I have lived here for 28 years now and I have seen this suburb go to the dogs.
I live on one of the most populated and arterial roads in Mulund (W). It is unfortunate to observe that the hawkers have blocked to road to such an extent that it is impossible for two people to walk side by side.
I distinctly remember that in 2004, just before Diwali, there was a court order to convert RRT Road into a NO HAWKING zone. This order was strictly implemented by the then ward officer Suhas Karvande.
However, this was short-lived as the hawkers reached some kind of a mandavli and began squatting on the roads again just after Diwali.
IN 2005, again, just before Diwali, the hawkers were evicted from RRT Road. Surprisingly, they would be evicted in the mornings and be back in the evenings. This continued for a week which was full of daily morchas. As history repeats itself, the hawkers reached a settlement with the T Ward officers and are back again.
All this despite a Supreme Court order to evict hawkers!!! Are our Law Enforcement Officers actually Law Encroaching Officers?
There is this idli walla who sits near my building. I see hundreds of people having his idlis with great relish. What they dont see is the fact that he is known to use dirty water, the water he uses to wash his dishes and plates, to prepare his delicious chatni!! With diseases like cholera and jaundice rampant, it is surprising to note that this unhygienic eatery is allowed to flourish right under the conniving noses of the BMC!!
Recently there was a de-silting drive, wherein all the gutters were cleaned. What the BMC has successfully done is, it has removed the silt from the gutters and has deposited it right next to them, on the roads. The idli walla, our esteemed veggie vendors, fruit vendors, all sit on this pile of dry garbage and sell us vegetables which we prepare and eat with great relish! Next time you eat that idli or purchase some veggies from RRT Road, have look around and see where these hawkers sit!!
Garbage has not been lifted for days now from the front of two buildings, Rohini and Bhanu Sadan. It is shameful to invite guests over and make them walk through the pile of garbage.
The need of the hour is not only to evict these hawkers but also to try and educate them about basic health and cleanliness routines. Once they start treating RRT Road as their own, they will automatically start keeping it clean.
posted by Save Mulund @ 6:38 AM
9 Comments:
The other problem Mulund is facing (just like many other towns and cities) is the electricity shortage and load shedding.
Firstly, one fails to understand the logic behind keeping Mulund and Bhandup under MSEB when they are clearly under Greater Mumbai.
Although MSEB has clearly declared so called "load shedding schedules" they somehow manage NOT to adhere to it. As per an email in Mid-Day Metro, sent by a reader, it is is very clear that load shedding is at the complete discretion of the MSEB officials. How else can one explain the fact that certain are in Mulund have no load shedding and certain areas have "scheduled load shedding" and "unscheduled load shedding". Apart from the two and a half hours of load shedding, we have a BONUS 1 : 1 offer. Per 1 minute of "scheduled load shedding" you will get 1 minute of "unschedled load shedding" absolutely free of cost, courtesy, MSEB.
To add to this, despite such voluminous load shedding, the electricity bills refuse to shed any volume. This is a unique gift offered by MSEB.
Every time there is a power outage, we have to call MSEB. The no. 25686666 is perpetually busy. I wonder if MSEB has starter a PCO on that no. which one can use for killing time during the unscheduled load shedding times.
What surprises me is that there are repeated breakdowns at the same place. Are the esteemed MSEB engineers not qualified and competent enough to take care of this once and for all?
When one speaks of the RRT Road and the Zaver Road and M.G. Road, these are highly commercialised areas. I have personally pointed to Mr. Nichant from MSEB, that there is high power thefts by hawkers in these areas. I wonder if he has developed cold feet in taking up this matter and getting these connections cut off.
I have the highest regards for Mr. Nichant as he, I know for a fact, is doing his best. However, we are all aware of the notorious political nexus between the low ranking MSEB engineers, the esteemed politicians and the omnipresent hawkers.
If Mr. Nichant and we, as responsible Indians, can reduce power theft by even 50%, Mulund can definitely see a reduction in load shedding timings and this will offer MSEB a chance to redeem itself.
It is not only RRT Road which is affected. When one strolls by on Zaver Road, oppposite Saraswat Wadi (Marriage hall) it is disgusting to see the the amount of food dumped in the garbage bins there, immediately after any event that takes place there. It is nothing short of a criminal waste.
Wake up people! There are millions of people out there who do not get one square meal a day and you criminally waste so much!!
As correctly mentioned in one of the comments, there was a Supreme Court order for the eviction of the hawkers.
Since the hawkers are still squatting on the road, does this not amount to criminal contempt of court? Is the BMC above the law or are separate laws for the T Ward officers who are in clear contempt of court?
Is there any way to start a signature campaign to get Bhandup and Mulund under the purview of private electricity suppliers?
If that is is not possible then change our pin code to THANE rather than MUMBAI.
With what the government is capable of, I am sure they will prefer to chage the pin code rather than getting Mulund and Bhandup under the purview of private electricity suppliers.
Hats off to you as you have rightly covered the points of R.R.T.Road.First of all ,all corrupt BMC officials have to be sacked as they take hefty HAFTAS from all the hawkers irrespective of their status big or small.Further we ourselves are to be blamed.If we as citizens stop buying from these so called hawkers automatically they will come ot terms.So I sincerely request all my fellow Mulundkars to seriously stop buying from such hawkers and ask the female members of their families to do the same.
It is distressing to note that there are only a h andful of people who are concerned about the place where we live.
The debate over whether officials take hafta because we give them our whether we give them hafta because they accept it is like "Did the chicken come first or the egg?"
We need to realise that charity begins at home. Our children will carry the same attitude which we are carrying today and that is to offer bribes. At this rate, there will be no end, whatsoever, to corruption.
I would like to suggest that we should all go to the office of mulund hawkers association and pose our concerns on what menance hawkers are causing in way of throwing their dirts,rotten veggies etc on the road itself or in gutter.Their childrens urinating in the resident premises etc.We should ask their officials that if they will not educate their hawkers to throw their filth in the municipal garbage cans than we as citizens will be forced to take stern action .It may be boycot off buying vegetable altogether from hawkers.Monsoon is round the corner and hence if they do not stop all these nuisance we will not be able to walk on the road.
This suggestion is good but there is a small concern. Not many of us come forward in person to voice our problems.
Today's Metro said that slum-dwellers pelt garbage and stones in Lok Angan. Just like this, we too have a problem of people not only urinating in our premises but when we try to shoo them away, they threaten us.
The basic problem lies not with BMC but with the slum dwellers and lack of basic education.
OOo la la !! There goes loads of electrical appliances DEAD due to severe voltage fluctuation on Sunday 28th May'06 Morning at R.R.T.Road courtesy MSEB.My TV,Cordless Phone,Few Tube lights were severely affected and are now non operational.Likewise many others must have suffered losses.IS MSEB GOING TO REPAY ALL OUR LOSSES ? THIS IS NOT THE FRIST TIME ITS HAPPENING.IS MR.NICHANT GOING TO WAKE UP AND DO SOMETHING???
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