New Delhi: Monsoon puts our governments, city civic bodies and urban planners to shame every year. But nobody cares. Major cities across India resembling a huge water body when the skies open up is a regular feature during monsoon. When it pours, life comes to a halt and lakhs of people suffer.
It is not just a Mumbai specific phenomenon. Since Mumbai receives more rain than many other major cities in India, the commercial capital of the country suffers the most and makes it to headlines. Once the rain stops and flood water recedes, everybody including the people of Mumbai choose to forget it till the next monsoon.
When the rain lashed national capital Delhi and its suburbs last Friday and Saturday, many parts of the metropolis underwent water and the public suffered. The same happened in Kolkata.
When it rains the entire city traffic comes to a halt in Bengaluru, India's IT capital and the third most important city in the country after Delhi and Mumbai. Every year at least a dozen people get washed away in flood water in Bengaluru. As usual nobody cares.
Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Srinagar, Guwahati, Jaipur and even Dehradun and Lucknow have the same issues during monsoon. It exposes the serious lapses in our urban planning and more so in its execution.
Commenting on this 'maximum' mess 'The Hindu Business Line' wrote a scathing piece. It said, "It is time the model of local self-governance is revisited. Municipal administrations need to be professionalised and expert supervision needs to be brought in over the development plans hatched by civic bodies. Politicisation of city administrations and the absence of accountability among municipal staff have only worsened a situation already made intolerable by endemic corruption. The financial structure of our local bodies needs a complete overhaul, starting with basic municipal accounts, many of which are still in the outmoded cash system."
Like Mumbai, the national capital New Delhi also faces similar mess during the monsoon. According to a report in 'Times of India' a redundant drainage master plan prepared way back in 1976, the Delhi government like every year before the monsoons has yet again set out to revive its promise to clear the mess by putting in place a new master plan.
But, there is no guarantee that something concrete will happen soon. According to a Delhi government official quoted by 'Mail Today' Delhi's new drainage master plan will be ready by this year-end but the results will start showing only about 30 months after its execution begins. That's roughly three years.
In Bengaluru the situation is pathetic. The real estate sharks have encroached upon once famous water bodies – lakes and ponds. The drainage system has been systematically destroyed by the same land mafia. The city civic bodies have been a total failure improving the situation. Whenever it rains, Bengaluru turns into a 'real lake city' causing havoc. Unplanned and uncontrolled growth, lacunae in providing infrastructure in the city are sharply back in focus as yet another monsoon looms over us says a Bangalorean.
Unless we get our basic drainage system right, we can't save our cities from monsoon fury. The need of the hour is investing in better, effective drainage system across all major cities. We need to build good quality wide roads with no potholes to decongest the cities when the skies open up. For that we need more money, world class technology and political will.
The cities we showcase to the world as symbol of India's growth and global ambitions become a matter of shame during every monsoon. Our major cities need urgent attention of the concerned authorities. If we can't protect them from rain, we better forget our plans or dreams of making them model cities or smart cities or world cities.
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