The voices I heard at the Government Law College in Mumbai yesterday should wake up the authorities. They need to give up their fancy projects favouring the motor car lobby and motorists. Got the impression after listening to Mr Gautam Patel, retired judge of the Mumbai high court, architect Rahul Kadri, senior lawyer Sharan Jagtiani and alert students.
The common tone suggested that there is a desperate need to restore, improve, and expand the BEST bus service now seriously threatened by government neglect. The BEST bus service is a low hanging fruit, it requires little investment, it should be supported, it carries millions of people said Rahul Kadri.
The topic was Who is the City for. Very relevant and seldom is this crucial question raised, addressed. The obvious answer is the government needs to give top priority to common people but that is exactly what the authorities are not doing.
The very first question raised by a student after the panel discussion, was from Nikhil Padhan, a fourth year student, pointed to the car centric urban planning which needs to change the general tone I have been hearing at several such meetings is that people are really frustrated by the authorities’ pro-builder, anti-people policies.
All these voices yesterday were independent, genuine. A general complaint I heard was ‘we do not even have proper space to walk’ and cross the road and here we are bombarded by talk of fancy projects which have at best limited use for the common man.
The coastal road, as Rahul Kadri pointed out, serves only a few thousand motorists even as basic problems of millions remain ‘unattended.’ And the programme ended with a vigorous rendering of Maharashtra Geet in Marathi Garja Maharashtra Majha.
The gathering was not politically motivated at all. It began on a very traditional note with Saraswati Wandan. The invocation to the goddess of learning, Ya Kundendu Tushaar, stressing the importance of knowledge and the need to remove ignorance.
Since the programme was organised by the Constitutional Law Society of the college and public transport figured prominently in the discussion, I must mention that justice Hemant Gokhale, travelled by a local train to Vasai recently to felicitate social worker Manvel Tascano on his completing 75 years. Mr Gokhale had appeared as a lawyer years earlier for Tascano in cases pertaining to the green Vasai campaign and other issues.
It is best to make optimum use of public transport if we take it at least during off peak hours, when there is little rush.
(The author is a Mumbaikar and formerly senior journalist in The Times of India; this piece of writing is from the author’s Meta FB post)