Noida Violence Exposes Deep Governance Deficits

Unrest in Noida reveals widening inequality, failing public infrastructure, and policy neglect in India’s fastest-growing urban corridor

By MANISH ANAND

New Delhi, April 15, 2026 — Noida violence brought the normal life to a halt. The police probe claimed that Noida violence was a planned stir backed by tech-led toolkits. As the city ever expands with factories and high-rises doting the landscapes, Delhi’s neighbourhood city presents a case where the visible governance has largely been absent.

Seven years ago, an army of domestic helps had surrounded a high-rise society to pelt stones. The trigger was an allegation of theft against the domestic help. That incident had been recurring across the city which now links up with Greater Noida contiguously.

The combined population of Gautam Budh Nagar District will be staggering. Noida-Greater Noida population may also exceed population of any other Uttar Pradesh city. Yet, governance here has been largely about a Chief Minister occasionally flying for an event.

Sample the case of Noida Extension, a city within Greater Noida with a living population crossing almost one million by a rough estimate. There is no government hospital. There is no government school. There is no public transport. The police infrastructure is also miniscule.

Last week, residents of the expanding township went to Noida Sector 52 to symbolically pull Metro pillar. The area was promised a Metro connectivity almost a decade ago. But the approved project has been forgotten. With no buses and no Metro, the twin city people are largely dependent on private cars and recklessly driven three-wheelers.

The sound bites of protestors in Noida roughly raise twin issues of an inadequate minimum wage and a lack of public school and healthcare. “Why can’t we send our children to a private school,” a domestic help was heard telling a YouTuber. Her lament should wake up the Uttar Pradesh government, for a city that highlights income inequality invites trouble if basic public facilities are missing.

Private hospitals and schools are mushrooming in Noida-Greater Noida region. Fees pinch even the middle class. Absence of governance can also be gauged from the fact that while the government mandated school admissions from four years onwards, schools in the city circumvented the policy to admit little children in “pre-nursery” classes at three years of age. Additionally, the schools here show utter contempt for any hints of governance by conducting “interviews” of such small children who are supposed to answer questions of teachers at an age of three years.

Noida and Greater Noida have been cash cows for Uttar Pradesh. But Lucknow is long away from the twin cities. Bureaucrats running the Commissionerate possibly lack voice in Lucknow. Political masters in Lucknow must introspect — is the state even spending fractions of revenue generated from Noida and Greater Noida. The answer is a loud “no.”

(This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author’s own.)

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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