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Two
or three days ago the local daily Dainik Bhaskar published photographs of
deplorable condition of roads. Drains were shown as overflowing and so were
sewers and this was happening right across the town. I got interested as one of
the photographs was from my neighbourhood on the Idgah Hills.
The
manhole that was overflowing was the one on the tri-junction of Cambridge
School and it seems to have been overflowing for a few days. It does so
frequently; perhaps the sewer lines do not have the capacity to take the muck
and it gets accumulated until it moves upwards and finds an outlet through
manhole cover.
I
think it is highly callous of the Municipal Corporation to allow this noxious
fluid to flow freely through the road with substantial traffic passing by every
minute. Students of Cambridge School go sloshing through the accumulated filthy
water. Besides, a fishmonger sets up his shop on the road next to it and
vegetable and fruit sellers park their pushcarts not far from it. People buy
their needs despite the very unhygienic surroundings. Surely the Corporation
officials would be collecting their informal tax (hafta) from these
street-merchants periodically. And yet all these people are made to ply their
trade in such insanitary environment.
Free-flowing
manholes are so common that when we see one we take it as given. Actually, when
we come across municipal workers de-choking a manhole we are surprised as it is
something which is rarely witnessed. And, if the municipal workers happen to be
wielding a de-choking machine it would seem to be out of this world. The other
day, while passing by from the New Market area I happened to come across a municipal
worker at work on an overflowing drain with a machine. The Municipality, quite
obviously, has these machines that have been bought at the tax-payers’ expense,
yet these are generally moth-balled or are deployed in areas inhabited by VIPs
or are not deployed at all. The overflowing drain near Cambridge School is a
case in point.
My
mind travelled back a few decades to pre-independence India where the
municipality of Gwalior, the capital of the princely state of Gwalior used to
do these civic jobs quite regularly. Although all the operations were done
manually yet they were done at regular intervals. As a child I used to position
myself on the verandah of our first floor house overlooking the street to get a
ring side view of what the municipal workers would be up to. I distinctly
remember the equipment they used to bring to switch on a tap embedded in the
road and to attach a fat hose to it to wash the roadside drains. The high pressure
of water from the hose would clean away in minutes all the muck in drains
deposited over time.
Likewise,
two people would come to clean the manholes. They would remove the heavy lid
and uncover the manhole and one of them would climb down into it with a pan
tied to a rope. He would manually shovel the muck into the pan and then holler
for the other to pull it up. A pretty simple operation and, if conducted
regularly, was devoid of any risks. In our national capital this system was
prevalent until recently when a few workers were killed by the noxious gases.
Obviously manholes had not been cleaned regularly and the lethal gases were
allowed to accumulate.
Soon
after independence all these operations were discontinued, seemingly because we
had gained freedom and cleaning up the muck from the drains apparently became
redundant. It is such a pity that what a feudal administration could ensure for
the health and wellbeing of the citizens the people’s own governments have been
unable to do. During the feudal times it was the fear of the higher-ups that
made the municipal workers to carry out their duties regularly and sincerely.
Now it is free for all; nobody needs to carry out one’s duties. Besides, things
have become so big that the right hand does not know what the left hand does.
In the process, hardly anything gets done. No wonder things are in a mess.
The
Municipal Corporation is provided with every necessity by way of men and
material and yet it fails to carry out its duties. Obviously, it is very
loosely administered and the officers have no grip over the areas of their
activities. It is nothing but sheer inertia and carelessness that keeps them
away from carrying out their functions effectively. No wonder the city suffers
from the ravages of overflowing manholes, potholed roads, denuded greenery and what have you.
*Photo from internet
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