Thread by @JamwalNidhi

“Gendered Cultures And Climate Justice” — Pune University

“Smartness in the Smart City Mission is against sustainability and against the SDG11 of sustainable cities and communities,” Priyadarshini Karve, member of Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change. #SmartCities

“Greenness and smartness of solutions being pushed under the Smart City Agenda need to be questioned,” Prof Amita Bhide, TISS. #SmartCities

“#Sikkim is a hub of pharmaceutical companies which are all located along the rivers. Questioning the location of these pharma factories in the state is seen as anti-development,” Prof Shrawan Acharya , JNU.

“As part of North East Smart Cities agenda, SPVs are being set up even in small cities/towns like Namchi in Sikkim. What is the role of local municipalities then? Also, there is no logic in the amount of money asked under the programme,” Prof Acharya. [check column 3]

“A Smart City has to be self-reliant,” Rajendra Ravi, convener, People’s Resource Centre, Delhi.

“Thane City in Maharashtra is chosen as #SmartCity. TMC covers Thane, Kalava and Mumbra, but the projects worth Rs 5404 crore are focused on Thane alone... All decisions are taken by the governing body of SPV. Limited transparency and participation,” Smita Waingankar, TISS.

“The land allocated to ‘Command and Control Centre’ at Pune under the #SmartCity mission was originally meant for subzi [vegetable] market,” Avinash Mandhale, Centre for Environment Education, Pune. “Smart City Mission has converted governance system into a call centre.”

“Command and Control Centres under Smart City Mission are meant to ‘monitor’, without any delivery of civic services,” Prof Amita Bhide, TISS.

“Initially I ignored the #SmartCity Mission as insignificant. But, as I see it being implemented, it is producing devastating, potentially violent and undemocratic systems... It is leading to exclusion and demolition of idea of participation of citizens,” Prof Bhide, TISS.

“Bikaner is 500 years old city with scanty rainfall & no river in 200km area. For 450 years we had no fights over water. But, in the last 50 years, as we have adopted ‘modern’ water systems, violence & deaths over water have become common,” Dr Brij Ratan Joshi, Bikaner State Univ

“70% of land required for Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) Project is agricultural land,” Krishnakant Chauhan, Mithivirdi Movement, Gujarat

“Water crisis and climate change are linked. Our rainfall is getting patchier. If we do not account for #climatechange while planning our infrastructure, we will suffer,” Dr Chirag Shah, IITM, Pune.

“India is high population density, high dependence on land, and poor on health emergencies and services. Any nuclear accident will have larger repercussion in our country,” Dr Suvrat Raju,TIFR, Bengaluru.

“Nuclear energy in India has two inherent flaws. The high cost of nuclear energy, and impacts of catastrophic accidents. India’s Nuclear Liability Law is meant to protect the industry and not the victims,” Dr Suvrat Raju, TIFR, Bengaluru.