DailyPost 2483
CAPITAL CHAOS!
The last few days of chaos in Delhi can simply be termed as capital chaos. This time its floods, literally it can be anything. We have the annual pollution festival too. Having known the capital for over four decades, it was difficult to believe that the main areas hitting the TV screens could ever be flooded. But that is the reality of India. While we keep blaming the rain Gods, most of it can be called as Humans Facilitated Floods. The DNA of the country as been of not doing anything, yet everything should be taken care of. That is not what nature is all about and it can happen that way.
The simplest truism of life has long been forgotten, you have do it, to make it happen. The old forgotten theory is that achievement is equal to need for achievement. And the need for achievement presupposes your will to do. Make believe worlds cannot last forever and laws of nature cannot be negated. It is being told a number of times, that Yamuna has come out to reclaim its own land. Bangalore has already displayed the near similar story. It has been the epitome of man-made flood chaos in recent times. In hindsight we get a feeling as if it was waiting to happen. Mumbai floods after downpours has become the order of the day.
Lip service is what we perfect in and that has brought us to this current impasse. Crossroads with nowhere to go. Everything is projected to be normal till the time we thrown in a mess. Put it on nature or your political adversary or a sister organization, the job is not to react, and solve, but somehow pass over the crisis, till it bites again. Delhi does it with pollution every year. The unspoken part is that powers that wait for the citizens to get accustomed to the new normal and their job is done. No one element of urban local self-government ecosystem needs to blamed. It starts for expert committees, master planners and master plans to the last fellow who maintains the infra on a day-to-day basis.
We need to just forget the professionals and the system, whose job is to get to patterns, preparedness, warnings and take the best possible remedial action to either avoid or bring the calamity to the lowest minimum. The tragedy & NDRF response type ecosystem can barely scrape the top of the problem. It suits everybody. NDRF becomes the panacea to India Capital Chaos and impacts of climate change. Where does resilience come into the system, when that has not been factored in? And worst is that even professional firefighting itself has not been factored in. From election manifestoes to guarantees to inaugurations to proclamations, meetings, press meets, getting officers of choice, social media etc has become the job description of the political executive. The permanent executive ably supports this agenda.
HIGH TECH MULTIMEDIA ENABLED PUBLIC DOMAIN IS PROVIDED IN LIEU OF MODERN CITIES.
Sanjay Sahay