It’s fair enough to say that we live in a rapidly progressing city. The beautification and development of Nagpur seems to have gotten an impetus, ever since the C20 Inception Meet was held here. It’s a matter of pride for the citizens as a whole. While it’s true that the city is getting civilised by leaps and bounds, there are quite a few aspects leading to issues and they need to be worked up. It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that the people hampering the growth of our city are some of the citizens themselves.

“Safety on the road is safe tea at home”, are the words written in bold on the boards we see on the streets, appealing to us to be cautious while driving. Yet, rash driving and signal jumping are the daily habits of many people. For instance, even though one of the signals is still showing red light, lack of patience makes people break it and speed off without thinking, making some other driver press the brake hard to avoid mishap. Some of the adventurous individuals, particularly on two-wheelers, ignore the speed limit and drive in a zig-zag pattern, as if they are in a car-racing game. It’s high time we thought about the safety of everyone around, when on vehicles. It would be wonderful if everyone driving thinks that he or she is the one who needs to be careful, for everyone except them is going to break the rules. This way, there would be hardly any chances of accidents.

Almost all of our roads have been divided into two lanes for two-wheelers and four-wheelers. However, some of us end up constantly changing the lanes, forcing others to do the same. This disturbs the traffic and leaves no room for pedestrians, having equal right to use the roads. The bicycle infrastructure is yet to be developed and the space meant to be used by the passers-by is occupied by hawkers and illegally built shops.

Helmets and seat belts are the things invented for our protection but sadly a lot of humans fail to acknowledge the importance of wearing either of these equipments and prefer paying the penalty instead. Stopping on the side and wearing helmets on seeing the traffic police is another common trait of our population. The lack of restraint seems so prevalent that no sooner does the signal show green light, than the honking begins as if there’s some wild beast right behind the one honking, waiting to have them as its meal. It’s high time each one of us started to follow the street ethics, now that there are apps being designed to make sure that you get a reward for being a responsible driver!

Lack of cleanliness is still sadly the cause of most of the issues we are currently facing. Unfortunately, in most of the places, there is either an absence of trash cans or the trash can itself seems to be cleaner than the area around. The reason behind this problem is entirely the human mentality. No explanation justifies the action of littering right around the dust bins. Needless to mention that some of us are the first ones to blame the government when the streets are filled with all kinds of garbage. A huge part of our population seems to be either naive about or refuses to follow the concept of segregating dry and wet waste.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “be the change you want to see in the world”. If we want to bid good-bye to the filthiness in the town, we can definitely start with ourselves. The number of responsible citizens in our town is surely more than ones who do not seem to care. Thus, if this responsible and concerned majority of individuals begins to occasionally carry some hand-gloves with them and de-clutter the area especially around the waste boxes, then its result shall surely be the desired one. This would make the rule breakers think twice before repeating their reckless behaviour and pretty soon, our pristine neighbourhoods, cafes, parks and other public places would be the centers of attraction. No city is perfect, but it can always be improved to the highest level possible. For all the issues mentioned above, the ultimate solutions are more public awareness, responsible and sensible attitude, sympathy. It is the need of the hour to start taking small constructive steps towards developing our city exponentially. Sometimes, the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step to achieve the desired outcome. So, people, don’t be mean, keep clean!