Rains come visiting

Last week, the king of seasons began its three-month long Mumbai sojourn. Rains, or as weathermen prefer to call it, the monsoon, evokes mixed feelings among the 150 million strong populace. On one hand, the season offers a pleasing change from the usually hot, humid climate the metropolis experiences around the year.

On the other, the monsoon also brings with it apprehensions of deluges, inundated localities, submerged railway tracks and traffic snarls due to waterlogging. The filth, the stench from the decaying of waste only gets worse by its close contact with stagnant water, the breeding ground for vector borne diseases.

Just a brief shower washes away road surfaces and creates potholes, making navigation a loathsome if not difficult task. If surface transport is impossible, railways are no better. Just 20-25 minute long torrent is reason enough for the suburban railway to delay train departures, if not cancel them outright.

The trauma of the common man is difficult to put into words. Returning home after a hard day’s work, he finds himself stranded mid-way, decides to opt for a bus, but only disappointment comes his way since the traffic has already turned sluggish.

The picture I have attempted to paint is not new. But what I want to convey is the picture turns grimmer every passing year, the perennial flow of migrants only adding to the woes. What is more intriguing is the simultaneously growing callousness on the part of authorities. What are they up to even as the tax-paying citizenry is left in the lurch on the streets?

The BMC blames it on the state government for insufficient financial support, which in turn vilifies the center for the non-release of promised funds. As a matter of ritual, and especially so if the central opposition is in power in the state, the center keeps the developmental schemes submitted under wraps for ages, and gets back to the state at the eleventh hour with their misgivings. Thus the buck continues to pass, even as the common man remains frozen in his tracks due to the abject failure of public administration.

Will this year be any better? We have a new municipal commissioner at the helm, even a new police commissioner since the last rains. Will the new incumbents succeed in keeping the chaos of the monsoons within manageable limits? The man on the streets has pinned his hopes on them, hope they in turn don’t let him down.