Dear Mahesh,
The only programs that brought any of kind of community based
development are the ones that promoted cleanliness and janmabhoomi in
the past. Now there are no more. Now, the roads are filled with trash
again compared to my visits over few years ago.
I participated in Janmabhoomi programme through a school building
construction. During this excercise, i saw some community involvement
through educational committee and others. Now, it seems like that there
is no such thing. I am not feeling that the local communities are
playing any kind of role in building their infrastructure. Now,
everybody seems to be feeling exactly like the way they used to feel
several years ago, i.e., pay and get your work done. So, bribes have
come in to play at all levels. It is amazing to see how quickly the
system can go backwards.
Due to various reasons, Indian society never had community undertakings
(even though there are several co-operative societies). In any case,
Andhra is definetely going backwards in that sense of communities.
In any case, we as a group could suggest a blueprint solution for one or
two infrastructural problem then we will be doing the right thing. We
definetely need a momentum on societal and communal awareness aspects
(like u pointed) but need even better ways (incentives such as
Janmabhoomi) in which communities are rewarded for implementing
solutions according some sort of blueprint.
We need a revolution (and agin through a widely publicized blueprint) on
how the development should take place in terms of drinking water, living
conditions etc. Many towns and cities are what i consider as non-livable
irrespective of the fact that the real estate prices are sky high.
Poverty is a terrible thing to have in our country at this time after so
much revolution has taken place in terms of education and communications
etc. Industrial revolution seems to be the only answer and irigation can
only help maintain the poverty. This is because several families have
1-2 acres of land. It seems like several govt. schemes seem to help
maintain poverty. This is horrible under the disguise of socialistic
schemes.
I took a drive around cyberabad (it seems like a third city). This has
been the most pleasant experience that i will cherish for a long time.
One must go here atleast once just to see how development could take
place..
Mahendra
Mahendra.
Mahendra K. Sunkara, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering
http://www.cvd.louisville.edu
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292 (use 40208 for fedex)
(502) 852-1558(ph)
(502) 852-6355(fax)
502-457-4178(cell)
>>> mahesh.gorle@gmail.com 12/12/05 2:08 PM >>>
Dear Mahendra,
That must be a quite an interesting trip you are having there.
I and most of our fellow members in the group understand the
infrastructural
deficiencies in India. You did articulate them in a preferential order.
What I am little more interested to know from your experience is about
the
people at various places. How are the people contributing for their
betterment as well as the fellow citizens.
Irrespective of any economic groups, all seem to be struggling for
existence. They seem to be more selfish and grab as much as they could
like
there is no tomorrow.
I observed this in all walks of life. Please understand my point that I
am
not criticizing, but, feeling concerned. The society pool includes me
and my
friends and family too.
In the end, I think that we should be doing some thing to educate people
in
their responsibility in the citizenry activities and add moral
implications
for things they do.
We should be sending out the kids from the schools to make a better
living
with knowledge than just competing spirit to grab a bigger pie.
Thanks,
Mahesh
On 12/12/05, Mahendra K Sunkara <mahendra@louisville.edu> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Chandu and others,
>
> I am currently travelling around India (villages in Andhra and
Rajastan
> etc..). I travelled to Jaipur from Delhi by car. The driver took me to
> his house near Haryana/Rajastan border just to show his house. It was
> around 7 pm. This village seemed very similar to our villages but with
> an exception, i.e., the entire village was dark. He said that nobody
has
> electric connections. The only connections were the ones done
illegally.
> On the other hand, the haryana side seemed to be brightly lit and very
> developed due to huge amount of industrial developments.
>
> I went to villages in Andhra as well. Well, the villages in Andhra
seem
> to be by far the most developed in terms of roads, electricity, TV. As
> far as water supplies is concerned, every village has a different
story
> - Some villages near sea coast seem to have gotten salty underground
> water until last year due to drought before. The rains during this
year
> seem to have made the underground water fresh. Other villages in other
> parts were running out of underground water supplies. The rains again
> seem to help. This seems to be the most important concern, i.e., clean
> water for drinking purposes seem to be long term infrastructural
concern
> throughout Andhra irrespective of the region. Now, the major cities
seem
> to be able to deal with this problem but the villages seem to suffer.
>
> What we should be really thinking is the following:
>
> What infrastructural developments should we be thinking about? For
> example, think about the following:
>
> 1. Roads, electricity, communications (these seem to be OK for time
> being except that we still need to improve the roads infrastructure,
> communications through cell phone and TV seem to be by far the best
> development).
>
> 2. Drinking water (this seems to vary most from a region to a region).
> Needs a better solution.
>
> 3. Water for irrigation (This needs planning at Center, i.e., linking
> rivers and providing some sort of uniform policy across the regions).
> Needs better solutions..The corporate farmers seem to be doing well
> irrespective of the region. The small farmers cannot afford to live
off
> the farming irrespective of the incentives. The prices of things like
> vegetables, cooking oil and other items seem to be so high that it is
> just too difficult to manage.
>
> 4. Handling garbage, waster water treatment and watershed planning (to
> avoid floods with rains) - There seem to be a lot of improvement in
> cities like Hyd, Vizag but not existent in municipalities and
> panchayats.
>
> 5. First responder facilities - This is almost non-existent except for
> major cities.
>
> etc.. etc..
>
> I also had an interesting conversation with a guy that takes care of
> USAID program in India. This program helps setup agri related
policies
> and businesses in India and he seemed to have a total negative feeling
> towards current administration in AP regarding the infrastructural
> vision for the state..
>
> I felt bad about the towns like Gudivada after looking at Vijayawada.
> So, it is almost impossible to shrug off the regional imbalances until
> we do systematic infrastructural improvements throughout corporations,
> muncipalities and panchayats with one set of blue prints and that too
> quickly. We all should be searching for solutions rather than
bickering
> over regions.
>
> If anybody has a solution or a suggestion on the infrastructural
> improvement plans for any one of them then let us brainstorm and
resolve
> it and suggest it to the appropriate section of the government. I can
> reach both YSR and CBN if needed.
>
> Mahendra.
>
>
> Mahendra K. Sunkara, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering
> http://www.cvd.louisville.edu
> University of Louisville
> Louisville, KY 40292 (use 40208 for fedex)
> (502) 852-1558(ph)
> (502) 852-6355(fax)
> 502-457-4178(cell)
> >>> srchandu@gmail.com 12/12/05 9:46 AM >>>
>
> Folks,
>
> This weekend has seen some unfortunate and personally focussed
> messages.
> They are unfortunate as we wasted our intellectual bandwidth by
> focussing on individuals and what they did or did not do.
>
> When anyone, more specifically one of our members, did some good, no
> matter how big or small that deed is, we should commend him/her. I
> think what Satish did during Tsunami disaster was commendable. The
> spririt of helping others deserves our appreciation. There may be some
> confusion about who should get the qudos. My thinking on this is,
> should it matter?
>
> Even if there is some sense that there may be some exaggeration, does
> it matter? Of all, this group is the least equipped to be the police.
> Still, I have no problem expressing my appreciation to such
> individuals, companies, groups or whoever. I hope the group sees the
> merit of this stand. I strongly believe in the philosophy of
appreciate
> publicly and correct the mistakes in private, if any.
>
> The suggestions for corrections are best served if taken off line and
> in a one on one fashion, especially when we know the individuals.
>
> I request all members to be judicious in their langauge and how they
> put forward their arguments. We should either learn, teach or discuss
> the merits for overall good. Other intentions should be kept private.
>
> As the moderator, I do have the right to employ my judgement and at
> times I am likely to be off guard. I bank on your judgement equally.
>
> There are many issues of import that affect all us and our people. I
> thank all of our members who spend their time thinking about them,
> writing about them and reading them to put up spirited and
constructive
> arguments. These discussions have taught me a great deal and I hope
you
> did find some useful too.
>
> Thanks for hanging in there! Keep the discussions going!!
>
> Regards,
> Chandu
>
>
>
No comments:
Post a Comment