Mumbai has gone under again as we quibble, squabble and sink — no questions answered
A top doctor getting sucked into death just because the civic authority failed to close a manhole is modern India’s biggest criminal deed which will never reach a court. Although it should and that too a fast track one, not just to bring the guilty to book but also to ensure that negligent civic administrations across the nation do the job they are being paid for. The Mumbai deluge, second in recent memory, is taking its toll despite a cash-rich (apparently Rs 8,500 crore was earmarked long back for plugging the holes), well-networked and adequately manpowered Mumbai Municipal Corporation. It has escaped the stick despite a lesson it should have learnt much before the 2005 disaster that stunned the megapolis, took lives, paralysed the city for over 15 days, posted huge business losses, damaged infrastructure and ushered in fatal pestilence. To blame suspend public servants or form probe committees is an empty assurance from an empty-headed Government meant to ward off an angry but equally empty-headed citizenry it rules. Without going into the profundity of the issue, first wield enough honest power to bring back civic bodies into a semblance of working condition. Altering mindsets to change work ethics and bring in accountability will come later, only after an example of punishment is set in right earnest. let the department(s) responsible for this manmade disaster go to jail, let their successors know that work needs to be done, let there be political will. Simple, doable work like plugging manholes and clearing drains is no sorcerer’s complex black spell which can’t be broken.
Quite alarmingly, it is not just Mumbai which is waiting to sink every monsoon. Urban deluges have become as high as the concrete they try to sink. The shocking negligence rears its head in the absence of sound city plans and futuristic developmental mores of governance. Chennai went under the other year and remained so for over a month. Schools had to be closed, diseases had to be fought and life was lost without concern. Delhi spends hours getting to work or anywhere else even if the skies open up for a 10-minute downpour. Open manholes have not just taken lives in Mumbai but also in the capital where a young girl was sucked into one near Defence Colony and fished out dead some two km away as all watched helplessly. Kolkata fends every downpour like a lost battle and IT capitals like Bengaluru and Hyderabad are still to come up with software to deal with urban flooding. Indian life is cheap, cheaper than a kilo of potato you buy off the shelf on a discounted day. Equally cheap, and consequently weak, are the tenets of governance. When Katrina hit New Orleans thousands were affected. But the local administration and federal Government, both had pressed the max-button on their relief and rescue operations — something Indian administrations never factor in. Act hard, act now is a dictum staring us down. But then, yes we can, but oh no, we won’t!