Public-Private-Public: City Dwellers

The world is going ga ga over the virtues of public-private partnerships in urban projects. But we have kept thinking about the public (aam aadmi) or Private (Big Industry) or Public (government) or private (who?). The notion seems to be clear after seeing the kind of partnerships that has come about in our urban affairs. Some of the examples can be

(a) Road Management - Give to business guys, who can maintain the dividers and junctions. (Oh! he get stake in claiming the circle/Junctions). But why not we go ahead and name the roads by name of industrial houses. Unofficially most of the roads at least in Gujarat is known to public by these names (Reliance, L&T, Ambani, GAIL etc).

Do not talk of Toll roads (on NH/SH) , these are easy venue for the taxing the commuters ever after in the name of development, What not the ideals of PP would have been?

(b) Garden and Public Parks: Yet again a good start for the some cities, but these privates have made party plots, golf courses and corporate maidan in name of servicing the public spaces. (What can we do our corporations did not have money to maitain?).

(c) Solid Waste: Public-Private ; an easy way to get away with regular workers. Pay them and forget that they exist in the city. Urban areas have been mess these days...an overloaded concept of SWM. Guys you would not find nothing apt to see it as rat race in urban India. May be this is the case in developing countries.

(d) Water Bodies Management: Alas! the most attractive PP for the realestate guys has been to take care for the development of water bodies, instead it pays heavily to invest in beautification of these forgotton waterscapes in urban areas. We are not backin up while covering the rivers like Yamuna, Sabarmati, Gomti etc and now even Ganga with Urban structures..damaging and creating rut in the system. What would CPCB and State pollution control people would do?

Sit idle guys the 'public' , i.e. the government and people both are being nearly robbed of quasi-legal private system, endangering cities in the hands of industries who are prone to see profits. Say. Whats harm? We must pay for the inefficiency of public systems and our city governance.