Modi is truly sweeping India. He has targeted the middle class, the businessmen, the farmers and the city dwellers alike. This is one PM who has also kept the youth and children foremost in mind. He is using his skill of oration to the hilt. The last bastion to fall was Haryana. We hope that we will see some direct effect of this on Gurgaon. Gurgaon today looks clumsy and dirty. It has lost its ‘new’ sheen in the quest for ‘development’. The image now is of chaos - a flyover here, a Rapid Metro there, a footbridge and an underpass planned randomly. The highway was ‘developed’ as the main artery of the City, simply forgetting that many people would need to cross over. Later, the issue of the toll plaza and Ambience Mall cropped up. Were the authorities blind to the existence of the Mall when the highway was being constructed - if I am not mistaken it came up along with, or before, the highway?
Coming to sanitation – the new Abhiyan. There is no civic agency in charge of this City. For example, DLF has its own ‘karamcharis’. Pigs can be found in every corner of DLF. When an epidemic hits the City, I doubt if the hospitals will be equipped to deal with it. Garbage is strewn all over. There are neither days nor a time fixed for garbage collectors. Empty plots are frequently used as dumping yards or else they become parking spaces – with pigs here also grazing happily until the street dogs spot them and the chase begins.
The DLF plots, which were to house a maximum of two families, are now housing many more, as the floors have increased. The result is that cars now virtually cover the roads. Parking areas have not been provided for in the plans. The ‘backyards’, which are forced to remain vacant, could have been easily provided for car parks. The planned increase in e-rickshaws will make the existing roads even more crowded. They are not governed by any rules and chug away in the centre, often blocking traffic. If these are allowed onto the main carriageways, there would be chaos. We need to change…now.
Can the ‘janta‘ hope that the City will be swept clean and the roads will be less choked? Can Gurgaon regain its lost lustre? Here is wishing the new government well in its effort to bring in the necessary changes. Of course we all should be ready to play our roles as civic and civil residents.
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