Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time: Letter opposing 33% Increase dispatched to CM & Muni Commr with 14 Signatures

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Letter opposing 33% Increase dispatched to CM & Muni Commr with 14 Signatures

Activist G R Vora today dispatched the below letter to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar by Vichare Courier receipt no. 13806. It was supported by 14 signatures of activists from around the city, whose names & contact details are given at the bottom of the letter.

Regards,

Krish

98215 88114

27th October 2011

Mr Prithviraj Chavan,

Chief Minister of Maharashtra,

Mantralaya, Madame Cama Road,

Mumbai 400032

33% Increase in FSI will congest this city, destroy the last shreds of our quality of life

Dear Sir,

We note with alarm that you have cleared a proposal for a 33% increase in floor space index, letting builders put up taller buildings, or add floors to existing projects. The dailies say that you believe that the existing infrastructure can support this extra 33%. (One news item:http://tinyurl.com/33-Extra-FSI ) Your advisors seem to have told you that this increase in FSI is good for Mumbai's people, as the premium earned from the FSI will help you raise more funds for infrastructure projects, to ultimately improve the quality of life.

Sir, you have been wrongly advised. Allowing further vertical growth of this city will increase the density of human and vehicle population, thereby increasing congestion at ground level. You cannot improve quality of life by increasing congestion, no matter what clever arguments are used to justify it. The only beneficiaries of your decision, Sir, will be builders and their investors.

Mumbai has the about one-tenth of the minimum per capita open space that a city should have. Like fresh air and water, open spaces are a key requirement for physical and mental health. Protecting open spaces is a constitutional duty of your government, as it is part of our fundamental right to life and liberty. You cannot barter away our life and liberty for raising government revenues.

Sir, space cannot be created; it is limited and non-renewable, and consuming the existing space drastically reduces our quality of life. This loss cannot be compensated by any other infrastructure.

Although traffic flyovers, foot over bridges (FOBs) and other facilities have been built in recent years, the quality of life is deteriorating alarmingly. Footpaths, shop frontages, usable road margins, recreation grounds and the compounds of private buildings are vanishing under the pressure of increasing numbers of people, private vehicles, hawkers, encroachers and the debris of construction works. Sir, we cannot walk and breathe!

UP-MARKET AREAS WHERE LIFE IS HELL FOR MUMBAI'S CITIZENS:

1) SOUTH MUMBAI NEIGHBOURHOODS. The neighbourhood of CM's bungalow, Malabar Hill, is possibly the best in the city, where residents enjoy non-stop water supply and power supply. But the compounds, garages and roads are overflowing with parked cars. There are barely any useable footpaths. The residential buildings are overflowing with full time domestic helpers and drivers, who sleep in the corridors and garages. Children cannot even walk unescorted outside their compounds, and have no space to play inside their compounds. There is no space for senior citizens to take a stroll or sit on benches. The story is the same in the posh areas of Colaba and Marine Lines. Life in Marine Lines is tolerable only because of its nearness to the Marine Drive promenade, but constant traffic noise from Marine Drive drains the health and sanity of people living there. Traffic jams happen daily in all these places. Sir, is this what your advisors term as adequate infrastructure? Is this the benchmark for upgrading the rest of Mumbai? If so, the future is bleak indeed.

2) WESTERN SUBURBS. Bandra West and Andheri West are areas where many celebrities live and work. Today, these places are commuters' nightmares, even at non-peak hours.

3) EASTERN SUBURBS. Not so long ago, Ghatkopar and Chembur used to be considered good residential neighbourhoods. Today, the street conditions are horrible, and even non-peak traffic crawls slower than a walking person.

INADEQUATE INFRASTRUCTURE IS THE NORM IN MUMBAI:

a) ROADSIDES & FOOT OVERBRIDGES. Sir, throughout the city and suburbs, elderly persons and children cannot even walk by the side of the roads, and they cannot cross the roads. Over 90 per cent of the roads have no footpaths or even decent road margins. Many FOBs are two or three storey's high, which many senior citizens are unable to climb. Senior citizens and people with disabilities are forced to travel by private vehicles or stay at home.

b) PUBLIC TRANSPORT – BUSES AND RAILWAYS. Getting into public transport at peak hours is like wrestling, which only able-bodied persons can do. The savage conditions in which people are forced to travel are unacceptable, even by third-world country standards. Senior citizens are unable to use even the bus-stops and suburban railway stations, leave alone the buses and trains!

c) WATER SUPPLY & POWER. Sir, the government is unable to even provide sufficient water to existing residents of Mumbai. Thousands of buildings are at the mercy of the water-tanker lobby and bottled water suppliers. Mumbai enjoys 24 x 7 power supply, only because you are unduly depriving other towns and villages of Maharashtra. We don't have sufficient power and water supply for diversion to construction activity. Also, the people living and working in newly constructed buildings will add to the existing demand for power and water. This is unacceptable!

Sir, the builder lobby and their friends in the establishment are created twisted justifications for further congesting our city, for their own profits. Please do not be taken in by such false reasoning.

THE BOTTOMLINE IS:

A. INCREASE THE AVAILABILITY OF CLEAN AND CLEAR SPACES for walking, bicycling, crossing roads, playing and other activities for a good quality of life. No more promises; do it now!

B. ENSURE THAT PUBLIC TRANSPORT IS ACCESSIBLE TO EVERY CITIZEN, especially those who are aged and physically challenged, at all hours. No more promises; do it now!

C. UNTIL YOU MAKE PROGRESS ON THE ABOVE TWO PARAMETERS, please halt construction activities in Mumbai city and suburbs. No more promises; do it now!

Yours sincerely,

1. Anil Galgali, RTI activist, Mumbai. (Cell : 9820130074) ;

2. Ms Hema Sampat, NGO - BCAS, Kalbadevi Road, Mumbai – 400002. (Cell : 9820508140 ) ;

3. Mr Santosh P Nargund, NGO Rashtrotthan Sankalp,, Bangalore – 560082. (Cell : 9916135836) ;

4. Mr Rajan Mehrotra, Andheri W, Mumbai. (Cell : 9820237464) ;

5. Mr Cypriano J Saldanha, Andheri W, Mumbai. (Cell : 9870704041) ;

6. Mr Pradeep Nair, Mumbai. ( E-mail : nairpg64@yahoo.co.in ) ;

7. Mr Naveen Fernandes, Kalina, Mumbai. (Cell : 9322203942) ;

8. Mr Ravi Srivastava, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai – 410210. (Cell : 9820183924) ;

9. Mr Nandan Vaidya, Mumbai ( E-mail : nandan.reddevilz@gmail.com) ;

10. Mr Duggirala Pawan, ( E-mail : pawanrao5693@gmail.com Cell : 969842729 ) ;