Normal life in Mumbai has been crippled as heavy rains continue to batter the city for the second day on Wednesday. BMC has now sent an alert to Mumbaikars to move out of their houses only if necessary. CNN-IBN's Principal correspondent Kajal Iyer joined IBNLive readers for an interaction on heavy rains in Mumbai.
Q. Even Chennai was in bad shape after 1 evening of rain, last Friday. Some of us left office at 5.30 pm to reach home at 10 pm or later. Why is Mumbai given importance over other cities. Asked by: Narayan
A. It has been a long standing problem here and the civic body has much more funds than other cities.
Q. 60 years after independence, one of the richest corporations in country... issuing alerts, leaves lot of scope for public to discuss on the state of affairs. Imagine if this is the state of affairs in Mumbai, what could be situation in other parts of the country. It makes us as that one question, why should we pay the taxes, we should pay taxes after minimum needs of roads, water, electricity have been provided for. Till then there should be a tax holiday. Pot holed roads, not only in Mumbai in Delhi, Hyderabad, etc the situation is same. Asked by: S ESHWAR
A. Yes, in fact, in the last few years we have seen many such complaints in Delhi, Hyderabad and even Bangalore. Authorities say it is also because of climate change and rise in population.
Q. How is situation in Dahisar(W)? Asked by: raj
A. So far entire Western express highway has been blocked, more rain in places nearer to Thane I hear.
Q. The BMC should be taken to task for the road mess that they have created. Most of the traffic is due to the bad road conditions rather than the number of vehicles. The laying of paver blocks has compounded the problem by making the roads useless to drive. Asked by: Iyer Narayanan
A. You are right. The matter is also going to be taken up in the current monsoon session of the assembly, but accountability is something one is not sure when it will be fixed.
Q. Why doesn't a channel like IBN directly take the famed Mumbai road cooperator's and BMC in a face to face discussion and show the truth to all. When all are present they wouldn't be able to blame anyone else. Asked by: Vaibhav
A. We are working on sir. You shall see something soon.
Q. BMC has top guys,well qualified in engineering and management. The State CM is himself an IIT alumni. Is all were education for use outside the country only? Asked by: sundar1950in
A. I understand your anger completely. In fact, we are most surprised too because some of the officers are really well versed. But when we ask them, they tell us they themselves have to face a lot of red tape. Hopefully, all their knowledge might not go waste.
Q. Is there any genuine attempt by the BMC seeing the calamity in Uttarakhand or the usual every year woes continue? Asked by: Dr Jigar Chandarana
A. In fact, the organisation TERI has submitted a report this year asking the state to take care as Mumbai still is prone to another 26/7. The state has asked the BMC to step up. BMC on its part says long term infra is facing trouble because of permission issues but in the meantime they have made changes to improve their information system as a short term measure.
Q. The economic loss suffered in the Mumbai city out of such situations every year is staggering.Has any study been done on this apart from reporting on the hardships? Asked by: sundar1950in
A. Not that I know of. But yes, it is called for.
Q. The Citizen's initiative by doing right things also is missing. Can some corporates initiate a civic education programme on preventing clogging, wrong constructions etc? Asked by: sundar1950in
A. That is a great idea, will try to pass it on to some corporates. But you are right, even citizens create problems by clogging drains with garbage etc.
Q. Why is not anyone suing BMC for it's utter failure to put things in place? Why not a PIL? Asked by: sundar1950in
A. There have been some attempts in the past with respect to roads and potholes I believe, however no comprehensive PIL on just rain management so far. People have sent notices to BMC on expenses incurred during rains and also filed cases regarding accidents.
Q. How come the authorities not understand that roads are build to last for at least for 5 years and not from monsoon to monsoon. Till the time the concept of L1 and tendering is taken off, this will continue. Asked by: S ESHWAR
A. You are right, what is worse is there is no penalty if the roads show cracks within a few months or just a year, atleast its not strictly imposed.
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