Termites at the Core

It’s been a long time since I pondered upon the state of affair in India. Scams and scammers, available by plenty. Corrupt governance, rising cost of living, failing PSU(and I am not talking about Air India. Today I read it in the news that BSNL is on brink of exhausting it’s cash reserves by the end of the year, and will be a total lossmaking company owned by the Indian government.), constant threat to the security and high handed, blackmailing politics, has led the people to write off India as an unsuccessful country. I had hopes in it. I had hopes in the current government. The statement of the prime minister made me sad. He said that since there was a lack of clear majority for any single party to form the government, they had to make sacrifices. After all, he said, we can’t have elections every six months. The ill effects of these “sacrifices” are quite visible and open at this moment.

This country has termites at it’s core. Literally!! There is corruption everywhere. To fill the coffers of a select few, the basic rights of a human being are being taken away. Just few examples(and this list can go on and on) to prove how India is rotting deep within.

The Hill View

Our office has just recently moved to a new location in navi Mumbai, and the location has quite a good scenic beauty. We have a lake on the front, and hills(which turn green on the our back. The Dow chemicals plant  on the side looks good, especially since it had shut down. Our pantry faces the hills and we have enjoyed the beauty for quite some time now.

Now, a sudden change in the scenery has been itching into my eyes since a few weeks. The hill is being replace by air. Stone quarries have come up on the foot of the hills, and large portion of it has been excavated in very short time. The section has turned to gray, the colour of stone. At the pace the work is carried out, I am am afraid that by next year, there will be a plateau instead of the hill.

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Is there no impact in environment due o this large scale excavation?Are there any environmental clearances obtained before starting to destroy a hill!! As a colleague explained, the officials deal with the traders of the stone. Up to a certain height, the hill belongs to the government, and above that, the hill is sold for digging. If that is true, we will have no hills in Mumbai, in about 50-100 years(considering that India itself, as a country, exists at that time).

If this kind of excavations happen all over India, then combined with the Pakistani and Chinese incursions, we will have a new world map.

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Pakistan and china will have bigger territories to dictate upon, and sri lanka will be without a neighbor.

The Lake View

The lake is one beauty in front of our office. I make it a point to view out of the window once in a day to view the calm lake and relax my mind. It’s quite helpful, believe me. Especially since all the noise of the traffic is not heard from our fourth floor.

The picture shows the Thane-Belapur road, which is the lifeline of the industrial belt in this area. An earth moves can be seen digging out the road shoulder. This is not the first time that this work is being carried out. The road had already been dug about a month back. The second picture will show clear signs(not tell-tale signs, but clear signs) of the previous operation. Forget about paving it back to it’s original state, the dug up area has net even been leveled out. This is not a one off example. This happens all over Mumbai, and I guess, all over India(I am not sure if I can include Gujarat). Roads are dug up, then filled back after the work(usually laying down pipes) is completed. Then someone remembers something, and they are dug up again, this time, either damaging one pipe, or the underground phone lines, which too pass exactly through the same area. No one in the municipal corporation seem to know where the underground cables are laid, and this results in broken communication system. And no one seems to bother at all to lay down tar on the damaged section of the road. This happens all the time and people have got used to it. In a busy Mumbai life, no one seems to take notice. And the corrupt go on a free rampage.

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My Beautiful Vasai

Many times in this blog I have posted about how beautiful my place of birth and current residence is, and how it is being robbed of its natural beauty and space by a nexus comprising some ministers, members in the government, and few local goons.  And the development authority has chipped in with their contribution in destroying the environment.

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This was the structure of the area where I live. The circles(irregular shaped), on both sides of the road(parallel lines) are trees, not stones. There were trees all along the road from Bolinj village to our green belt. Suddenly one night, and emergency operation was done and next day morning we find this!!

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This was done to facilitate the road widening project by the MMRDA(Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority). All it has managed to do is destroy a part of the beautiful green belt. That part, which was kind of a welcome gate to the villages. Now we have wide road from one end of Bolinj to Agashi, and other end of Bolinj to virar. Sad part is that Boling itself is a bottleneck. The widening project is hindered here due to lots of houses right near the road(as shown by small boxes inside the big box).  Whatever road is available for vehicles is occupied by the traffic nuisance, the auto rickshaw. And the authorities are unable to bring them under control.

And today I read that thousands of more trees are to be “relocates” to widen more roads in our region. I think we should kiss mother earth goodbye, till we have some time.

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