Time to Act

 The city was waking up from the slumber as the overnight rain had created huge puddles all along the road. The erstwhile potholes have now become craters and if one looks at the satellite picture of the roads in Gurgaon, he will mistake them to be craters on the moon! Car, buses, motorbikes were all in a hurry and were splashing the water, on the poor pedestrians who were trying hard to find way on what once looked like a road.

During the day the weather kept playing hide and seek and by late afternoon the clouds gathered once more, rumbled and it rained for another one hour. Around 5 PM, most of the office goers collected their bags and left the office hoping that by sunset they would reach home. The millennium city was groaning under the weight of vehicles and everywhere as far as one could see there were huge traffic snarls. It had taken almost one hour to cover the distance of 1 km and still the main road was far away. By now some of the drivers that had lost patience started entering the roads from all directions leading to a situation that traffic came to a grinding halt. The situation was grim and there was no solution in sight! Desperate now, many of the office goers made beeline for the metro stations and packed like sardines, traveled to their destination.  Most people were too tired after an exhausting day and were waiting for the trauma to end. This is the situation in the city adjacent to the capital, which houses all the major MNC/ Government and Public sector undertaking offices almost every rainy day! Incidentally, the number of taxpayers contributing to the kitty would perhaps be the highest here.

The scenario is much the same in the capital itself and most of the major metro cities with all major roads clogged with traffic and water overflowing from every drain and small rivulets running next to the roads on the rainy days. A low feeling of the collapsing infrastructure in bigger cities is visible all around.

Is it really very difficult for the municipal authorities to clear the drains and create a drainage system that works, when needed most! Is it so difficult for the traffic police to be available to guide the traffic in such times when people need them the most? Why it is that only the Armed forces are remembered and asked to assist the civil agencies that behave as if they have been paralyzed when emergencies arise? We never learn any lessons and the story repeats year after year only the locations keep shifting. We may take pride of Indians who are serving in every sphere with brilliant contributions but situation at home does not appear to be improving! We can only debate endlessly on prime time on TV shows but do little tangible except indulging in blame games! It is time to put our act together before it is too late!

PS: Image Kind courtesy Google