Of how a picture speaks a thousand words

 

 

THE steady stream of photographs of some or the other mess in public places, sent in by the esteemed readers of ‘The Hitavada’ for the column ‘Through The People’s Eyes’ shows how the city of Nagpur suffers from issues of urban mismanagement in a big way. Each of those pictures speaks of very simple but vastly mismanaged points in public places where there is some or the other point of chaos or indifference by the civic machinery. Most pictures from the esteemed readers bring to fore very pinpointedly the failure of the civic authorities to handle simple issues successfully -- such as post-rain water poodles, such as gravel in the pavement having come loose, such as a lot of slush when a public tap cannot be closed and the water spills out onto the streets in seemingly unending flow ... ! The pictures sent in by the esteemed readers of ‘The Hitavada’ tell great stories of petty points of civic mismanagement spread all over the city. It must be recognised that in many cases, the the Administration responds positively to the pictures in ‘Through The People’s Eyes’.

 

The Administration sees those pictures and acts only occasionally to effect corrections. When that happens, the loosefooter feels dismayed. For the past fifty-plus years, he has watched the city of Nagpur grow in size and stature, all right. Yet, he also has realised how the Administration often tends to ignore small repairs, etc that do not require lots of money. In time, the problem then grows and becomes more difficult to handle. In fact, currently, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NM) does not have its elected body. So, the administration is in the hands of the bureaucracy. This should be treated as an ideal situation as there is no political interference in the administration. Yet, the city’s civic authority is not able to handle the task efficiently -- which is evident from the countless numbers of pictures the esteemed readers of ‘The Hitavada’ keep sending to the News-Room on a daily basis.

 

This is, of course, besides the pictures of bad urban management brought in by our staff photographersch such picture -- either by the readers or by staff photographers -- shows the urban reality of Nagpur. What is the answer to this inefficiency ? Frankly, there is no explanation -- or justification -- of this mass-scale failure. True, the loosefooter knows the standard bureaucratic response: In such a big city, small issues will always be there, and that those do not necessarily prove to be the markers of inefficiency of the civic authority.. May the readers decide if this justification is acceptable. For, as the readers would assert, many of the problems highlighted in pictures are chronic in nature and are never attended to.

 

There are countless spots in the city where the administration has never cast its eye for correction. The loosefooter insists that even when the NMC had its elected body, the problems were persisting. In other words, the overall civic governance is often at a low level, regardless of anything. Tailpiece: All these images prove one fact over and over again -- that a picture speaks a thousand words, whose evidence ‘The Hitavada’ gets in ample measure every day. n