Smart Srinagar: Citizen, Govt & Tech

Ar. Ghulam Hassan Mir

“Smart” is a buzz word from the last few years. In order to make any place smarter with better quality of life, it has to have three essential components- sensible citizens, good governance and use-friendly technology. To accomplish, we need political statespersons, able/hardworking and dedicated officers, efficient job-oriented entrepreneurial private sector and good citizens.
Where is the sensible and smart citizen of Srinagar? Smartness is not characterized by someone’s richness. A smart citizen would have civic sense, be law abiding, caring not only for himself but others too, conscious of environmental issues facing the city, supporting developmental rights and easement rights of others, helping people in distress, displaying cleverness rather than cunningness, knowledgeable rather than literate or semi-literate, humane rather than just human etc. The smart citizen would abide by laws of the time, honour the instructions from the administration from time to time, be a part and parcel of the governing system rather than of his own selfishness, be adoptive to new practices and adopts technology by learning it. The smart citizen would neither litter nor make city dirty. There is a need for behavioural and attitudinal changes with new information which helps to make city clean and green. Every person or a family have not only to keep their houses clean from inside but even surroundings have to be cleaner. The family as a whole have to conserve water and save energy by minimizing leakages and pilferages. It is sad when a bulb is on throughout day in a verandah or balcony of a house. No city would be smart without a responsible and responsive citizenship and no city would be successful without citizen’s ownership and belonging. Leave aside government both state and central, city belongs to you and it is because of you, there is a city and without you, the place is meaningless. City is made up of people, otherwise it could be just a barren piece of land which may or may not be fruitful. City belongs to both rich and poor and its inclusiveness depends on mutual relationship and interdependence. Cities are mostly cosmopolitan in nature, diverse culturally, socially and economically. Citizens, therefore, cannot absolve themselves of the wrongs happening in the city and believe me, in a free city, government cannot correct wrongs carried out individually or collectively by citizens. Government has a limited role, where government is the limit, not the sky. Let me also tell you that citizens of Srinagar have taken the city and it’s rights for granted and misused or abused the position, they enjoy as citizens. The whole city is messed up due to lawlessness of its citizens from all angles of life support system. Srinagar is in kiotic mode where kios, confusion and conflict is the normal way. The whole city is hostile to itself because of its citizens. Encroachment has become a basic right by all possible means. If there are no ready means, citizens would find, discover or invent one. Rather people go high in mood and temperament, if they succeed in usurping government land, roads/ streets/ lanes and footpaths- which are essential for efficient circulation and mobility. These are encroached in broad daylight. The water bodies- rivers, nallahs/streams, sars/swamps and wetlands have been squeezed & shrunk due to illegal encroachment and unauthorized constructions. Encroachment is a value-based common trait among citizens without classification (rich, poor, urban, rural or race/religion and ethnicity or caste) and humiliation. It only depends who gets a chance. Even the religious structures fail the litmus test of law abidance. The encroachments have created negative impact on the urban environment/ecology and city climate. City generates its own climate which has regional and state level implications as it behaves like a “heat engine” which needs to be understood holistically by citizens. The way greed has taken over, it seems as the doomsday is just tomorrow and everyone is ready to usurp all in one go. The day, people pause and think that the city belongs to them, smartness will definitely be a norm and not a fashion and we may not need to call it smart but people’s city.
Government by its very nature is of the people, by the people and for the people because some chosen ones from the general public enter into government service and that too, when democracy prevails in a country through the medium of election and selection. Government is not of aliens (to say the least) but the writ of government needs further boost based on people-oriented issues. There is nothing like successful or failed government but it could be of bad or good governance. Good governance includes active participation of the people in its programmes and policies. Nothing is thrust upon people. Good governance could also mean smart government and by smart, it must be understood that government should have smart officers and officials with a mind-set of public service. Service can be both- individual oriented and public friendly with or without vested interest. Smart officer has a mind of mindfulness for business of the government. Smart officer/official must be knowledgeable, skilful, transparent having wisdom to improve quality of life of people and conserve sustainability of places through ecological and environmental balancing. In terms of social sustainability, economic sustainability and environmental sustainability for society or a place, the environmental and ecological sustainability tops the agenda on priority. With environmental degradation or plague, a community can vanish altogether. The community development and place making are two important tools for government to succeed. All communities and places without any bias need equal and equitable balance of development. Equity is more positive. The needs of men and women, Children and youth, young and old, strong and specially-abled persons are not equal but have to be equitable encompassing inclusiveness and diversity. People normally misunderstand the terms as no two persons or places are equal. Similarly, the new development of zero-developed area or underdeveloped place could be positive or negative. A negative development has negative outcomes. Positive development would normally mean sustainable development. The development could also be long-term with short-run benefits or short-term with long run benefits or both in a mix. It is the choice and wisdom of the government based on problem study, policy making and decision formulation. In a disaster scenario- rescue, relief and rehabilitation are short term with short-run benefits and reconstruction/ rehabilitation /recovery with long-term goals. Sometimes wrong policies get a shot and are abandoned halfway putting a strain on financial resources. The reason being that problem had either not been studied properly with all its cost-benefit analysis including its public (social & cultural cost) usefulness or environmental impact or health impact. The Smart officer may be specialist in one field but would have over-reaching professional awareness/knowledge of other associated subjects/fields which also play vital role in the formulation or implementation of the project proposal. Each gazetted cadre officer should be research-oriented having life-long learning attitude. There is a difference between quick disposal and wrong disposal. No two wrongs make a right. The officer must not only dispose quickly but correctly too. The number of grievances/ court cases/ disputes would speak volumes about the efficiency of a system. I believe that every smart officer must have a sense of natural justice. The unjust officer of the government makes a direct impact on negative outcomes. The concept of justice, rights and right based approach are highly required within government system. The neutrality of justice/ rights of equality and equity and equitable development need to be understood by each functionary of the city government if we have to make our city smart. The resources whether natural or man-made require to be provided on social justice system and spatial justice pattern for people and places.
Technology could be both smart and obsolete. Mind it, technology change is very rapid and growing. It has created a common linkage (forward & backward) and platform between citizens and government. Citizens could use smart technology to access government services and amenities. Smart technology has to be citizen-friendly and service-friendly. Almost all the technology is power based and where is the guarantee & warranty for 24x7 power supply? Once the chain of basic services is intact in a city like water supply, power, solid waste collection, public transportation, public distribution, then use of technology could enhance quality of life and comfort. The technology could save time, energy and off course money if properly used and also increases efficiency in work culture. However, this may not be true all the time. Technology has negative aspects or outcomes too. Cybercrime, hacking and suicide are real not virtual. People these days seem to be busy on whatsapp, twitter and face book than in real life. Social media has technically speaking replaced traditional forms of social gatherings and customs. Lively life in a way has come standstill. The world has got squeezed just in your palm top and each information is accessible on finger tips. Smart city is data driven, feedback both incoming & outgoing. Sensors are futuristic. Accessibility has reduced distance and changed market scenario. Online shopping, home cinema, working from home, virtual teaching pedagogy has tremendous impact on the use of land and mobility. In a scenario, where ever growing population takes place amid land scarcity like a city, the use of smart technology helps in saving land thereby making places or houses affordable. Do we really need so many shopping malls or centres? if online shopping is more fruitful, trust-worthy and successful. We may not need cinema halls in future seeing the size of modern TV gadgets. If virtual class rooms become a reality, schools will be no more. If people start working from homes, many offices would be done away. This was proved during Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. This would ultimately put less pressure on roads, reduce traffic jams, congestion and in overall save land (a scarce natural resource for every city). This would help in more affordable housing and people would need more recreational spaces for outing and physical fitness. A new pattern of social life would emerge, with new economy and market, recreational amenities like parks/gardens, swimming pools, playgrounds and sports activities would take a front seat in the urban scenario. Urban Planning and development would have to be thought out in a different manner. Land use strategies would change drastically. Public policy making (not one-way), planning & designing, project formulation, management, monitoring and evaluation cannot be done without involving professionals with high skills.
Only a synergy between smart citizen and good government through the use of smart technology could alter the city landscape in future. As of now, what we face- selfishness/greed is the driving factor for citizen insensitivity, electo-vision for political landscape (temporary and adhoc), officio-vision (upto next transfer only), techno-vision of imported or manipulated technology without indigenous character for local use. The smart technology would also check the manual wrongdoings of a citizen which uptill now was a herculean task for field agencies and would also figure out the (in) efficiency of system. Smart city is inclusive encompassing information & communication technology (ICT), innovative city governance/finance, sustainable development, minimum basic services, efficient public distribution system, urban disaster risk reduction and resilience, carbon reduction and climate change, energy efficiency/green technology, urban mobility with non-motorized transport, architectural heritage conservation and scenic vista preservation, data collection, management and feedback, monitoring and evaluation of city projects etc. All projects must go through the prism of urban environmental management, urban disaster risk reduction, suitability & feasibility, demand & cost-benefit analysis, financial risk analysis. The problem here would be that uncertainty and conflict cannot be put aside completely. The policy making , planning and designing stage of projects/schemes and programmes should take care of these aspects as our work culture, funding and political climate are abnormal. Let no body be under a wrong impression that inefficiency of citizens and government officers would not impact the efficiency of the services under smart city initiatives. Smart city mission definitely would change the complete urban scene of Srinagar. It would enhance quality of life of every citizen and I think this is the opportunity to take full advantage of, if we want Srinagar to come on the global scene with better quality of life. We already lost the earlier one –time opportunity through Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to upgrade the city on basic needs. This time, it will not be good on our part to miss the bus!! The sooner, we understand, the better it is for all of us.

The writer is presently Joint Commissioner Planning, Srinagar Municipal Corporation. He was awarded full fellowship/scholarship by i) Ford Foundation, USA ii) G20 Global Leadership Program, South Korea and iii) ISOCARP/UN-Habitat, Palestine. He can be reached at ghulam516@gmail.com.