Whose in charge out there?!

News items of children falling down manholes and bore-wells keep making the rounds and it appears as though these horrible accidents cannot ever be avoided! My question is what on earth does our municipal corporations do in towns and cities because I for one never see anything being attended to by them in Baroda, until it is a full blown crisis or some high flying politician is visiting. That hardship and anguish is caused for the ordinary working class never seems to prick anyone's conscience. And to make matters worse the most shameful fact of it all is that come election time and all these officials who have been haphazardly attending to their duties, will come out in full attendance to parade themselves as concerned and service oriented candidates, worthy for the job!!!!

In our own home we had four feet of sewage water flooding the ground floor of our flat during a monsoon when water-logging occurred, because land that was designated as rainwater drainage outlets were filled over and sold by the municipal offices, in schemes of irregularity that were subsequently hushed up. Rivers are clogged with garbage and littered by the immersions from numerous Indian festivals. But who finally cares about such things, because at the end of the day the middle class are scuttling to keep up with over loaded schedules that are exhaustive, and taking on any protest becomes to overwhelming in a country that specialises in procrastination in the government sector. Paper pushing from one desk to another at these places will send you to an early grave, and our legal system whines on that they already have a backlog of cases dating back to god knows which previous century that they are drowning under! So que sera sera.....what will be will be!

Let's not even start on the topic of roads. If you don't have any orthopedic problems, go for a ride in a rickshaw on any road in a town or non-metro city and trust me, the pot-holes and dug up areas will have you at your nearest hospital. If this sounds a feeble attempt at humour it isn't, because I know countless friends and my own family who have had serious spinal, neck and head injuries from a simple ride from destination A to B! And now with the monsoons around the corner we will all be in the same boat (excuse the pun!) of helplessness once again. But then as we in India are inclined to do, we will as always pass it of as "kissmet ki baat hai na?"