Dinesh Kamath's column 'Inside Navi Mumbai' (2) that was published in Newsband

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Inside Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

Mechanized sweeping – a good idea! But what about those rendered jobless due to it?

Mechanized sweeping has been introduced in Navi Mumbai in a big way. It is decided that total 49 kilometer long road in the city will undergo mechanized sweeping.

The roads which will undergo mechanized sweeping in Zone 1 are Palm Beach Road – 11 km, Amra Marg – 2.54 km, Vashi Plaza to Arenja Corner – 2.60 km, Shivaji Chowk to Arenja Corner – 0.45 km, APMC road – 8.50 km, Sanpada Junction to Annapurna Road – 0.75 km and MAFCO road – 2.75 km. In Zone 2, Thane Belpur road – 14 km, Y Junction to Mhape bridge – 2.85 km, Airoli T junction to Mulund bridge – 1.15 km and Diva Circle to MSEB – 2.45 km will undergo mechanized sweeping.

Introduction of mechanized sweeping will make many human cleaners jobless. Has Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation decided the alternative jobs for these sweepers who are bound to find themselves without a job owing to introduction of technological cleaning system?

These roads where mechanized sweeping has been introduced will have one sanitary inspector and three sub inspectors to supervise the cleaning work. What will happen to rest of the cleaning staff who will be jobless?

When washing machines came into the markets, many maid servants became jobless. Human beings washing clothes became a thing of past. Clothes were now washed by the machines. The machines even helped in drying the clothes instantly. While the housewives heaved sigh of relief after the introduction of washing machines, the maid-servants were grumbling over the fact that machines had replaced them. This is just like the situation when tongas run by horses got replaced by auto rickshaws and buses.

In the newspaper world too, introduction of computers led to printing presses and newspaper offices cutting down their staff to size since computers could do the jobs which many human beings would normally do.

Introduction of every new machine makes a big chunk of human beings lose their jobs. What happens to these people who are adversely affected by the introduction of machines? Some manage to learn and pursue some new trades while others have to go through untold miseries. The government should make it a point to see that whenever it introduces new machinery, the cases of the workers who are badly affected by this introduction should be considered and they should be made to be absorbed in some other industries where they can prove to be useful.   

Why consumer has to bear the cost when water meter is stolen?

Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has done installation of automatic meter reader (AMR) water meters at many places under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme. That’s great! But who will guard these water meters? Has NMMC taken care to prevent these water meters from getting tampered with or stolen by miscreants? During the last few days so many water meters have been stolen. The worst thing is when the meter is stolen, the person to whom the meter belongs has to bear the cost of replacing it. Strange! NMMC doesn’t consider itself responsible if the meter is stolen. This is ridiculous!  

In the past when such water meters were not there, the NMMC used to adopt average water billing system for the consumers. Such system had also created controversy. A consumer who used least water had to pay more just because some other consumer happened to use water in abundance. This would lead to protests and fights.

Thus it is proved that may it be water meters or billing system, each system has its advantages and drawbacks. No system is perfect.

Herbal education is necessary for everyone

A popular organization of Navi Mumbai, Marathi Sahitya, Sanskriti and Kala Kendra, had organized a seminar on ‘Importance of Herbal Plants’ at Vashi. Now this is an absolutely noble job that this organization is doing. People do need to be well informed about the herbal plants.

This seminar brought many city residents face to face with experts who are doing research on food and its connection with herbal plants. The outcome of their research is fantastic. Their research revealed that there are many indoor and outdoor plants which have Ayurvedic values. These plants have the powers to cure many diseases and ailments. In fact, if these plants are included in our daily food, many diseases and ailments can be prevented.

This is an ancient style of keeping diseases and ailments away. In the past, people were heavily dependent on herbal plants to remain fit. But the advent of new medicines in the market have led to modern man forgetting the past food culture and becoming heavily dependent on strong allopathic medicines to remain fit. But this man little knew that although such medicines have terrific curing abilities they leave behind side effects which gives birth to new medical problem.

In this seminar which was held at Vashi, the researchers who have made detailed study of herbal plants guided those who had attended this event in the matter of how to keep themselves absolutely fit by in-taking food mixed with herbal plants. Herbal plants can cure ailments like diabetes, high or low blood pressure, loose motion, blood impurity etc and at the same time they don’t leave behind side effects like the modern allopathic medicines do. These researchers spoke about medicinal values of some of the items we use in our daily life like carrots, onions etc.

Such seminars should be organized all over the city of Navi Mumbai so that every Navi Mumbaikar realizes the importance of herbal plants, how they are safer than strong allopathic medicines and their powerful curing and preventive abilities.