Pity your city

By Shyam Kaul*

In Urdu language there is a limerick, which translated loosely, reads: Do not sit idle, do something/If nothing else, tear your clothes/Then stitch them back/And so on, again/.

But here in Jammu, some of our well known government departments, do not tear their clothes when they are idle, which they often are. Perhaps because they would hate to be sartorially stripped. As it is, these departments enjoy dubious reputation in many respects, and stand already stripped in relation to the quality and ethics of their work culture.

The most recent instance in this regard is that of the huge newly-built overhead water storage tank in Paloura area of Jammu. It collapsed like a house of cards on the very day and very time when it was commissioned.

Instead of using their idle time in stripping their clothes and stitching them back, it is an old practice with government departments to dig up city roads and lanes, and then leave them in that condition for weeks and months. No doubt, sometimes it is a part of their assigned task as departments responsible for particular works, but should be a method in fulfilling such tasks. They do it in season and out of season, and they often do it unmethodically and haphazardly.

Worse still, the dug up roads, lanes and areas, when left in a state of disrepair for long time, cause untold incovenience to people in general, pedestrians, and the movement of traffic, leading to frequent traffic jams.
It goes without saying that many government departments, like power developments, water supply, PWD, the communications, etc., have to go for road digging occasionally.

But normally it is expected of all these departments to function in perfect coordination. It is absolutely necessary, because if road digging is to be done by more than one department, they could coordinate their plans so that it could be done together and at the same time, to save the people and traffic from the bother of seeing the roads dug by turns, one after another, without any method and coordination. It would also save the state exchequer a good deal of money.

Some days, back the telephones in the locality where I reside suddenly went dead, and I got in touch with a BSNL official to lodge a complaint. The official, I could sense, had been flooded with many similar calls. He was breathless like a boy who has just been chased by stray dogs. He simply blurted out, "The grave diggers are at fault". Grave diggers? I was flummoxed. He hurriedly named a department, saying, "I called them grave diggers, because our telephones which were talking like parrots one moment, went dead the next moment like neckless chickens, It all happened because they dug up a road without informing us, and caused enough of damage to our underground cables." We had to wait for three days for the restoration of our connections.

Road digging is a year round hobby of some departments here in Jammu. But it gets accelerated during summer months when the city gets divested of its proud appellation of being the "winter capital", and loses its governmental and administrative parentage.

Let us not be under the impression that the roads in the "summer capital" are any better. There is a difference though. In Srinagar the roads are neither dug up, nor repaired. They are simply left unattended, to the mercy of the elements.

The deterioration of Srinagar roads gets worse proportionately with the phenomenal increase in the number of motor cars and other vehicles in the city.

Actually it would be wrong to describe most of the Srinagar roads, especially in the interior and congested areas, as road. They do not come up anywhere near the definition. They are driving and walking stretches of bumpy surface, abounding in pits and patholes.

It would be interesting to make a survey of the vehicles plying in Srinagar city to find out the impact of the road condition on these vehicles. One could be sure that the engines of all the vehicles would show symptoms of severe orthopedic and arthritic ailments.

It is not that funds are not available for the repair and face lift of Srinagar roads. But it is generally believed that such funds are largely used for the facelift of the back balances of engineers, bureaucrats, contractors and other concerned people.

A city, it is said, is known by its roads during the day, and by its lights at night. Both the conditions are before you to decide, and then, to pity your city.

(*Shyam Koul was a veteran journalist and regular contributor to Kashmir Times for many years. This article was published in Kashmir Times print edition on July 5, 2009. This has been specially curated for the readers of Kashmir Times.)