HOW TO FREE THE ROADS WHICH WERE WIDENED AT AN EXORIBITANT COST FOR FREE FLOW OF TRAFFIC IN LUDHIANA AND ALL ITS TOWNS

THERE IS A NEED TO REMOVE THE ENCROACHMENTS ON ROADS WHICH ARE DUE TO THE ELECTRICITY POLES/ ELECTRIC TRANSFORMERS .
INITIAL PLANNING CATERED FOR all govt infrastructure including electric supply poles/ transformers/water supply lines/telephone cables/optic fibres cables/sewerage lines/storm water pipes to be fixed/erected over ground/under ground on the govt owned land which happened to be roads,streets and their sides.
Due to the development activities taken up by the Central, State and Municipal authorities over a period of time the land on both the sides of the streets/roads has been paved with bitumen, PCC/ inter locking /simple tiles in order to widen them. The electricity poles and transformers poles stand there only where ever they were before the widening as no funds were kept aside to re fix them at an appropriate place to ACTUALLY widen the road. The fund paucity also adds to such absence of detailed planning and cutting corners is also done by authorities to appease the present powers that be. This job can only be done by the POWERCOM authorities which on request from the Municipal Authorities will have to remove and re-erect these again so as to free the already widened space for use by public.

1. As of now in the absence of such planning and execution the very purpose of the widening these roads and streets stands defeated.
2. In fact it has become a boon for the encroachers to put their good next to these poles and rehriwala/farrhiwala to put their goods next to these poles.
3. Wrong Parking close to these places which are made safe due to these electric poles is another factor to add to the parking and traffic chaos of the city.
4. At night during poor visibility periods these poles have become the source of many ACCIDENTS many of them fatal and lot of persons have lost their lives due to this reason.

Basically what is the remedy?
The Municipal authorities have to forward a request to the POWERCOM authorities. The POWERCOM engineers will be too happy to redesign the power lines so that the poles are removed REPLACED BY more sturdy poles which have strong cantilever angle irons for power lines to pass overhead OR they could put the wires underground depending upon the area and cost involved. Similarly the POWERCOM ENGINEERS could design strong iron rails platforms cantilevered to place the transformers on top thus freeing the space underneath for free flow of traffic.
As a resident of Ludhiana I am writing this to build awareness so that space is made free from all hindrances and obstacles which restrict the traffic flow of traffic IN LUDHIANA CITY AND IT MANY NEIGHBOURING TOWNS . This is actually a technical problem which exits on ALL INDIA BASIS . Since it is state subject an advisory can be sent to all states by the concerned central authority.

LUDHIANA A CITY -WHERE GARBAGE IS COLLECTED IN THE MOST PRIMITIVE WAY

In the modern times when so much has been said and done in terms of technology about Solid Waste management. it is sad to note that very little has been done about the garbage collection methodology and to change the mind set of an average Indian whether rural or urban which remains the same as centuries ago that is garbage is untouchable and so are the GARBAGE COLLECTORS. Actually this should have been the FIRST STEP to the chain of solid waste management. I would like to take your support to bring a simple change in mind set of urban people who generate the garbage so that the garbage they produce becomes safe when handled by the poor garbage collectors who remain at the lowest rung of society in terms of esteem,poverty and health.This method will reduce urban odours,reduce health hazards to garbage collectors as well as provide enough bio-mass and material to produce vermicompost, methane as well raw fuel for gasifiers to produce electricity. In order to give the outside world that we are on road to become developed we need to pay attention to the mundane things such as how we keep our environment,our cities and villages clean.
This article is with regards sensitisation of all with regard to the sanitation, hygiene and health of my city –THE LUDHIANA CITY . The city's main and inside roads are dotted with the garbage containers lying on the roads .Sometimes they occupy the about one fourth of the width of the road. Why they are a nuisance the reasons are not far to seek -
· They obstruct traffic by their very placement
· They emanate obnoxious smells and bad odors thus causing AIR POLLUTION.
· They invite dogs and cattle to feed on them leading to further traffic congestion .
· Most being without lids invite the swarm of flies to feed on thus ARE A GREAT HELP in spreading contagious and infectious diseases
Now coming to there placement on these roads and streets why they were there at all?
The basic reason was there was no planning at all during the growth of the old city into a sprawling un manageable collection of dwellings surrounded by slums at least on all sides. In fact none in Municipal authorities bothered to plan so as to have a modern garbage collection system .None planned to cater from the paradigm shift from a heap collection system at one corner of the street to a modern scientific collection and disposal system.So these collection heaps were converted into a brick lined structures/metal containers obviously made on the government land. The latest cosmetic change to these open garbage dumps being the covering on all sides by advertisement hoardings thus earning revenue for the Municipal Corporation.
What needs to be done?
The MC needs to do the following
Remove these containers/ garbage dumps from all the roads/streets
Evolve a system to place them in structures either on the government land nearby or buy small plots to house them in such structures which keep the garbage shut out from all the nuisance mentioned above .
· One way of doing this is that direct garbage collection from home and straight away taking it to the dump by vehicles as is being done in developed countries.
· The second way is to house these collection points in the sealed container like cement / metallic structures which should have the following essentials

• an inlet which is metallic/PVC made
• rubber sealed spring loaded top loading one way doors
• inlets which should be fly proof, rainproof/animal proof .

Thus by doing this all the health ,hygiene and pollution causing reasons will be eliminated.
Actually more ignored a problem is the more immediate action when noticed/brought to notice – it deserves. It immediate action per se and coupled with planning other wise with such a huge population and unorganized garbage collection system LUDHIANA is waiting to repeat a SURAT plague repeat.

P.S Local MP Mr Manish Tewari took up the case with local Municipal authorities and they have contracted a private company for door to door collection of garbage . Let us pray it actually happens!

A SOFT BUT FIRM DEVELOPMENT SPEARHEAD TO TACKLE THE NAXAL PROBLEM

 Recently DG CRPF has made a statement saying that the Naxals are our own people, they are not from outside and CRPF is operating within the country and not facing the enemy as a border guarding force. So that is why we have to be selective in our action against Maoists. He meant to home on to the point that these are our own misguided people and thus the strategy to conduct operations against our own people has to be different. In a sense we keep talking to them to find solutions to their purported grievances while at the same time deal with their armed cadres firmly to contain and defeat them thus bringing them to the negotiating table when our   forces have an upper hand. This is normal strategy.

 Naxalism is not a challenge only for the present day governments at center and state  alone but for our entire polity.  There is no doubt that the tactics of these groups to grab maximum attention they resort to very barbaric tactics which are not only inhuman which deserve the maximum condemnation. It is well known that they have no respect for human and democratic values and they needed to tackle with all the might at our command. But at the same time since they are so well entrenched in their areas of operations it is obvious that naxals cannot be merely treated as a law and order problem alone. Therefore force is not the only answer but surely more concerted efforts are required to eradicate reasons for growth and proliferation of the naxalite ideology. The need is to hit at its support base and thus reduce the breeding grounds of their cadre. Taking this argument to an actionable scale is the key to solution and which may ultimate game changer in our fight against Naxals. The solution is initiating a new process which is dynamic and gets results in quick time frames. This solution has to be two pronged instead of not the usual  immediate hit back as hard response. The one of the two prongs will be an effort to eradicate the causes and build confidence in new programmes to solve problems faced  by locals  by being proactive all the time and the second prong will be to  contain and corner them so that they come to the negotiating table.

The major reason for the disgruntled elements to form these groups to militarily challenge the lawfully established and elected governments is our skewed development model of distributing development goodies inequitably. This model started by our leaders with all good intentions actually failed to be flexible enough to meet the emerging challenges. This model was never challenged or audited by independent bodies so as to bring its fault lines to anybody notice. If at all any auditing of the development model has been  done- it has been  actually done by the promoters of this very model hence there is  always a tendency not to find fault and let the  same system carry on with minor cosmetic changes. The system has been  allowed to continue because the persons operating have  a premeditated thought process that it is not required to  change the established system and let it  stay  thereby actually glossing over  all the noticed flaws and fissures. If some bold, intelligent and a person thinking beyond the immediate pay earning syndrome has tried to bring about the need to change the system radically he has always been   in minority.

Keeping this as the backdrop -What next should be our agenda action plan to meet the challenge thrown by Maoists? Everybody knows that this war against  our own people has to be waged not for their bodies but for their  hearts and minds. Time has now come to understand the disparity of distribution of development spectrum or the development sunshine across the country. Most naxalite affected areas are basically those in which there has been development drought resulting in glaring disparity and deficiency when compared with developed areas of our country. These areas lack in basic infrastructure of education, health and communications. They are  totally devoid of any development activity therefore they breed contempt against the state as local people  perceive that their areas are being constantly exploited by the state by mining and tapping of the rich mineral resources while giving nothing or very little to them in return in form of development.

Time has now come to dump the old development model and look for a new model or a process. We need to formulate and initiate this new model post haste. The first step which needs to start the process is to immediately bring excellent governance to the people who have been deprived of it from long.

As most of these areas are remote time has now come to reverse the present  model and process of development. In the present model the administration is delivered from already developed cities and towns as these provide the cushy places for the state administrative echelons to operate from.

To achieve this the next logical step is to gather voluntary human resource in addition to one which is already posted in these areas. This human resource has to be enthusiastic, morally upright, hard working and which is ready to take calculated risk. This can be done by  asking  for volunteers pan INDIA from amongst all India services like IAS ,IPS and allied services  to serve in these affected states thus not limiting the numbers which want to participate in this national effort which otherwise would have been limited to the  cadres of these affected states only. We can ask volunteers who are willing especially from amongst young technical from  IIT’s  and non technical educated graduate/post graduates from management institutes like  IIM’s and other top ranking management institutes who are willing to be  part of this process. These persons so selected can be on contract to be  later absorbed in the services depending upon their merit, dedication, application of mind , results and delivery of programs. Mind you there are thousands educated youth unemployed wanting to participate in this honorable national task with honesty. Let us be optimistic in assuming that our youth are interested  and willing to take risks while participating in the process of  in national building . Let the government also ask volunteers from military and corporate world who would be willing to participate in this process of re-establishing the new development model in these difficult areas. As this model has to be established, run and settled in the most difficult terrain areas, interiors of jungles, inaccessible and remote areas to provide good governance it will not be very easy or a cushy job. We are sure that we still have 20% people from the above mentioned human resources who have the honesty and intellect to be the harbingers of this change while ushering in this new model. Next we will need to give administrative and judicial powers to the cutting edge cadres of this change.  Also  they need to be provided with basic amenities and incentives to build motivation and morale amongst  these volunteers  need to operate and perform in very harsh conditions .  

 THE NEW MODEL

It will be far wiser to spend and establish infrastructure in these remote places than spend on raising more para - military battalions which actually will be a wasteful expenditure without yielding the desired results. It is of no use raising armed battalions without removing the causes which propel, breed and encourage the maoist/ naxal activities and leading to the vicious cycle of  training para military cadres-encounters- training more cadres and more encounters and cadre training.

Now let us look at the scenario which is there . There are what are called remote areas - to simply put these remote areas are places which are far removed in time, distance and communications of all types from already developed areas . These remote areas are lacking in administrative, judicial and legal support infrastructure and other amenities which are otherwise is  being enjoyed by residents of the developed areas .

Time has now come actually to leave the well established administrative set ups in the developed areas in the hands of junior officials. This can be done because in these developed areas they have well established executive, judicial and legislative systems .In these seats of power at district/tehsil level the government be it central or state has already put lot of development funds to provide all types of amenities. The people of these areas are generally educated, well versed and more aware of their rights and they have access to judicial remedies against repression like RTI. But such is not the case with the residents of the  remote areas.

The time has now come for the top echelons of the district/tehsil officials to go and establish their new offices in midst of the remote places to provide just and fast administrative succor to the so far deprived masses. In doing so the state will be cutting the root of the naxalite propaganda tree which thrives on such lines like that there is no government representative to listen and solve your problems or the government in the centre/state is not sincere in solving your problems etc. In this there will be a need to allocate extra funds for development in the hands of the newly formed task force which should honestly spend these funds to kick start and speed up the development process avoiding typical red tape delays.We need to make a blue print and act on it fast before more and more districts of our country come under the category of disturbed areas.

TIME HAS COME TO MAKE THE AREAS TERMED "REMOTE" BECOME AS “NEAREST" BY PROVIDING ALL THE BASIC AMENITIES, INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS . All this is achievable because the systems to establish these facilities have become very fast, sure and very developed due to scientific innovations as compared to the methods and facilities available when we started our development journey six decades back. We need to dovetail these new methods and processes in our new development model for faster , surer and timely delivery of these in these hitherto fore deprived and remote areas.

This requires prompt action as delay to deliver development models on part of administrative authorities normally leads to suspecting governments intentions. The basic focus should be to bring in programmes to act on the heart and minds of people which are fertile grounds for sowing the seeds of naxalism or otherwise. Speedy and transparent actions with good intentions will be the essence of this model.

This has to be done on a war footing as actually we are fighting a war where we are trying to just limit or eradicate a well established thought process. This new model will provide tools for amelioration of the genuine grievances of the area populace and thus these actions will deprive this naxal propaganda machine the reasons of the very being or basis of the outlawed organisation.

The need is to make the new district headquarters in remote and inaccessible areas permanent cannot be overemphasized. This has to be done so that people here do not view these as methods which are temporary and emergency/knee jerk reactions to naxal menace but they should actually believe in the redesigned model which has been customised to address their area's specific needs rather than a template method which is otherwise the case in all our development models.

What will be the most important element of this EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of the earlier development model will be the reversal of present model TO MAKE THESE remote areas into the BEEHIVES  of development activity and centers of excellent governance. In addition of course will be the WILL ,COURAGE, PERSONAL COMMITMENT AND MORALE OF THE CHANGE MAKERS of these volunteers.

As this model actually will be the model of future so that country ‘s growth process is equality driven,fair and just. We need this because in our country which has millions who are still illiterate, poor,living in remote/faraway places , living in tribes and people dependent on jungle for their livelihood . This model will cater to the needs of these deprived people who have lost the will to raise their voice against the atrocities perpetuated on them by the system as well as by the their so called protectors from the abusive system - the politicians and bureaucrats.

Today there are naxals/ Maoists’ in some areas tomorrow there will be some others who are dissatisfied . What we need to do is to set our own house in order and do it fastest before it is too late. As pointed out by evidence that Pakistan supplied or procured weapons are with naxals and this goes on to prove our charge that there are elements in Pakistan who in a clandestine manner are supporting our home grown insurgencies. All the above entails that we start the new process on an emergency basis and quickly as if we have to do something before an expiry date! 

Lt Col (Retd) Jasjit Singh Gill

[email protected]

09872458161

43 Defence Colony

B R S Nagar

Ludhiana 141012

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