I believe that cities are the vehicles of change in a country. Over the human history, every major societal change happened through cities. So, if you have to change India, we have to change cities. And that is only possible if the citizens participate in the change of the city. Therefore, it is important to build institutions where people can participate.
There are many areas where work needs to be done in our city. Pune has a significant problem of the disposal of solid waste. We have to work out a solution whereby we can improve the cleanliness of the city. Janwani has been doing significant work in this area for the last three-four years. They are using the wet and dry garbage for recycling. This important initiative needs to be carried out in the whole city. Currently, we are working with 10 lakh people but we have almost 40 lakh to cover yet.
The second area where Pune needs to do a lot of work is the traffic and transportation. We have to see how can we increase the usage of public transportation and non-motorised transportation like bicycles. Here, citizens need to take on responsibility.
The third thing is we have to decide how our city should look like. And for that, we need a plan not only at the city level, but also at ward levels. How can we transform JM Road or Baner so that we create more public spaces or an area where people can congregate, sit and talk to each other? This depends on the set of rules which will define the structure of the city.
The very critical part is to improve the governance of the city e.g. knowing where the city’s money is being spent. Therefore, Janwani comes out with simplified versions of PMC’s budgets. Finally, we have to increase the participation of people in the budget making for the city.
What we also need to do is increase the quality of municipal schools in the city. It is a significant problem because children even in middle school do not have basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. It is these children who will need employment in the years to come.
Ravi Pandit
Chairman & Group CEO, KPIT Technologies Ltd
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