From: NAPM India <napmindia@napm-india.org>
Date: Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 12:51 PM
Subject: [initiative-india] Dec 18 : A Discussion on Developing Democratic Urban Transport in Delhi
To: NAPM Delhi <NAPMDelhi@napm-india.org>
| All Are Welcome ! National Alliance of People's Movements invites you to A Discussion on Developing Democratic Urban Transport in Delhi It's not only a 5.8 Km Road... Question of Democracy, Equity and Justice is at Stake ! Tuesday, December 18, 2012. 2:00 pm to 6:00pm Venue : N D Tiwari Bhawan, 219, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi "A developed Country is not one where the poor owns cars but it is one where the rich use Public Transport" – Delhi High Court On October 19, in a significant judgment, Honorable judges of the Delhi High Court, Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Manmohan Singh upheld the right of the state to develop 'a sustainable urban transport policy' and common people's democratic right over the road, in the case asking for scrapping of the BRT project. The 5.8 km BRT stretch has been under fire from several quarters - car owners, certain media houses, nearby up market resident welfare associations etc. - since time of its functioning. The BRT concept has been under attack and veiled under the rubric of rights and justice but it needs to be noted that in a democracy the planning and resources can't be cornered by a group of rich people. The judgment though refused to take sides over the class issue but the examples it cited did support the argument that majority of Delhi public use public transport and any planning has to keep in larger public good. Only a small section of the urban population uses cars but they are consuming a large chunk of the resources, as delineated by the judgment that 98% of the expenditure under JNURRM is being spent for the privately owned vehicles, cars and two wheelers leading to deteriorating air quality and causing massive traffic jams and so on. The judgment also noted that "since in a democracy it is not possible to physically seize cars and destroy them, the only democratic solution would be to dedicate road space for the buses, which would move fast, and this would act as an incentive for people to switch to Public Transport". Given the increasing population, which stands today at 18.2 million, and despite several measures taken as road widening, flyovers (46 as of now) etc. traffic congestion continues and "there is no escaping to the fact that citizens will have to use public transport, one day or other". It needs to be noted that two cars, take same space as a bus, but transport only three persons as against 60 to 70 persons in a bus during peak hours and around 40 persons during non-peak hours. A car commences and terminates its journey with the same 1.5 persons. But a bus would drop and pick up many persons en-route adding up to nearly 200 people. The case of BRT is not only of a road but of democracy, of people's rights over the resources of a city. Can we as a nation imagine democratic cities, which will ensure equitable access for everyone – rich and poor both ? It is with this intention that NAPM invites you for a discussion on the theme. The discussion will be joined by experts, social scientists, users of public transport and others from Delhi and other cities : ・ Prof. Dinesh Mohan, IIT Delhi ・ Prof. GeetamTiwari, IIT Delhi ・ Prof. Ajit Jha, Delhi University ・ Sh. Ashok Dubey, Roopankan, Indore ・ Sh. Shree Prakesh, Urban Development Forum (UDFI), Indore ・ Sh Virendra Vidrohi, MMSVS, Alwar ・ Dr A.B.Sharan, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies ・ Dr Anvita Arora, Urban Transport Planer, New Delhi ・ Sh. Navdeep Asija, Founder, ECO Cab, Fazilka, Punjab ・ Ms Romy Roy, Unified traffic and Transportation Infrastructure Centre(UTTIPEC) ・ Sh.Sandeep Gandhi, Urban Transport Planer, New Delhi
Do confirm and also spread the word around. Yours Sincerely, Rajendra Ravi NAPM Delhi, Contact : 9868200316 rajendraravi1857@gmail.com, napmdelhi@gmail.com
| |||||||||||||||||||||
RAJENDRA RAVI
MAILING ADDRESS:
INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY AND SUSTAINABILITY
GROUND FLOOR,
G-24,VIJAY NAGAR,
New Delhi 110 009, India
Phone: 91 11 27493307
Email: rajendra_ravi@idsindia.net, --
--
National Office: Room No. 29-30, 1st floor, 'A' Wing, Haji Habib Bldg, Naigaon Cross Road, Dadar (E), Mumbai - 400 014;
Ph: 022-24150529
6/6, Jangpura B, Mathura Road, New Delhi 110014
Phone : 011 26241167 / 24354737 Mobile : 09818905316
Web : www.napm-india.org
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Initiative India" group.
To post to this group, send email to initiative-india@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to initiative-india+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/initiative-india?hl=en.
No comments:
Post a Comment