We have all heard and read the idiom ‘Promise the Moon’ — it means to promise something that is extravagant or going out of the way to do something for someone.
In Mumbai, Shiv Sena and BJP who run the BMC keep promising Mumbaikars ‘the moon’ every year, which means, a better life with a safe and smooth monsoon. But the fact of the matter is, what they end up creating on the roads of Mumbai is something that appears like the surface of the Moon. There are so many potholes (or craters) that come up on the roads during the monsoon that it gives us the feeling of traversing on the surface of the moon.
We may have not been on the moon but its careful study has informed us about its myriad details with pictures as proof. But the surreal feeling of being on the Moon is provided to us by Shiv Sena, BJP and BMC. Every year, this saga of pothole-filled roads continues, and nothing seems to have changed this year either.
According to reports, since the onset of monsoon this June, the BMC has been receiving as many as 35 complaints every day related to potholes. This is just the beginning of this season in Mumbai, so there will be many more complaints regarding the same for sure. The BMC is being run by Shiv Sena and BJP for over twenty years but they have failed to serve Mumbaikars and they continue to do so year after year.
One of the main reasons for potholes coming up during monsoons is the substandard and unprofessional work carried out by BMC’s road contractors. These contractors fail miserably whether it comes to repairing a road or re-laying one. They do not have the right quality of materials, and, in many cases, the technical expertise required to maintain our roads. Therefore, when it starts raining, the material used to make the roads gets washed away, leading to potholes everywhere. They then start the damage control exercise of filling these potholes in ways that are always found wanting. One of these methods is unprofessional, technically incorrect, and something that many of us may have experienced. Many a times, you see a vehicle carrying construction material stop by the road, a few workers hurriedly throw in some patch-up material on to fill a pothole and then flatten it. This is a stop-gap treatment to paper over the potholes. But once it starts raining heavily, the material loosens up and flows away with the rain water — leaving us to navigate the same pothole (if not worse) all over again.
Whenever there are questions raised on these issues and when the media highlights it, BMC supposedly starts blacklisting the contractors, but the fact of the matter is that these same blacklisted contractors who were (so-called) found guilty of bad execution of works, end up getting new contracts for other projects.
There are many examples to prove this and one of them is a blacklisted road contractor who now has a multi-crore Metro project. To divert the attention away from the people, these contractors are not given contracts of the works that they have failed in, but are moved to a different type of work project. So the question is, are they punished or rewarded? You know the answer to this question.
Blacklisted contractors have always found a back-door entry into the system and they are the reason why there have been so many deaths in Mumbai during the monsoon. The latest being the wall collapse at the BMC reservoir in Malad, which was later revealed to have been constructed by a blacklisted contractor.
Representatives of the incumbent political parties in majority in BMC when appearing on television debates go on to say that even if we blacklist a company, they change their name and come back. This surely is an alibi that reeks of corruption. In such a scenario, they need to work out a way and policy to make sure that they find out the credentials of these companies and if there is even a small proof of a commonality, then they must be banned. But this may not happen because the contractors are hand in glove with those who are incumbent. As long as this nexus continues and also as long as the administrators and the powers that be keep denying the wrongdoings and continue to blame the citizens, we cannot, and will not get better roads in Mumbai city. An example of this denial is that despite getting 35 complaints per day since June, the BMC claims that there are only about 100 potholes in Mumbai as of date, according to reports. Only a 100 potholes? I wonder what their definition of a pothole is.
Having written all that I have, a thought that comes to mind is this. As of now, I do not think any of us Mumbaikars are slated to go to the Moon, maybe someday some will, but thanks to the Shiv Sena, BJP and the BMC, we are surely getting to experience the unearthly feeling of traversing through the surface of the Moon. So, is this city now Mumbai or the Moon?
The writer is a columnist and spokesperson for the NCP