THE pictures tell the story without words. The pictures ‘The Hitavada CityLine’ published on September 25, 2024 -- of the pools of rain water at Kachipura and Bajaj Nagar squares -- actually mock at the tall claims of the city leadership that they are modernising the city’s road system. The two pictures prove that the claims are just hollow. Both the intersections are in the city’s prime area, and yet give a clear impression of a failed civic management. One small rainy spell, and many areas in the city start boasting of pools of water that refuse to dissipate hours after the rains are over. The people have to ride or drive their vehicles wade through those pools, all the time afraid that the two-wheelers may slip and slide. The city, thus, has to suffer a double trouble when the rains come. One is caused when the rainwater does not have clearance space and outlets since the roads and sidewalks are fully paved with no scope for water to escape deeper into the unpaved ground. The civic administration has added to the problems by not levelling up of the intersectional space (centre of the square, so to say).

 

Many such intersections, thus, look and act like saucers accumulating pools of water that takes very long time to vanish -- mostly from evaporation and only scantily through the ground. This problem has been highlighted by thousands of people through verbal or official complaints to the civic body -- of course to no avail. Because the city leadership ignored the public outcry, a lot more damage has happened due to rains in the city. ‘The Hitavada CityLine’ also published early this week a disturbing rec all of the last year’s flood that left indelible scars on the city. Yet, most of the issues raised by ‘The Hitavada CityLine’ have not been addressed even partially. The trouble is that the city leadership is engaged in making tall claims and fighting political battles ahead of the State elections due in the next two months. So, it is in no mood to listen to people’s complaints but not in a mood to rectify the mistakes it has made. Of course, at some point in time, some rectification will have to be effected. But for that eventuality, the city’s leadership does not seem to be ready mentally and politically.

 

The loosefooter has always insisted upon a saner model of urban development. In the past some years, enough public opinion has been created against the model of development adopted by the city of Nagpur. Yet, there is nobody out there to listen to the genuine complaints and opinions of the people. Where does the city go from here? This question has multiple implications, stated or unstated. No matter what the leadership’s wish-list is, but the people are quite sure that there is not likely to be any change for the better. The most unfortunate thing is that even in the pre-election time, the people’s voice is not heard, is not to be heard, and is not likely to be heard even in future. No city will ever want to bargain for such a condition. It is time now to state clearly that at least at this point, the common people have no alternative to the current arrangement. So, they must consign themselves to fate of having to put up with bad civic management arising out of bad decisions on urban growth and development. n