Vision Lucknow: Aha and oops!

IS LUCKNOW smiling or sulking? The impression that one gained on the opening day of the two-day conference Vision Lucknow organised by the Club of Lucknow was mixed. The conference was attended by top bureaucrats, management gurus, leading academicians, industrialists and erstwhile nawabs.

IS LUCKNOW smiling or sulking?

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The impression that one gained on the opening day of the two-day conference Vision Lucknow organised by the Club of Lucknow was mixed. The conference was attended by top bureaucrats, management gurus, leading academicians, industrialists and erstwhile nawabs.

First, talk about the smile. The conference, as Commissioner, Lucknow Division, RK Mittal said, couldn’t have been timed better, as for the city has been included in the Government of India’s ambitious Urban Renewal Plan.

The roads are widening, malls are shining, parks are sprouting and the bankers are smiling. There is no missing the development of the city of nawabs whose population has risen from 2.5 lakhs in 1901 to 2 million by 2001 (Census) and where a million more heads are expected to be added in a decade.

More and more people are willing to come to Lucknow. Mittal was surprised when his Delhi-based publisher told him about his desire to open shop in Lucknow.

More and more people are willing to drive into the city. Little wonder then, as senior IAS officer, JS Mishra informed “about 1.34 lakhs passenger cars are plying on the Ashoka Marg daily with about 85,000 plying on the Rajbhawan road itself.”

And Professor Devi Singh, director of IIM-L who inaugurated the conference remarked straightway, “Lucknow is not all that bad. In fact, the city’s development coupled with its famed tehzeeb could make it a hot and happening city. All good cities have style, heritage, modern outlook, good infrastructure, great museum, art gallery and good music. There is no reason why Lucknow cannot compete with cities like Pune.” But then for every one who stood up to take the case of Lucknow as a city that is ready to move on, there were those who showed the other side of the development saga.

And Dr Kumkum Ray, Head Amity School of Languages, continued in the same vein saying, “for a Lucknowite wafadari was more important than hoshiyari and that gaddari amounted to sin.”

However, there were others who tried to present the other side of the development saga. “There was a time when Lucknow used to be regarded as a city with an identity all its own. Its culture was world famous. Now, unfortunately the same is not true. Lucknow finds itself in news for all the wrong reasons,” said MA Khan, advisor, Tata Motors. And protests on the flimsiest of reasons keep on happenning. “I had mooted the idea of a flyover near Hazratganj. That was basically because of the fact that the vehicles were multiplying at a horrifying rate. But, there was such a hue and cry,” recalls JS Mishra.

And for Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC) Anis Ansari, the neglect of Urdu was a worrying factor. “Language is the most important identity of a city.

We need to preserve the tongue,” said Ansari. For former chief secretary, AP Varma, Lucknow’s development cannot be thought of without clearing up the pollution in Gomti. “The river is a very important part in the entire scheme of things,” he said. And as every inch of space is being bought in and around the city for commercial purposes, there is no thought about parking space. As several speakers said the civic sense is also missing with people cleaning up their houses but messing up the area outside. Roshan Tauqi, writer, had another cause for worry. “Modern Lucknow is developing. But, then what is a city without its soul. Newer buildings have come up in place of our historical structures. There is no effective law that prohibits the misuse of historical buildings and their encroachment,” he said.

RN Bhargava, secretary, Club of Lucknow, said, “haphazard urbanization is affecting the environment. Pollution is increasing. In 1960 open space and greenery in the city was around 50 per cent. Now, it’s about 2 per cent.”

Streetlights shine on the main roads. “An effective public private partnership is needed to improve the city and pitchfork in the league of Mumbai or Banglaore,” Bhargava said. Others nodded.