Speed of development in the city is now putting life of citizens in the peril as was exposed by the deluge that hit the city on Saturday. Especially, the newly-laid network of cement roads being constructed in name of upgradation of infrastructure is now the biggest bane. And the argument was ‘cemented’ when the authorities themselves were forced to dig the newly-paved concrete road on Manewada-Besa stretch. The heavy rains exposed the shoddy planning and blind execution in total disregard to the laid down norms. What is more damning is that Government itself is at forefront of violations and in the most brazen manner. Development is now being forced down the throat of hapless citizens whose say does not matter at all. Even basic logic, that for rain water to disperse one needs big drains, has not been figured in the planning aspect either in the mind of planners and or those who are commissioning these concretisation projects.

 

 

Most citizens end up blaming their luck as years of living under fear has made them meek and forgiving rather than standing up and questioning the leadership and seeking answers. The rains on Saturday are not one isolated incident that occurred overnight but have been brewing for some time owing to mindless destruction of tree cover, and that too in name of development. In fact, the session of State Legislature, one that was to be held in monsoon, got washed away in city due to no cleaning of drains and increased height of newly constructed cement roads in Civil Lines area.

 

That incident failed to force rethink not only among the State leadership but also among the city administrators who are meekly submitting to whim and fancies of external decision makers who are less concerned with the citizens’ convenience. Due to climatic changes, rain fury is going to be an often repeated feature but little action is seen on ground. Reshaping the policies and response from the Government agencies is the need of the hour. The bane of city is again multiple development agencies angling their own agenda wherein habitation and civilisation living comfort and existence seems to matter less and less these days. So what we have is reactive administration with little scope for corrective action learning from past mistakes. Even post-Ambazari floods of last year, the leadership dismissed with air of super confidence any idea that cement road heights was responsible for water entering in homes of citizens. But fact remains that no one could anticipate that height of road would increase 36 inches within an year as historically the yearly tarring only added two to three inches.

 

The way the base height of houses was laid then, no one complained about the rain fury as hardly any area witnessed such flooding as is seen these days. So the argument that increased height of concrete roads, at places it is now 3 feet from base height, has put people in spot as their constructions are as old as 20 to 40 years and no one could anticipate the speed of development would come so fast. Perhaps they under estimated the dreams of leadership that is on over-drive mode to transform entire Nagpur into a model city, which is now left to individual conclusions. Even during the construction of cement roads, a thought was put across to dig as deep as possible so that the new layer of concrete should match with existing tar road level.

 

However the argument was dismissed by authorities executing the project claiming that why should the settled soil layer be disturbed. But citizens are asking why officers are so concerned about saving a few bucks as ultimately safety and ensuring proper drainage of rain water is the most essential element in road planning. In earlier years, the road shoulder used to mandatorily have soil component and same would ensured that rain water would get absorbed. Now Nagpur has progressed so much that planners are bending backward to cover up every bit of soil element by laying mindless layer of concrete paver blocks. But the same set of engineers officer, planners are not concerned about mismatched road level and that of drains most of which are never cleaned. The concrete drains by road side are misnomer as if they get blocked, no agency can clean them and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is ill-equipped to ensure it. The machines with the civic body are pretty old and no thought is given to induction of new suction machines to handle the cleaning of drains.

 

Even the dreamy metro rail project has become an eye sore, especially during rains the holes meant to clear out the water gets converted into water fall throughout the route. The fly-overs ooze out water with full force and same should drain out from the road but no one give a damn about it. With the onset of monsoon, there is rise in cases of dengue and chikungunya and fresh water is stated to be responsible for breeding of mosquitoes. But authorities in city are deliberately putting citizens’ live in grave danger by taking extra care to create puddles across length and breadth of city.