Detroit ghost will haunt emerging cities
- By Himanshu Kumar
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 5, 2013
Last month's Detroit debacle reminds me of the words of Benjamin Franklin "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail". Even to maintain a minimal level of public service the city had to borrow money. For leaders of all emerging cities it's a lesson to learn to pick the priorities. The buck stops with them so in the words of former U.S. President Harry S. Truman "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."
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The skyline of Detroit. [File photo] |
Analogy "people are rich, government is poor" could be used in Detroit's case. It is an example for all emerging cities that provide services to all its residents but on the flip side have very few tax payers.
Last month we saw how monsoon rains exposed the unpreparedness of civic bodies by bringing life in mega cities Delhi and Mumbai to a halt with all roads submerged, and traffic jams leading to chaos. Indian cities could be the next Detroit is too early by any stretch of imagination. Our cities thrive on their own with citizens accustomed to poorly maintained services.
Many cities in Indian subcontinent do not have future road map to accommodate more people and handle the process of urbanization. Future plans to accommodate growing population within the next three decades are visibly deficient.
Next two decades would see a paradigm shift in demographics as over a quarter of people would move from villages into towns and cities for jobs, education and better life.
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