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REALTY SPEAK
Guard your infrastructure
D. MURALI
Driving on the beach road this morning, I hoped once again in vain for the signal to turn red, so I can keep looking at the fierce waves duelling with the shore even if for only a few seconds. But that was not to be, because the traffic kept moving, what with VIP cars zipping past in a tearing hurry, with lights on, and cops shooing off motorists. What an irony that the very people who are meant to serve the common man are so insulated from the ground realities, I thought.
One such reality is the status of our road infrastructure, either clogged up with too many vehicles finding their way through haphazard parking, or dug up for reasons few would be aware of. It must be said to the credit of the police that they are visible in many places, to ease the traffic flow. But they too are helpless when a vehicle sporting red flashing lights, of a politician or a sarkari babu, seeks preference to everybody else. Thus, even as you battle out the harshness of a 5 kmph crawl on a scorching morning, there is this ‘highness’ bungling with Sudoku, for all you know, in the rear seat of an air-conditioned car blaring its way as if the voter didn’t matter.
Come to think of it, infrastructure is more than a seawall or a software park. It does make a difference even when you are inside your house, by ensuring predictability in the supply of essential services such as power and water. Infrastructure comes under stress and, at times, breaks down in times of crisis. A reader mails in with a comparison to show how the response time during Mumbai floods betters what the US could achieve post-Katrina.
One reason, in my view, is that we don’t bet much on the authorities. Haven’t you heard of stories from your Mumbai friends and relatives of common people standing on the road and helping the stranded?It is easy to say that the right opportunities for displaying our goodness haven’t arisen, but I won’t buy such an argument, because there is ample scope to better our infrastructure, at the micro level. Don’t take it lying down if, for instance, a pavement shop encroaches upon your road, or if a commercial operator menacingly stations his taxis on the short stretch you have to connect your house or flats with the road.
Though certain decisions and actions are risky, as a citizen, have to get your point across to those who subtract value from the infrastructure which is very much your right. In most cases, the errant backtrack, once the game is over. But when does that happen? After the y know that you have found out that what they do is wrong, and, more than that, you have called the bluff by daring to errant ice your protest.
Feedback to dmurali@thehindu.co.in
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