Vadodara lacks professionals, facilities to run town planning department

By Rohit Prajapati*
A city or an urban area is a dynamic entity comprising of many systems working together. All progressive cities across the world, who boasts of high quality of life for its citizens, have effective planning or other similar departments comprising of a team of diverse, multidisciplinary qualified experts from the field built environments who help shape and translate the city’s visions into successful implementable projects. In Vadodara, while there are many officials who talk about visions and lofty goals for the city to compete with other world class cities, the city lacks both, necessary facilities for effectively running a good planning department as well as qualified professionals to take these visions to fruition.
Various government authorities are undertaking many initiatives, like the so-called Smart City Project , Vishwamitri Riverfront Development Project, Mission Million Trees, beautification of urban water bodies (lakes), City Square, Ring Roads, Slum Rehabilitation, etc. But there is neither sync nor rhyme (a common guiding vision) among them. They seem like ego trips conceived by individuals, running in different directions, creating chaos in the city, and leaving the city in a state of disrepair.
The execution of these projects is done by unqualified or under qualified staff who have little or no expertise related to the complex subjects they are asked to deal with. The current status of the case against Vishwamitri River Front Development Project and the many interim orders, including stay orders, are a testimony to and offer a prominent example of the unplanned and sorry state of affairs.
Vadodara has not had a Town Planner since 2005 and the defunct Town Planning Department has little or no connection with the other Departments like Futuristic Planning Cell, Special Project Vehicles for the Vishwamitri River, Smart City, etc. Shockingly and surprisingly all the projects are outsourced to private consultants who impose their own values and philosophies on the city and the citizens of Vadodara are expected to lap it up due to the inability and inefficiency of their own city to set visions and plans of their own, provide proper directives for the consultants, or even evaluate the merits of what these consultants propose.
If Vadodara is to see successful coordination and implementation of any crucial projects for exemplary and comprehensive development of the city, it needs to have a smart and qualified City Planning Department staffed with dedicated, qualified planners as well as experts from related professions.
A dominant issue on the front burner has been how we treat our natural and human made water systems (such as rivers and ponds). Whenever we talk about a river we should keep in mind a crucial point that she should not be considered merely as a water channel flowing between its two banks but consider her in totality, as a watershed level layered system. We should stop using the term ‘water body’ in the context of rivers and associated tributaries, wetlands, and ponds. Since we have termed her as a ‘body’, it is meant to be over-exploited and abused.
Our rivers have sadly become default receptacles of all kinds of industrial effluent, solid waste, and sewage. The present development model and its policies have done two things to the rivers, either we have dried out some rivers systematically or, those rivers we cannot dry up, we have been polluting them very severely.
Most of the River Front Projects by design deliberately ignore the importance and uniqueness of the river, her wetlands, ravines, inter-connectivity with other water bodies, floodplains, flora and fauna, biodiversity, etc. Many times fancy jargons, images, and concepts are used in the project report and its propaganda, but if one closely examines these reports, it becomes abundantly clear that those words and ideas are intentionally misleading and many of these cannot be and are often not manifested at all in actual projects.
The problems resulting from such grave conditions and malpractice are exacerbated by other critical inadequacies as well. The major ones include, making plans without proper contour and site surveys, lack of any understanding of ecology or landscape values, and absence of genuine and continuous public participation. Making a quasi-governmental authority of local experts, NGOs, voluntary organisations and other project-relevant individuals to anticipate and guide future development projects and to review and sanction proposed projects is the need of the day.
It is high time we call a spade a spade. It is time to change our definitions of development, engage ourselves with our city’s future, and re-learn to design and live with nature.
—
*Well-known environmental activist, Gujarat

Comments

Stronger India–Russia partnership highlights a missed energy breakthrough

By N.S. Venkataraman* The recent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India was widely publicized across several countries and has attracted significant global attention. The warmth with which Mr. Putin was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was particularly noted, prompting policy planners worldwide to examine the implications of this cordial relationship for the global economy and political climate. India–Russia relations have stood on a strong foundation for decades and have consistently withstood geopolitical shifts. This is in marked contrast to India’s ties with the United States, which have experienced fluctuations under different U.S. administrations.

From natural farming to fair prices: Young entrepreneurs show a new path

By Bharat Dogra There have been frequent debates on agro-business companies not showing adequate concern for the livelihoods of small farmers. Farmers’ unions have often protested—generally with good reason—that while they do not receive fair returns despite high risks and hard work, corporate interests that merely process the crops produced by farmers earn disproportionately high profits. Hence, there is a growing demand for alternative models of agro-business development that demonstrate genuine commitment to protecting farmer livelihoods.

The Vande Mataram debate and the politics of manufactured controversy

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The recent Vande Mataram debate in Parliament was never meant to foster genuine dialogue. Each political party spoke past the other, addressing its own constituency, ensuring that clips went viral rather than contributing to meaningful deliberation. The objective was clear: to construct a Hindutva narrative ahead of the Bengal elections. Predictably, the Lok Sabha will likely expunge the opposition’s “controversial” remarks while retaining blatant inaccuracies voiced by ministers and ruling-party members. The BJP has mastered the art of inserting distortions into parliamentary records to provide them with a veneer of historical legitimacy.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

The cost of being Indian: How inequality and market logic redefine rights

By Vikas Gupta We, the people of India, are engaged in a daily tryst—read: struggle—for basic human rights. For the seemingly well-to-do, the wish list includes constant water supply, clean air, safe roads, punctual public transportation, and crime-free neighbourhoods. For those further down the ladder, the struggle is starker: food that fills the stomach, water that doesn’t sicken, medicines that don’t kill, houses that don’t flood, habitats at safe distances from polluted streams or garbage piles, and exploitation-free environments in the public institutions they are compelled to navigate.

Why India must urgently strengthen its policies for an ageing population

By Bharat Dogra A quiet but far-reaching demographic transformation is reshaping much of the world. As life expectancy rises and birth rates fall, societies are witnessing a rapid increase in the proportion of older people. This shift has profound implications for public policy, and the need to strengthen frameworks for healthy and secure ageing has never been more urgent. India is among the countries where these pressures will intensify most sharply in the coming decades.

Thota Sitaramaiah: An internal pillar of an underground organisation

By Harsh Thakor* Thota Sitaramaiah was regarded within his circles as an example of the many individuals whose work in various underground movements remained largely unknown to the wider public. While some leaders become visible through organisational roles or media attention, many others contribute quietly, without public recognition. Sitaramaiah was considered one such figure. He passed away on December 8, 2025, at the age of 65.

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

New RTI draft rules inspired by citizen-unfriendly, overtly bureaucratic approach

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Department of Personnel and Training , Government of India has invited comments on a new set of Draft Rules (available in English only) to implement The Right to Information Act, 2005 . The RTI Rules were last amended in 2012 after a long period of consultation with various stakeholders. The Government’s move to put the draft RTI Rules out for people’s comments and suggestions for change is a welcome continuation of the tradition of public consultation. Positive aspects of the Draft RTI Rules While 60-65% of the Draft RTI Rules repeat the content of the 2012 RTI Rules, some new aspects deserve appreciation as they clarify the manner of implementation of key provisions of the RTI Act. These are: Provisions for dealing with non-compliance of the orders and directives of the Central Information Commission (CIC) by public authorities- this was missing in the 2012 RTI Rules. Non-compliance is increasingly becoming a major problem- two of my non-compliance cases are...

Search This Blog