ASk any body in Nagpur what he/she thinks is the reason of so much general heat in the city, and the response would be common: Cement roads and cemented paver-block pavements. Factor in also the use of only cement as basic construction material in thousands of buildings now under construction in the city, and the picture becomes dirtier. The other day, some technical units were engaged in some operations on a newly-made cement road (in front of ‘The Hitavada’ office on Wardha Road) in the blazing sun around 3.30 p.m. One of the members of the unit placed a thermometer on the cement surface to have an accurate measurement of temperature on the hot surface. It read a terrifying 70 degree centigrade. Just a few feet away on the tarred surface of the Gowari fly-over road, the temperature was 65 degrees centigrade.

 

That finding supported the general impression of the common people that cement roads are among the prime reason of the excessive heat that often remains trapped in the city not just in summer but also during other periods of the year. Even winters have become milder in the past few years, as most of us have often noted. There may not be any solution to this problem -- some may say. Of course, there is no solution -- even political persons would agree. By these assertions, it is obvious that the city of Nagpur is doomed to get roasted in excessive heat all the year round. With unrepentant political leadership, such a fate of a city as pleasant as Nagpur cannot be averted. Is this not most unfortunate ?!

 

There is no doubt that Nagpur’s summers were always more scorching than summers in many other places in the country. But those who have lived in the city for the past 30-40 years would certainly recall that even the hottest summers in the past were not as punishing as the current summer times. The people of Nagpur were never afraid of summers. Yet, the experience of the excessive heat in the city is something they had never seen or anticipated. Now, the average Nagpurian is rather scared to get out of the house in afternoons -- which was not the case previously. People took care not to expose themselves to the blazing sun, all right. But they were never afraid to step out when needed. Now, the picture is altogether different.

 

The people feel scared to step out of the house because they realise that they have to step into, as if a heat-chamber of sorts and endure the excessive temperatures. As a journalist who loves moving around to assess what is happening in the city, the loosefooter has watched the city coming through various stages of development. But he has no memory of the city having such a political leadership so blind to the reality of people’s actual and genuine difficulties. He also does not remember any period in the past 30-40 years with its civic bureaucracy also so blind to the reality on the ground. The impression, thus, is that the city of Nagpur is proving itself to be very unfortunate to have had a cumulative leadership of people blinded with power.

 

These leaders -- political and administrative -- have resolved never to listen to what the people say about important issues. To some, this may seem to be a harsh judgement. But the loosefooter recalls correctly how people of the city had formed a very aggressive throng around Central Minister Mr. Nitin Gadkari a couple of years ago during his ‘Janata Darbar’ demanding correction in many of the wrong moves the city’s leadership had made. The honourable minister’s security personnel had found the throng truly aggressive and had to work extra-hard to extricate Mr. Gadkari from the onrushing crowds of irate citizens. This event was widely reported in the media then with pictures of an angry throng of people around the honourable minister.

 

The loosefooter also remembers that countless numbers of angry people had created an aggressive throng around honourable Chief Minister Mr. Devendra Fadnavis in Ambazari Lay-out area during the early hours when the flash floods were gushing into hundreds of homes. OF COURSE, the two honourable leaders would always try to play the incidents down -- which they had done even that time. But will they ever be able to deny the reality -- of the trouble the citizens have to endure because of bad planning and worse implementation ? The loosefooter signs off this piece with this question. n