Soothing Rain after hot Summer
What is that we are likely to see in a week or so? Rain Gods start showering their love by drenching us with warm water and making us happy to the hilt. Then the same rain gods cause havoc to our lives. We shall see water getting logged in almost all the main roads. All the streets and lanes will be seen with flowing rain water. Drainages are seen leaking and flowing through our streets. Mosquitoes are seen playing and enjoying. Open manholes, pot holes, open nalas flowing and so on.
Bitter Effects
Traffic jams everywhere. Motorists driving carefully to ensure that they avoid open manholes, pot holes as the places are inundated with water. Some cars getting stuck in the middle of the road because of engine break-down. People are seen walking on the road carefully as if landmines are planted, because they are not sure if there is any open manhole. Water coming into houses in low lying areas. Poor children getting drowned in the open manholes (God Forbid!). Poorly built houses, walls, under construction houses or bridges collapse killing and injuring people. Malaria etc spreading fast in epidemic prone areas.
Administration - The Spectators
Like our Indian movies where the police always come after the crime is committed or every thing is finished, the administration suddenly wakes up after the rain has caused the damage and start taking actions. The administration does not predict the extent of rainfall and the aftermath. All the traffic personnel are seen busy controlling the traffic. A few cops are seen pushing the cars which are broken in the middle of the road. Municipality personnel try hard to clear the logged water and trees etc which fell on the road.
The Drama of Opposition Parties
The rains come and go causing all problems to the common man. But during the gap (only) all our opposition leaders pour on to the streets wherever the damage is more. The bridge/wall collapses, they demand ex-gratia for the victims, punishment for the builders etc. A child gets drowned, along with the family of the child stage dharnas in front of collector’s office for justice. The traffic comes to a halt, utter chaos prevails hence declare that the total administration has failed etc and demand resignation from the Ministers including Chief Minister.
The Counter Attack of the Government
Now the leaders come out of their houses once the rain has stopped and start assessing the situation. They do not go to a place where the opposition parties have already reached to avoid confrontation. Once they hear the opposition parties charges they start digging out the statistics of the prior governments activities or actions. They may say “in your period there was heavy rainfall, x people got drowned, y people died of epidemic, z died of building/bridge collapse etc”.
Ecstatic Media
Our media brethren start flashing the opposition leaders who now have a chance to display their concern towards the society. They ask the same old known questions to the opposition leaders and relish their answers, thinking that they brought to light something new. Again work hard to pin point the ruling leaders but eventually fail to extract something new from them.
Do we see anything different this time?
Well, it is anybody’s guess or bet that we are going to see the something this rainy season also. Can any leader promise that there will not be any trouble during this rainy season? Can any leader list our the measures he is planning to avoid damage, inconvenience to the society etc. Again it is anybody’s guess that no leader can take these kinds of challenges.
Responsibility of the Administration
The administration has to foresee the problems much before the rainy season. The administration should :
Ø Identify the water logging areas
Ø Low lying areas
Ø Epidemic prone areas
Ø Heavy traffic areas
Ø Open Nalas
Ø Overflowing lakes, ponds etc.
Develop a mechanism or system in such a manner that the water does not get stagnated when it rains heavily, in busy traffic areas, at least. If we do not know how to do it we may have to import the know-how from developed countries. If required appoint a consultancy to carry out the study of the existing system and the issues and propose suitable solutions.
Before the rainy season the complete sewerage and drainage system should be thoroughly checked. It should be ensured that drainage system is completely leak proof. For heavy traffic zones routes should be diverted for rainy season at least. Ensure that all the roads are repaired before the rainy season. Measures should be taken that no malaria or epidemic breaks-out, near epidemic prone areas etc. If required educate the people on how to prevent malaria etc.
Responsibilities of Leaders
All our leaders instead of talking after the rain doing damage should run around their constituencies or regions and try to prevent the troubles beforehand. They should prepare a list of areas where :
Ø Manholes are open,
Ø Roads are in a shabby state
Ø Leaking drainages
Ø Bridges are under construction
Ø Low lying areas etc.
They should now make the life of the administration miserable and get these manholes covered, roads are repaired, drainages are sealed etc. They should ask the administration to list all the measures they are taking to remove the stagnant water fast, how they are avoiding traffic jams etc. They should even get all the new buildings, under construction projects get checked whether proper quality is maintained etc. If required hire for research agencies and ensure that the builders are using correct methods.
Moreover a leader is not the person who sits in the house eating hot bajjis and pakodas when it’s raining heavily, instead takes to the streets to see where all water is logged and what kind of troubles the rain is creating, check whether there are any open manholes etc. and ensure that the administration is on the job.
No comments:
Post a Comment