Shaher mein gadhhe nahin, gadhhe mein shaher hai!

Does some one remember this dialogue of "Electric Baba" in the movie "The Wednesday" (This is not a movie review... I loved the movie). This scene was so not required in the movie but I am so glad it was there. Someone falls in a gadha with live wires and survives an electric shock, it was sort of a spoof on the condition of our city.

But what the actor said was so true "Shaher mein gadhhe nahin, gadhhe mein shaher hai!". After all the PILs and Court orders, has BMC really done anything for Mumbai ke gadhes. Right to Information (RTI) the tool given to Indians to seek answers from public organizations and officials comes with a price tag. It is an expensive and a time consuming affair. Firstly confirm the BMC ward that the locality that you are complaining about? Secondly find out by going to that ward (which by the way is very unorganized and would mean a 30-45 min wait) which corporate managed the roads department. Then they’d tell you that the road in question is not under BMC directly it is under some other sub-division… then I didn’t have the patience to pursue it further.

Basically they will do everything it takes to waste your time and test your patience. If you are a job going person like me, then soon the patience would wear off, you’d accept the gadha’s in the roads and move on. You’d stop pursuing the problem. The only way that this problem can be solved is by having 1 person to pin point for every small to big government undertaken project. Have a web-site with the names and contact info of such persons. Make the babu’s accountable for every singe penny. Put CC TVs in their offices. Make sure those TV’s work.

Is all this that difficult that it just can’t be done? Then why can’t our government do small things and make our lives a little simpler. I have the answer because they are “GOVERNMENT,” they have pledged to “Help not the common people, help the rich who’d in turn make you rich.”