Bangalore’s government has an excellent solution to the social problem of gated communities: simply abolish them by fiat.
It is noticed that several layouts within the old BMP area and the erstwhile
CMC area have established barricade preventing entry of vehicles and
pedestrians and have also put up boards mentioning that entry is
restricted.. They have even posted guards to prevent people from using the
road. Such layouts generally call themselves as “Gated community”. It is
hereby brought to the public notice that under the Town and Country Planning
Act, there is no such concept of a “Gated Community”. Once when any layout
is formed, the roads in the said layout automatically come under the
jurisdiction of the respective municipal corporation the general public has
free access to use the roads within the layout. Hence, establishing
barricades and preventing general public from using the internal road of a
layout is against the law.
It makes me sad that this kind of thing is unimaginable in Europe or the US.
[via the [sarai urban-study list](http://www.sarai.net/mailing-lists/mailing-lists/urban-study)]