Education, Housing and Environment form the core areas where Sudhakar Sonawane, the new Mayor of Navi Mumbai wishes to take new initiatives. He spoke of his life experiences, values and the things that influence his life in making him, what he loves to call, the first citizen of the city out of the last citizen, during an interview with Abhijit Mulye. Excerpts…
Please tell us about your journey to the first citizen of the city of the 21st century.
I started off from a very humble background. I had to leave my education incomplete and migrate to Navi Mumbai in search of a job due to a drought in the late 70s. Thus, when I came to the city, I was the last citizen. When I could settle a bit, I found myself involved in a number of community activities. I was attracted to the leadership of RPI chief Ramdas Athawale. For me, he was the national leader. And on local level I started following Ganesh Naik, who was then heading the local unit of Shiv Sena. My idea of political activism then was to be with people when they need you and not to thrust ourselves upon them all the time. I’ve lived this principle all through my political life. That is the reason why I could strike a healthy balance between my personal, professional and political life. I became corporator for the first time in year 2000. I realised the strength of bonding that the people in our locality had with me. I realised that being a representative of people is a big responsibility. Then I started having some structured dialogue with people in our locality. Before that I had started my own small business, which fortunately is running well. My daughter is pursuing studies in medicine now.
Any particular incident that has left an everlasting mark on your life?
I could not complete my school education. That always pained me. Later when I was in a position to do something, I realised that my natural inclination was towards helping people for pursuing their education. When I became corporator, I thought I should do something concrete in this regard and we started a school in our locality. The school that was started with 70 students in year 2000 is a prestigious educational institute with over 5,000 students today. There are many other things also. When I became corporator, I stopped chewing tobacco. I also pursued the administration to implement the ‘slum protection act 1971’ in the city of Navi Mumbai. Prior to that, for the administration, the slums did not exist in the city. I had to struggle hard to accept the fact about the slums in the city. This brought a big relief to the slum dwellers in the city. They too started getting civic amenities.
What are your areas of interest apart from education?
After working on the education front and the rights of slum dwellers, I realised that the most haunting issue after both these issues, is that of the environment. We then started tree plantation movement. I made everybody from my locality to plant trees on a nearby hill. We also developed a system wherein they were made accountable for maintaining those trees. This has led to a lush green forest with over 25,000 trees on that hill now. It now has a potential to be identified as a tourist spot.
What according to you is the solution to the problem of slums in cities?
Slums should not be looked down upon as a ‘stigma’. Slums are built out of necessity. They are there because we as a society have failed miserably in planning our cities. Even in this well planned city, we did not have provision for servants’ quarters. This has led to sprouting of slums in Navi Mumbai. All of us need several services throughout the day. But, as planners we hardly think where would all those people, right from the milkman in the morning to the watchman in the night, would stay. So, if slums are to be looked down upon, they should be looked down upon as monuments of our failure in planning. I don’t even feel that the schemes like SRA etc. would be able to solve the problem ever. In fact, schemes like these are covert invitation for people to build more slums. Instead of having schemes like these, building houses which can be given away on affordable rents can prove to be a better idea. It would support all those who come to cities to earn their bread and solve the problem of migration.
What is your vision for this city. What should people of Navi Mumbai expect from you?
Navi Mumbai is a planned city. It was built with a vision. People of this city expect their representatives to maintain this city and add to its amenities in such way that would support that vision. Fortunately under the leadership of Ganesh Naik, the people’s representatives have been successful in doing so till date. I too shall follow in his footsteps. As we have discussed earlier education, housing and environment are the specific fields where I have worked for past few years. They should form the core part of my endeavours as the Mayor. I would also like people to involve in governing this city. Being the planned city, we have good physical infrastructure but, for me the human capital of this city too is of an enormous potential. We have several retired officials from the armed forces. We can take their help for safety, security and disaster preparedness kind of issues. The city also faces issues related to environment and pollution due to proximity with the industrial belt. We can take help from the citizens’ groups in addressing issues like these. Similarly we have experts from other walks of life. I plan to take everybody’s help in making this city a better place to live in.
