Revision as of 20:18, 20 May 2018

Jharsabandh; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Oct 26 2015

Baandhs (groves)

Jharsabaandh

The Times of India, Oct 26 2015 Sharad Kohli

In Gurgaon's concrete jungle, an oasis reared by its people

The Jharsabaandh, which occupies an expanse of around 5km in the middle of town, is one of around 15 baandhs in the city, many of them calling out for urgent restoration.This is a protected forest, with Sector 15 (Part I) on one side and Civil Lines and Officers Colony on the other. Earlier, HUDA was in charge of the baandh's upkeep. From March 2015, the MCG took over. In association with the city agencies, residents here have been looking after the baandh for many years -for example, by getting a sprinkler system installed to ensure a generous cover of grass.

The baandh was all jungle back in 2000.“People were scared of buying a plot here.“ Now, a lit footpath allows walkers fresh air and exercise in the mornings and evenings.But pigs and monkeys are a menace, as are litterbugs and encroachers.

Otherwise, the baandh is a quiet place. There is here a preponderance of kikar and the messy `papdi' tree, which has a habit of shedding leaves in every season.But one can also get to see the `kaner' shrub, with its red and yellow flowers, the ficus tree and some palms (and also the odd ashoka).

Mall Mile

How residents are transforming it

Shubhra Pant, How residents are joining hands to transform Gurgaon Mall Mile, May 11, 2017: The Times of India

MG Road, Gurgaon; Shubhra Pant, How residents are joining hands to transform Gurgaon Mall Mile, May 11, 2017: The Times of India

“My objective is to turn this place into something like Lutyens' Delhi,“ says Archana Saxena, who is piloting a unique community initiative to reclaim the city's famous Mall Mile from the hands of encroachers.

Saxena has joined hands with residents of other societies along MG Road to create a forum that brings together the government, police, RWAs and other stakeholders to clean up Gurgaon's most famous address, which is as much a symbol of the Haryana government's civic failures as it is of Gurgaon's success as a brand.

The stretch of MG Road between Sikanderpur Metro station and Iffco Chowk has eight malls, earning it the `Mall Mile' moniker and a reputation as one of NCR's most popular shopping and hangout destinations. Yet, walking or driving on the road is an unpleasant experience because, true to the way Gurgaon has developed, private enterprise has not been adequately backed up by government initiative.

Besides the occasional anti-encroachment drive, the MCG has largely stood by as service lanes have fallen to parking for autos, cabs and rickshaws, pavements have been consumed by hawkers, or crumbled where they haven't. Cramped for space, traffic jams on the weekends and during office hours are routine.

“As of now, around 10,000 residents living in different condominiums have to bear with this situation,“ Saxena, who lives in The Heritage City , told TOI. She and other residents have been reaching out to more people in their neighbourhood to participate in the exercise to clean up MG Road. The group then started approaching civic officials to motivate them to take up the cause, one issue at a time.They have also sent a complaint to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

“We wrote to the PMO seeking its intervention in various problems, including traffic, drug sales, illegal parking and flesh trade on the stretch. The complaint was forwarded to the police commission er a month and a half ago, seeking a report,“ said Capt Amarvir Singh, who also lives in The Heritage City .

Rajeev Sinha, RWA president of Essel Towers, added, “MG Road has a number of malls and it should be a place where people should be happy and relaxed. Our idea is to convert it into a hassle-free place for residents, commuters and visitors.“

Over the past three months, residents have managed to get permission for installation of bollards on the road outside MGF Metropolitan Mall to help stream line traffic. The Heritage City also expects an approval for an emergency exit, which can be used if the service lanes are clogged, to come through soon.

Saxena says she is now trying to reach out to residents of neighbouring Sushant Lok-1.“Citizens have to come together if we want things to change around us. Hence, I am reaching out to as many residents as I can,“ she said.

MCG had also recently announced it will revamp the Mall Mile and develop it into a “smart road“, free of encroachments and illegal parking. Various other plans and drives have been conducted in the past as well. However, the situation on the ground remains the same more or less.

MCG commissioner V Umashankar said public support is essential for the corporation to succeed in cleaning up the road. “I am not personally aware of such an initiative but we have under GMDA (Gurgaon Metropolitan Development Authority, an agency that will be formed very soon) made a provision for anyone to come and sign an MoU for revamp and beautification of MG Road,“ he said. Police commissioner Sandeep Khirwar said police had been carrying out multiple drives to check traffic and illegal parking problems. “Similar drives are also being carried out for checking the sale of drugs as well,“ he said.

Name

Origin of the renaming

The Times of India, Apr 14 2016

Sukhbir Siwach

Org Has Been At It Since 1988; RWAs Kept Out Of The Loop

Among the various organisations the Haryana government says petitioned it for changing Gurgaon's name to Gurugram is Sanskar Bharti, a cultural outfit affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The Gurgaon-based outfit has been demanding a name change of the city since 1988.Deputy commissioner T L Satyaprakash said besides Sanskar Bharti, Shri Mata Sheetla Devi Shrine Board and municipal councillors of Gurgaon had been demanding that the Millennium City's name be changed to Gurugram.

While announcing the name change on April 12, a Haryana government spokesperson had indicated it was the outcome of popular demand, saying several forums had made representations in its favour. A day later, with several RWAs saying they had nothing to do with it, the picture on who actually drove the name-change exercise became clearer.

Sanskar Bharti, for instance, has been mentioning Gurgaon as Gurugram on its letterheads since 1988 when the organization became active in Haryana. “It has been our old demand,“ said Ajay Singhal, who was an associate of the Sanskar Bharti for 17 years and was appointed director of Haryana Kala Parishad around two months ago. “We had put the demand before the chief minister in October 2014.We are happy ,“ he added.

Singhal also gave Sanskar Bharti credit for the nomenclature of Guru Dronacharya Metro station. The MCG's political wing also played its role.A House resolution was passed in August 2014 demanding renaming of Gurgaon.

“Not only R-S-S-affiliated organizations but many gram panchayats, RWAs and social organizations have been demanding the same,“ claimed Jawahar Yadav, a close aide of the CM and chairman of the state housing board.

The heads of two promi nent RWAs TOI spoke to said neither had they approached the government, nor had the government sought their opinion. “There was absolutely no need to change the name.The government should have sought public opinion,“ said VS Rana of Sector 23. “One can understand if it was done following an uproar or agitation. But there was none,“ said Rajinder Tehlan of Sector 21.

Politically, though, BJP can hardly be accused of playing the name game all by itself. A proposal to rename Gurgaon as Gurugram was first made by the Congress government of Bhajan Lal in 1992. Bhajan Lal's son and Haryana Janhit Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi on Monday welcomed the BJP's government's move.

Haryana revenue Captain Abhimanyu, whose department is presiding over the name change, termed the move a “correction of the aberration“. He also chose to link Gurgaon's past with mythology “It was a demand of the ge neral public. And the government consciously feels the time has come to position Gurgaon as a global city and connect it with its roots,“ Abhimanyu said.

Additional chief secretary (revenue) Dalip Singh said he had forwarded the proposal, sent by Satyaprakash last month, to the government after various organizations approached the district administration.

2016: Respelling Gurgaon as Gurugram

The Times of India, Apr 13 2016

Gurugrammar logic is based on mythology

RaoJaswantSingh

 The logic used to change Gurgaon's name to Gurugram is questionable.

Noted historian KC Yadav told TOI it is very difficult to give a stamp of approval on the state government's theory that the city was the land of Guru Dronacharya. He said there are actually two theories behind Gurgaon's name, but none could be verified as there is no contemporary material available.

“As per one theory , the (village) land was given to Guru Dronacharya and therefore it got its name as Gurugram (guru's village) and the second theory is that nomads used to hoard jaggery (gur) in the village in order to survive hard times during floods in the adjoining Yamuna river,“ said Yadav, who specialises in the history of Haryana.

Early mention of Gurgaon comes during the 1857 revolt when people of Gurgaon extended support to Bahadur Shah Zafar; Even during Akbar's reign, Badshapur and Jharsa were more important than Gurgaon as it was not even an administrative unit, according to him. “Gurgaon became known due to Sheetla Mata temple and a small ammunition de pot, but as far as its historical importance is concerned, there are no verifiable facts and only based on traditions,“ Yadav said.

Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh, who is a descendant of freedom fighter Rao Tula Ram of India's 1st war of independence in 1857, also said it is not known as when the city became Gurgaon from Gurugram. “During British rule, it was called as Gurgaon and it was the corrupt form of Gurugram, but no exact dates are available in this regard,“ he added.

The Manohar Lal Khattar government renamed Gurgaon as Gurugram and adjoining Mewat as Nuh, saying Haryana is a historic land of the Bhagwad Gita and Gurgaon had been a centre of learning since the times of Guru Dronacharya, the teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahabharata.

Changed to Gurugram: Official

It's official. Ggn is now Gurugram, Sukhbir Siwach, Nov 05 2016 : The Times of India

Gurgaon is now officially Gurugram. The Haryana government on 4 Nov 2016 issued a formal notification on the name change, the final step in changing the city's identity.“

The governor of Haryana is pleased to change the name of Gurgaon as Gurugram in Haryana ...,“ mentioned the notification issued by additional chief secretary (revenue) Kesni Anand Arora. The city will be referred to as Gurugram in all government and official records henceforth.

Soon after issuing the notification, the authorities also sent a copy of the document to Gurgaon deputy commissioner TL Satyaprakash, The deputy commissioner has been also asked to take immediate steps to change the name in official records.

Power/ electricity

14% comes from diesel gensets

The Times of India Dec 21 2015

Bagish Jha

Gurgaon

The summer of 2016 is likely to be crueller than its predecessor, but may prove kinder on power cuts if the government keeps its word.

Faced with the sobering statistic that nearly 14% of powerguzzling New Gurgaon's electricity load is borne by diesel gensets because of outages, the administration has prepared an action plan to reduce dependence on backup power within the next six months.

“In the next six months, we are trying to make areas like DLF phases 1 to 5 and Sushant Lok I, which use the most generators, free from power cuts by improving infrastructure under the zero-outage project,“ said Vinay Pratap Singh, additio nal deputy commissioner and special officer of the project.

He said the government is concerned about increasing air pollution in Gurgaon.Singh said curbs on use of generators would be imposed if the government can guarantee little or no outages. Singh admitted power infrastructure in New Gurgaon, most of which has been privately developed, is weak, forcing RWAs to buy gensets to deal with blackouts. Cutting down outages will certainly help reduce air pollution as gensets produce around 80.75MW power on an average daily in New Gurgaon alone, according to the power department. The av erage daily power shortfall in the area is around 103MW .

A 2013 Central Pollution Control Board study had found that diesel generators contribute 6% of PM 2.5 particles and 10% of PM 10 particles in Delhi and its neighbouring cities.

Environmentalist Jitendra Bhadana said, “Today , most commercial or residential facilities in the city own diesel generators. Its use has gone up in recent times due to frequent power cuts, thereby further polluting the environment.“

District pollution officer, Balraj Singh said, “Carbon emission in Gurgaon is high mainly due to the use of diesel for power backup. Diesel emits carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and particulate matter.“