BMC likes making life a living hell for Mumbaikars….

Last year just before the onset of the monsoon (methinks it was around June 5 or so), the BMC in its infinite wisdom decided to scrape off almost the entire top layer of the Vakola flyover. In fact the contractors had just finished the top layer about four months before it got scraped off. So a perfectly good road was made un-motorable because of some insane order being given by some stupid mandarin sitting in the BMC. That bad stretch got completely damaged by the end of the monsoon creating huge traffic jams which otherwise would not have been there. In fact the repair job was completed just about a month back – you drive over the flyover now and you will realize that India is probably the only country in the world where you can have undulating layers on a bridge, making the entire ride a nice and bumpy one. I have a theory that the guys sitting in BMC and the contractors together have got a deal going with the motor garages for sending them a regular stream of customers with vehicles requiring frequent maintenance due to the condition of the roads.

That was last year – what about this year? Just travel along any road in the city, be it a main road or a by-lane you will find frenetic digging activity has just commenced. Mind you – the monsoons got over in October – we have lost five months when this work could have started and ended – but nope – the work has to start in March so that the lazy mandarins do not get a kick up their backside for not utilizing approved budgets! By starting digging in March – a double objective is achieved – budget is utilized and a new avenue for making some underhand money opened. How? you will ask! It’s simple really, the work will not get over before the monsoon, so the contractor will do a slipshod job in covering and paving the road, so with the first rains huge pot holes will appear – in some cases craters – would probably be easier driving on the moon! The pot hole filling contract is worth about Rs. 10 crore during the 4 months of monsoon. How are the pot holes filled? Rubble or construction waste is poured into the pot holes and a road roller is used to “level” the rubble – Rs. 10 crore for repairing roads with rubble! This action is futile as with the next heavy shower the mud comes out, the road becomes dirty and slippery giving rise to an increase in two wheeler accidents and who is to blame. We Indians would put it down to fate – “naseeb kharab tha” you see. Actually it is the citizens collective fate which is bad as we have to deal with a corrupt bureaucracy ruled by still more corrupt politicians who get their pound of flesh from contractors who are nominees of the politico-bureaucracy nexus! The majority suffers to protect and line the pockets of the corrupt.

It is high time we stopped this nonsense by protesting or at least initiating action for change. The coming elections are a good time to start looking for a change – at least in our city. Let us vote in people whom we can trust – professionals like ourselves. Please join the Professionals Party of India (PPI) which has right thinking people who can help us get out of the rut which we have willy nilly dug ourselves into by being indifferent at the time of elections. This is a wake up call – if you want change then you need to be the change. Please participate by becoming members of the PPI and telling your friends, relatives and colleagues about it. You can go to www.ppi.net.in for more information. One of the founder members is a school buddy and I for one am going to participate in giving our great country real independence. We may have got independence from the British, but we have become slaves to our own people because we are apathetic during elections. Normal answer is what difference does it make to me! It does make a difference my friends, we are ruled by uneducated criminals who use ill gotten money to win elections and to recover that money perpetuate corruption post elections. It is a self feeding cancer which needs to be excised and burnt. You can do this only if you participate in the change for the better as envisaged by the PPI. You may say there are a lot of parties like the PPI, which again is true, but in due course of time the idea will be to merge the parties to form a united professional front against politics of appeasement and corruption. The idea is to get elected and then from within the system slowly but surely force a change in values, so that the entire system is cleaned from top to bottom. It will be a struggle for sure – but what’s life without a struggle!