So why not have something of this kind here as well? I know it is very illogical suggestion but if you thing from your heart it is dillogical! Very bad joke to end the post!
Coming back to the main story, we were just discussing the problem of slums in Mumbai as to how it spreading like a virus (by the way the computer virus is forty years old now and we wish it a very happy birthday) and not getting solved. At the same time we hear news of corrupt politicians involved in fraud land deals all over India so you can imagine the chances of it actually happening. But I do have a suggestion though: I am sure there many such “Adarsh” societies out there in India. Our job is to find them and punish the corrupt the officials. But I just do not understand the idea of demolishing such illegal structures as it will only lead to more costs, monetary as well as environmental. And that is where the solution comes into picture: we should do what Venezuela did in 1994 when its economy suffered a huge blow and the investors ran away from the real estate. There was one 45-storey building on verge of completion when this happened, instead of demolishing it Hugo Chavez decided to let the slum dwellers occupy it! And mind you it was supposed to be eighth tallest building in Latin America at that time and also one of the most luxurious in terms of amenities. Today there are people living in it and they have also formed a society to which they contribute money for overall maintenance of the building and it is, according to my understanding, tallest slums in the world!
So why not have something of this kind here as well? I know it is very illogical suggestion but if you thing from your heart it is dillogical! Very bad joke to end the post!
Wow, I didn't know that about Venezuela..
ReplyDeleteAs far as using the same concept in Mumbai is concerned, there are some issues. If this is accepted, everyone will prefer being a begger as the real estate prices are at an all-time high (you know it better :))
A very dillogical blog buddy :)