Rationale for making big cities Union Territories(UTs)

Abstract :
To understand the rationale of making big cities as UTs (Union Territories) one needs to ponder over what happens when :

''the big cities, towns, villages (big meaning each has exceeded a set limit in its category) are pulled out of the  control of the locals to be placed under the control of the next higher  level."

In this context the pertinent questions to be answered would be :
1) Does such a policy restrain the efforts of the society, the one  immediately larger  than the city, town or village under question, to fulfill their aspirations of geographic equity in development?
2) Does it curtail the forces of vested interests, usually of the local city/town/village origin but may be in collusion with those of the outsiders which may be down right anti social and illegal?
Our answer is a big "No" to the first and a big "Yes" to the second of these questions.

The details: 
1. The meaning of the transferring the control of a big city / town /village to the higher level

2. The vested interests and geographic inequity in development 

3. A mechanism to reign in the vested forces

4. Summary

1. The meaning of the transferring the control of a big city / town /village to the higher level: 
1.a) First  let us understand the term society immediately larger than the city, town or village under question.
Say it is a city of a district in a state. Then the entire district (of which the city is a part) would be the immediately larger society.
1.b) Other examples:
Say it is the capital of the state which usually is the biggest city in most of the states: then the neighboring states and then the whole country would be the immediately larger society around the city.
On the other hand, if it is a village in a mandal, then  the immediately larger society would be the entire  mandal or tehsil that includes the village.
On the lower extreme, if a ward  of a municipality or a big panchayat is becoming big, then the entire municipality or the entire panchayat would be the immediately larger society.

2. The vested interests and geographic inequity in development: 
2.a) Some forces of the local city/town/village would invariably tend to develop vested interests in making it ever bigger even at the cost of the others in their immediately larger  society.
The greed would drive them to thoughtless exploitation of the  resources of the  area (physical resources such as sand & minerals or ground water, land - buildings - infrastructure etc., or others like jobs, funds etc.,)
2.b) The vested interests drive the above exploitation even if it be destructive to the society and even when such undue exploitation is out right illegal.
2.c) The above reckless and even unethical or illegal exploitation  then gets extended to what ever resources that the entire, immediately bigger society has.
2.d) Retaining the  administrative/political control in the local area would then be vitally necessary to serve or shield their private vested interests from the norms and law.
2.e) Thus, through a vicious cycle, the geographic inequity in development intensifies   leading to social unrest and tensions. It is exactly these- the social unrest and tensions - which not only sustain but become fertile breeding grounds for the rise of vested interests in politics, business  and transcend even into religious arena.


3. A mechanism to reign in the vested forces:
3.a)  The loss of undue control over the city/town/village  to the vested forces would make it increasingly difficult for these forces  to  duck behind current practice of democracy with a multiplicity of loopholes.
3.b) It is the perceived loss by of the  political / administrative control by the forces of local  vested interests which would be the biggest  restraint in letting the city / town / village go to that of the next level.
3.c) Surely many other measures would be needed in addition to the above to completely reign in the unscrupulous nexus of the vested forces from making unholy alliances.But the most important would be to clean up our human resource development all the way  from preschool (KG and  lower ) to post school(PG and more)  levels covering R&D.

4. Summary:
It would indeed be interesting to mine for any rational reason in opposing  the mega cities from coming under the direct control of the parliament. After all, they are all built by all the Indians with the assets of the entire nation.  But for the possibility of a severe constraint of the vested forces of all hues & shades,  why would even the primarily religious forces think of opposing the very idea of Hyderabad  or Bombay from becoming Union Territories (UT) directly under the control of the parliament?  

allowing big cities to be made Union Territories

One of the seperate Telangana activists voicing a strong demand for a complete ownership of Hyderabad by Telangana has asked those from the rest of AP who demad that Hyderabad be made a Union Territory, "Would you allow your Vishakahpatnam and Tirupati to be Union Territories?"

Most would answer, "Why not?"
and many may answer
"Yes, with a great pleasure and shall be grateful if Vijayawada - Guntur region also becomes UT."

Franky what is there to be lost by any honest law abiding citizen who believes that India is one India belongs to all Indians?
Every honest Indian stands only to gain.

What is the rationale of some in Maharashtra who have vehemently opposed Mumbai to be made into UT?

In fact, India would be more peaceful if all the big megapolis like Kolkota, Chennai, Bangalore and others when they exceed a certain limit would become UTs automatically as a national policy.
Seriously, one should debate the positives and negatives of such a policy.

Some of the major positives would be
          i) to drive a wedge between the legitimate interests and vested interests of politics and businesses
          ii) to promote geographic equity in development
          iii) to provide a healthy obstacle to uncontrolled migration to a miniscule no of mega cities
           

Relocating Elite Institutions as Multiple Campuses in Remote Rural Clusters of Villages - A Solution to one problem of dividing Andhra Pradesh

A. The Background:

Human resources are important in any society. The intellectual resources in science and technology are pivotal in human resources for sustainable development.

More than 95 % of the above  intellectual resources  are concentrated in a few mega cities of the country, of which Hyderabad happens to be one.

In turn, over 95% of the intellectual resources of the entire state of Andhra Pradesh are located in Hyderabad itself.

This, together with the mega development of Hyderabad  by using the lion’s portion of the state’s other resources as well, is the main reason behind the clamour for Hyderabad  by all -  the separatists and others of all shades.

Here is a proposal that is not hitherto  in the open discussion,  for the consideration of one and all and involves relocation of the intellectual resources in several remote rural clusters of villages.

It would be a good  beginning for decongesting mega cities without any significant dent in their finances when adopted in the country as a whole.

In appendix A, the possibility of relocating some of the public sector undertakings to the remote rural clusters and the villages around is presented.  

Further it may actually help garner votes from the masses and provide immediate political benefits to those who dare to advocate/promote the out of the box idea besides giving a fillip to  sustainable development through decentralisation.

B. The Proposal in brief:

1. Relocate all  the elite institutions - academic and R&D - from their current locations in Hyderabad into rural hinterlands. In fact, intellectual training grounds make up the most important hither to urban amenity and in that respect the entire proposal would give the much needed completeness to the good old idea of ‘PURA’ (Provision of Urban amenities in Rural areas.)

2. Creation of healthy  intellectual ecosystems in the rural areas:

a) 20 to 30 contiguous remote rural villages spread over at least two or more districts are to be identified as a cluster. About 10 to 15 such  clusters of remote rural villages are to be selected covering  all the 23 districts of Telugu people.

b) One of the several (four or more) campuses of every elite institution is to be hosted by one remote rural village in several of the above clusters; the total number of the elite institutions in each  cluster would be equal to the number of villages in that cluster.

c) Each of the remote rural cluster of villages to host two or more institutions of similar kind,  from schools/high schools for children to institutions for higher learning in engineering/technology/sciences, agriculture, medicine(including teaching hospitals), law   business/finance  and R&D establishments in various sectors.

d) The mandate of the institutions can be to make each of the villages in a  cluster  or at least each one of the clusters, self sustainable with local renewable resources in energy, water and food to the extent possible. This would help create an intellectual  ecosystem with scope for a healthy competition and collaboration in driving each cluster towards becoming  a centre of excellence for innovation at national and international levels in addressing the issues in decentralized  development that is also sustainable.

3. Similarly, relocate the elite institutions in other big cities such as Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada-Guntur, Tirupati, Anantapur into these remote rural clusters, ensuring that at least one campus of each is located in each of the four different Telugu regions of the state, divided or united.

Each elite institute would then have several campuses under its own brand name and style  in several of these remote rural clusters facing directly those of the others.  

4. The human resources of each of the campuses of the institutions are to be derived from

i) the region of the cluster

ii) other regions of the Telugu state/s

iii) other states and

iv) other countries

in a rational ratio that prevents inbreeding and helps in enriching the ethnic diversity of the intellectual resource base while simultaneously promoting regional and national integration as well as a healthy international cooperation in gradually improving the centres of innovation excellence to the demanding  international standards.

5. Proactive invitation to the elite  institutions at the national and even international levels for setting up their campuses only in the different remote rural clusters of the state.

6. The above model could be studied and  extended at the national level to all the 600 districts of this country through at least over 300 centres of innovation excellence for sustainable development by addressing the climate change and ecological concerns.

C. A few more details:

1. We can do it.

‘SRI CITY’ is only a baby step, but a right one,  in this direction at the junction of two Telugu districts of  Nellore and Chittoor, close to Tamilnadu . But some changes that would greatly help in social relations are suggested here.  

2. The villagers who host the campus of an elite institution

are not to be driven out of their lands or habitat,  

    but are to partner with their traditional skills and knowledge  in

the sustainable development of the greenery, biodiversity & ecology

    besides actively participating in the sustainability in food, energy and other services.

3. The habitation of the exogenous population is to be homogeneously merged with that of the village with all their cattle and with due respect to their culture and traditions, by appropriate upgradation.

4. The needed lands for buildings, roads, greenery and other services are  to be only leased from the local / farmer owners on a long term but rational basis that reflects the changes in the market value of the said lands on a year to year basis.

This would prevent to a great extent the fly by night operators from their dubious ways that are not only unethical but also antisocial / illegal, most of the times.

5. Each elite institution may  retain only a small part of the land in their current location for building an international level convention centre complete with the necessary hospitality services and surrender the rest of the land to the public. These lands may be preferentially used for  the much needed enhancement of urban greenery and natural biodiversity  that can promote eco and health tourism.

6. In return to the above,  the government/s are to compensate the institution financially for relocating into multiple campuses with the state of the art equipment, but green infrastructure. Or else, each of the elite institutions should be left with a complete freedom to use the vacated prime urban lands in the free market in the best interests of the Indian society as per its  own community’s democratic judgement.   

7. Industries can offer sponsorship in developing the clusters even while participating in the  human resource development alongside the  R&D efforts of their interest.

8. Needless to add that the above relocation into multiple campuses is to be done in a well  planned, phased, but time bound manner at both the state and national levels.

9. If any cluster experiences the pressure of expansion, new similar remote rural clusters have to be opened with geographic equity as priority even among the many possible remote rural areas. The unbounded expansion of any / a few  cluster/s would only be a  backward step and should be prohibited.

10. An elite institution may be defined as one that finds its place in the top, as an example, say 20 or 50 with in the country over a majority any 5 consecutive years.

This would immediately drive a wedge between the valid interest of an institution to excel in its field thus qualifying to relocate into multiple campuses in the remote rural clusters of innovation excellence  and

the immediate financial vested interest in clinging to a big city by not trying to excel in its field.

This kind of wedge between valid interest and vested interests would be the hallmark of any good governance.     

11. The above, together with the true financial autonomy for the local bodies, would largely address the concerns of the separatists besides having a huge potential in handling the extremist  violence of all shades. After all, it is well recognized that the latter are  fanned  primarily by the hitherto massively centralised development strategies that have result in the blatant denial of  geographic equity, some thing which should be viewed as nothing short of the  denial of natural justice to the remote rural and often tribal  populations.      

Appendix A: Selective Relocation of  PSUs and Industries

1. While private industry may not be pressured by governments into relocation, it is possible to relocate some of the PSUs partially or completely into the and around the remote rural clusters and provide fiscal incentives to the private sector to follow the path. Some possibilities are presented here.

2. The design cum R&D centres / insttutes can be shifted directly into the remote rural clusters as these would be on par with other R&D institutions of CSIR /DST/ defence and other ministries. R&D institutions under other ministries, like those under Agriculture, MHRD only serve as examples.

3. The production of some PSUs such as those in electronics, IT, pharma etc., do not need much of local raw materials any way. These can be relocated around the remote rural clusters but not very close to them.  Subject to economy of scales, a massive single  production unit  may be split into a few, each one  located in a different cluster.

4. Some of the PSUs and of the private industries may actually clamour to open their shops in  these clusters.  They may be permitted, but  should be mandated  to develop similar partnerships in a few villages, but not close to the above clusters.

Even at the expense of repetition, following should be strictly adhered to:

a) all the  lands needed are only to be leased;

b) the lands needed for their greenery: farmer owners of the lands  are to grow and maintain the greenery in a mutually agreeable manner either by contract farming or otherwise.

c) support services are to be obtained to the extent possible through inhabitants of local villages trained specifically for the purpose. The ITC (Industrial Training Centre)set up by M/s Nava Bharat Ferro Alloys Ltd at Paloncha, Khammam district is a good  example.

d) The industries can build the green infrastructure for schools and colleges, again on lands by long term lease as part of the CSR.  

e) The habitation/s of all the exogenous population including their own employees or of the support service providers are  to be homogeneously merged with that of their host village with appropriate upgradation. The lands for habitation would be only on a long term  lease basis and never by ownership.

f) as part of CSR, corporations located anywhere may pay for

lease amounts for lands under any permitted use in the clusters,

running expenses of schools, colleges and teaching hospitals etc.,

sponsor longterm chairs/ fellowships for the elite institutions in the clusters building / operating green rapid public transportation between the villages of a given  cluster or between the cluster and neighboring  villages

building helipads in each cluster and contribute to air services in emergencies

the green energy generation and distribution by smart grids within the cluster

the rain water harvesting and recycling of water locally.

g) the revenue from the enormous prime urban lands that are vacated by the institutions in the mega cities may be used for building rapid public transportation between

the different remote clusters

a given cluster and the district headquarter and / or the nearby bigger town

a given cluster and the nearest  railway junction

operating air connectivity   for the   clusters

Relocating Elite Institutions as Multiple Campuses in Remote Rural Clusters of Villages A Solution to one problem of dividing Andhra Pradesh

Relocating Elite Institutions as Multiple Campuses

in Remote Rural Clusters of Villages -

A Solution to one problem of dividing  Andhra Pradesh

A. The Background:

Human resources are important in any society. The intellectual resources in science and technology are pivotal in human resources for sustainable development.

More than 95 % of the above  intellectual resources  are concentrated in a few mega cities of the country, of which Hyderabad happens to be one.

In turn, over 95% of the intellectual resources of the entire state of Andhra Pradesh are located in Hyderabad itself.

This, together with the mega development of Hyderabad  by using the lion’s portion of the state’s other resources as well, is the main reason behind the clamour for Hyderabad  by all -  the separatists and others of all shades.

Here is a proposal that is not hitherto  in the open discussion,  for the consideration of one and all and involves relocation of the intellectual resources in several remote rural clusters of villages.

It would be a good  beginning for decongesting mega cities without any significant dent in their finances when adopted in the country as a whole.

In appendix A, the possibility of relocating the some of the public sector undertakings to the remote rural clusters and the villages around is presented.  

Further it may actually help garner votes from the masses and provide immediate political benefits to those who dare to advocate/promote the out of the box idea besides giving a fillip to  sustainable development through decentralisation.

B. The Proposal in brief:

1. Relocate all  the elite institutions - academic and R&D - from their current locations in Hyderabad into rural hinterlands.

2. Creation of healthy  intellectual ecosystems in the rural areas:

a) 20 to 30 contiguous remote rural villages spread over at least two or more districts are to be identified as a cluster. About 10 to 15 such  clusters of remote rural villages are to be selected covering  all the 23 districts of Telugu people.

b) One of the several (four or more) campuses of every elite institution is to be hosted by one remote rural village in several of the above clusters; the total number of the elite institutions in each  cluster would be equal to the number of villages in that cluster.

c) Each of the remote rural cluster of villages to host two or more institutions of similar kind,  from schools/high schools for children to institutions for higher learning in engineering/technology/sciences, agriculture, medicine(including teaching hospitals), law   business/finance  and R&D establishments in various sectors.

d) The mandate of the institutions can be to make each of the villages in a  cluster  or at least each one of the clusters, self sustainable with local renewable resources in energy, water and food to the extent possible. This would help create an intellectual  ecosystem with scope for a healthy competition and collaboration in driving each cluster towards becoming  a centre of excellence for innovation at national and international levels in addressing the issues in decentralized  development that is also sustainable.

3. Similarly, relocate the elite institutions in other big cities such as Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada-Guntur, Tirupati, Anantapur into these remote rural clusters, ensuring that at least one campus of each is located in each of the four different Telugu regions of the state, divided or united.

Each elite institute would then have several campuses under its own brand name and style  in several of these remote rural clusters facing directly those of the others.  

4. The human resources of each of the campuses of the institutions are to be derived from

i) the region of the cluster

ii) other regions of the Telugu state/s

iii) other states

iv) other countries

in a rational ratio that prevents inbreeding and helps in enriching the ethnic diversity of the intellectual thoughts and resource base while simultaneously promoting regional and national integration.

5. Proactive invitation to the elite  institutions at the national and even international levels for setting up their campuses only in the different remote rural clusters of the state.

6. The above model could be studied and  extended at the national level to all the 600 districts of this country through at least over 300 centres of innovation excellence for sustainable development in the light of climate change and ecological concerns.

C. A few more details:

1. We can do it.

‘SRI CITY’ is only a baby step, but a right one in this direction at the junction of two Telugu districts of  Nellore and Chittoor, close to Tamilnadu . But some changes that would greatly help in social relations are suggested here.  

2. The villagers who host the campus of an elite institution

are not to be driven out of their lands or habitat,  

    but are to partner with their traditional skills and knowledge  in

the sustainable development of the greenery, biodiversity & ecology

besides actively participating in the sustainability in food, energy and other services.

3. The habitation of the exogenous population is to be homogeneously merged with that of the village with all their cattle and with due respect to their culture and traditions, by appropriate up-gradation.

4. The needed lands for buildings, roads, greenery and other services are  to be only leased from the local / farmer owners on a long term but rational basis that reflects the changes in the market value of the said lands on a year to year basis.

This would prevent to a great extent the fly by night operators from their dubious ways that are not only unethical but also antisocial / illegal, most of the times.

5. Each elite institution may  retain only a small part of the land in their current location for building an international level convention centre complete with the necessary hospitality services and surrender the rest of the land to the public. These lands may be preferentially used for  the much needed enhancement of urban greenery and natural biodiversity  that can promote eco and health tourism.

6. In return to the above,  the government/s are to compensate the institution financially for relocating into multiple campuses with the state of the art equipment, but green infrastructure.

7. Industries can offer sponsorship in developing the clusters even while participating in the  human resource development alongside the  R&D efforts of their interest.

8. Needless to add that the above relocation into multiple campuses is to be done in a well  planned, phased, but time bound manner at both the state and national levels.

9. If any cluster experiences the pressure of expansion, new clusters have to be opened. The unbounded expansion of any / a few  cluster/s would only be a  backward step and should be prohibited.   

11. The above, together with the true financial autonomy for the local bodies, would largely address the concerns of the separatists besides handling the extremist  violence of all shades. After all, it is well recognized that these are  fanned  primarily by the hitherto massively centralized development strategies that have resulted in the blatant denial of  geographic equity, some thing which should be viewed as nothing short of the  denial of natural justice to the remote rural and often tribal  populations.      

Appendix A: Selective Relocation of  PSUs and Industries

1. While private industry may not be pressured by governments into relocation, it is possible to relocate some of the PSUs partially or completely into the and around the remote rural clusters. Some possibilities are presented here.

2. The design cum R&D centres can be shifted directly into the remote rural clusters as these would be on par with other R&D institutions of CSIR /DST/ defence and other ministries. R&D institutions other ministries, like those under Agriculture, MHRD only serve as examples.

3. The production of some PSUs such as those in electronics, IT, pharma etc., do not need much of local raw materials any way. These can be relocated around the remote rural clusters but not very close to them.  Subject to economy of scales, a massive single  production unit  may be split into a few, each one  located in a different cluster.

4. Some of the PSUs and of the private industries may actually clamour to open their shops in  these clusters.  They may be permitted, but  should be mandated  to develop similar partnerships in a few villages, but not close to the above clusters.

Even at the expense of repetition, following should be strictly adhered to:

a) all the  lands needed are only to be leased;

b) the lands needed for their greenery: farmer owners of the lands  are to grow and maintain the greenery in a mutually agreeable manner either by contract farming or otherwise.

c) support services are to be obtained to the extent possible through inhabitants of local villages trained specifically for the purpose. The ITC (Industrial Training Centre) set up by M/s Nava Bharat Ferro Alloys Ltd at Paloncha, Khammam district is a good  example.

d) The industries can build the green infrastructure for schools and colleges, again on lands by long term lease as part of the CSR.  

e) The habitation/s of all the exogenous population including their own employees or of the support service providers are  to be homogeneously merged with that of their host village with appropriate up-gradation. The lands for habitation would be only on a long term  lease basis and never by ownership.

f) as part of CSR, corporations located anywhere may pay for

lease amounts for lands under any permitted use in the clusters,

running expenses of schools, colleges and teaching hospitals etc.,

building / operating green rapid public transportation between the villages of a given  cluster or between the cluster and neighboring  villages

building helipads in each cluster and contribute to air services in emergencies

the green energy generation and distribution by smart grids within the cluster

the rain water harvesting and recycling of water locally.

g) the revenue from the enormous prime urban lands that are vacated by the institutions in the mega cities may be used for building rapid public transportation between

the different remote clusters

a given cluster and the district headquarter and / or the nearby bigger town

a given cluster and the nearest  railway junction

operating air connectivity   for the   clusters