Let’s be responsible
A couple of days ago Mumbai was inundated with rain water. Ok with water. Some of it rain water, some gutter water and some sea water caused by the High Tide.
And yesterday a 117 year old building collapsed and killed about 20 people.
In both cases the people of this great country and city blamed the Bombay Municipal Corporation.
Funny. Since 1940s when construction started in Mumbai flooding has been happening. It is not new, but now it is aggravated.
What really happened is a huge huge shift in lifestyle. Today we use plastics for everything – from milk, bread, provisions…and most of the plastic is one time use and finds its way to the gutter. We have clogged the waterways and these pieces of plastic do not disintegrate for 200 years. So over the years the waterways are clogged and there is no place for water to go.
Who uses plastics? the rich, poor, educated, uneducated,…..all of them. Sorry all of us.
If I live in a 117 year old building, do I need anybody to tell me it is in a dilapidated state? gimme a break. The BMC declared it unsafe in 2012 but after that took no action. Why? the people refused to vacate. Great.
It is time we gave up the attitude of being in a mother’s womb and expect the mother to take care of us. Once you are out in the world you need to take care of yourself. YOU need to take responsibility for the building in which you are living. For the locality in which you are living. For the city in which you are living.
We need to take care of the garbage that we generate. We need to create associations (Advanced Locality Management bodies) that will ensure that our surroundings are clean. Is it too much of an ask?
When will we give up this ‘sarkar maai baap’ attitude and hope to be taken care of like a child in a womb?
Wake up Indians. Remember Swami Vivekananda’s words…Arise! Awake! stop not till the Goal is reached.
took this from FB…
I am a Mumbaikar – I see and read TV and news and social media creating a real good noise over MCGM’s failed response.
Yes, I agree that the MCGM failed in responding or pre-planning adequately to the water logging at a city level…. but just ponder over this…… Have not *YOU* failed in your civic sense at individual level?
*YOU* throw food wrappers and plastic plates and spoons out of trains’ windows and that does not bio-degrade causing blockade in rail drains – then the tracks are water logged and trains shut.
Who is to be blamed – MCGM or *YOU*?
*YOU* flush your condoms, sanitary pads and plastic objects down the toilet drain instead of putting it in garbage bin – this blocks the sewer flow speed .
Who is to be blamed –MCGM or *YOU*?
*YOU* park your cars on streets in such a way that drains could not be cleaned by MCGM trucks. Who is to be blamed – MCGM or *YOU*?
*YOU* do not segregate waste into wet and dry waste – *YOU* or YOUR waste collector dumps the garbage irresponsibly on the roads and it litters in rain waters.
Who is to be blamed – MCGM or *YOU*?
MCGM collects segregated waste n dumps it together. Have *YOU* raised your voice against it.??? Has the Red hued media said anything about it??
*YOU* do not carry re-usable bags to the market and bargain with the bhajiwala to give you extra plastic bags instead of going plastic free.
Arrey, Who is to be blamed – MCGM or *YOU*?
*YOU* can easily carry water in reusable bottles when you venture out of home – yet every time you purchase mineral water ( style mein, paying extra) and add to plastic waste once finished.
Who is to be blamed –MCGM or *YOU*?
Plastic WASTE ANYWHERE, EVERYWHERE, .kachra everywhere….Stop!!!!
but but but…also read this
Yogendra Patil
True..
Why Govt should give them 5 Lakh Rupees?
There are many such buildings, chawls.
Many people are neither leaving their old rented flats nor paying rent..or pays decades old rent of mere Rs. 15/- to 50 to Land Lord’s.
Roje Jose
I also echo the same thought all the time. There is no need to blame the government all the time, when we without any second thought, litter all our roads with chocolate/chip wrappers. All of it will accumulate and clog the nearby drain. How long the understaffed municipal do the work for us by tidying up all your carelessness?
This generation also is gone case regarding basic civic sense and etiquette. At-least the next generation should be taught from school level to maintain a clean/zero waste lifestyle. Swatch Bharath mission should concentrate its time and efforts towards that, instead of having stupid token actions like posing with a broom.
Vasantha
Excellent. You have written exactly what I have always been thinking. I am laughed at by many or rather scoffed when I carry multiple cloth bags in my handbag to buy vegetable, fruits & anything else. I keep giving advices to even unknown people on the streets, hoping that at least a small percentage will listen.
Infact illiterate or semi literate people accept my advices but the so called educated ones argue with me and reply that it is none of my concern.
Senthil
Me & my wife carry jute bags whenever we go shopping. Only 1 in 100 or so times, we forget or we truly have an unplanned shopping visit and no bags. Even when the store puts the stuff in a plastic bag (we forget to tell them we got a jute bag), we ask them to unload and put it all in our bag. We have used store provided plastic bags probably just 2 or 3 times in the past year, out of 100s of shopping trips.
We NEVER throw anything on the street. Not even bus tickets, chocolate wrappers. I have picked up such small stuff from the road, even if I have accidentally let it down.
I never understand why people keep even their own streets and surroundings dirty. If people throw garbage some distance away from their house, at least they are being selfish, it makes sense on some level! But I don’t understand why they throw garbage less than 50 feet from their own house!
I am on the verge of giving up on educating fellow citizens. Seriously, I am running out of mental energy and motivation to keep fellow citizens informed and educated about civic sense, despite the careless and sometimes hostile attitude.