1) Prevent road accidents – a clarion call
Jaguar vehicle losing control and ploughs the car into at least six vehicles and injuring two pedestrians at Andheri West is one more case of negligent driving in the heart of the city. The RTO should be stringent in issuing the license to negligent drivers in future to avoid fatal mishaps. The main reason for this is rash and negligent driving. Motor drivers forget about the danger and drive rather fast and without any concern for the others on the road already. Drunken driving is the root cause for rash driving. To avoid road accidents proper strictures will have to be passed on all the roads without fail. It is time to check traffic rule violations of jumping signals, breaking no entry barrier and over speeding within the city limits.
– Akhilesh Krishnan
2) Disaster on the cards
After the Elphinstone stampede, spectre returned to haunt commuters after Delisle bridge closure. The Lower Parel bridge shutdown leads to a near stampede and has become another recipe for disaster. The Gokhale Bridge in Andheri did make a difference and the Lower Parel bridge closure came in the wake disasters on the western line of local trains in the recent past. Hundreds of jittery Mumbaikars, who negotiated an extremely rickety and narrow bridge in Lower Parel in the peak hour were nagged by the memories of the Elphinstone Road stampede. The overcrowding ordeal in this pocket was caused by the thrust upon them after the closure of one side of the busy Lower Parel station bridge. Anyway, disaster prevented as of now but the fear continues to haunt passengers travelling through local trains.
– Arati Abhishek
3) Equip NDRF team with helicopters to reach accident sites quickly!
Shocked and saddened to learn about the fatal accident of a bus that plunged into a gorge near Mahabaleshwar that killed 33 innocent lives on board. One miraculous escape and another who didn’t board the bus due to illness makes one belief in fate and destiny but such accidents can be prevented by road safety infrastructure and safety norms in future. Road accidents are on the rise killing thousands every year but nothing much is being done to rectify snarls that cause such tragedies.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has its own challenges as they got stuck in traffic jam for hours which prevented rescue operations that could have saved a few precious lives. The NDRF should be equipped with helicopters to reach accident sites quickly but sadly the choppers are earmarked to ferry politicians on pleasure trips which is a sad state of affairs in our country. Infrastructure and good roads build nations and government should construct quality expressways and roads with proper backup facilities so that accidents are minimal and emergencies are taken care of with minimum casualties!
– S.N.Kabra
4) Weekly holiday in markets of Indian capital city
Delhi should adopt a uniform pattern of weekly holidays. All those markets remaining open on Sundays should be uniformly closed on Saturdays. Outsiders coming to Delhi will be sure of the opening of all markets for first five working days of the week. Shopkeepers and their employees will have at least one common weekly holiday with government employees under a five-day week system in government offices. However, the shops of essential services like barber, flour-mills etc. may have Tuesday as a common weekly holiday. When Mumbai can follow uniform weekly-off on Sunday without any problem, Delhi can at least step for optional off on Sunday or Saturday.
To achieve greater efficiency, all offices should have a longer pre-lunch session of four hours, like in public-sector banks. Offices having limited public-dealing hours will thus find a greater pre-lunch session for public-dealing leaving a shorter but hindrance-free post-lunch session exclusively for office-work.
Peak-hour traffic-rush in Delhi and adjoining areas of National Capital Region – NCR, can and should be divided by having different starting hours for different institutions. For example, educational institutions can start at 8.30 am, banks at 9.00 am, government offices at 9.30 am, private-offices at 10 am, the courts at 10.30 am, and shops at 11 am. Haryana government likewise has scattered working hours for different industries in Manesar to tackle peak-hour traffic-rush at Delhi Gurgaon Expressway.
– Madhu Agrawal
5) Lynching episodes
Mob lynching is becoming more widespread in India as the elections approach closer. Somehow or other, it seems a conspiracy against the present government to show that the present rule has brought about an increase in rapes and lynching episodes. The mob lynching is indeed a heinous crime and condemned by all sections of society. Based on misinformation and hearsay a handful of hooligans take the law into their hands. The honourable Supreme Court has already issued directions to the Union Government and the States has to check such abominable crimes. Also, the Court has directed the Central Government to enact separate law in the Parliament to deal with the menace. The recent Alwar incident of mob lynching took place with utter disregard to the apex court directions. The local police and the State administrations have greater responsibilities to firmly deal with the matter and ensure that such incidents do not recur. Who will save our great Constitution? It is time to take stock of the situation and prevent lynching episodes immediately.
– C.K Subramaniam
6) Pothole problems
It is indeed a traumatic experience for road users in Mumbai city. Even the highways are having potholes and that hamper the traffic. Traffic snarls are seen on focal points and the Sion-Panvel highway suffered the most. CBD Belapur Bridge was a bottleneck in the past for the expressway travellers and with potholes as well as craters the position has become bad to worse. Motorists were caught unaware of the potholes and craters. The chaos continued throughout the monsoon days from June. If the condition of the bridges is so bad, the plain roads in the city showed a pathetic position with full of potholes. Potholes pose a problem for two-wheelers, while four-wheelers are troubled with craters. It is now or never situation and a wakeup call for BMC.
– Chitra Rugmini
7) Maharashtra Bandh
The State-wide shutdown called by the Maratha Kranti Morcha, following the suicide of a young activist demanding reservation for the Maratha community, kept Maharashtra on edge. The election is coming so even a small party will raise their head with different issues, nothing new. Quotas and reservations ought to be banned. It was only meant to be for a few years after independence, but now every community wants reservation irrespective of backward or not, and, in the name of caste people fight and put the entire country to ransom, we are growing backwards not forward. Another problem occurs is vandalism committing damages to public properties. We should restrain such atrocities, which is unwarranted and is not a solution but will add to losses to the government. Responsible media should lend some support to the government to fight off such unnecessary and divisive methods that the youth of the country has resorted to. The commercial capital suffered and the Indian economy suffered a very big blow in the name of bandh.
– Jayanthy Anandambal
8) An impressive and effective move
To unclog Mumbai, Maharashtra State plans elevated roads over highways and it is a right step in the right direction. The impressive move to have elevated roads has come at a right time when Mumbai road users face tough time in the busy streets of Mumbai. Sooner or later we wish to have a free ride and elevated roads have come handy to solve this peculiar problem. This thinking echoes the recommendations of a technical committee set up by the government whose report, submitted in 2011, had advanced two incredibly counter intuitive arguments for taking such an initiative including coastal freeway. The initiative made by the government is a right step in the right direction and needs to be complimented.
– Nikhil Krishnan
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
