Dinesh Kamath's column 'Inside Navi Mumbai' (4) that was published in Newsband

-->

Inside Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

Narrow road becomes nightmare

A narrow road in Nerul has become a nightmare for the residents over there. This information was brought in by a reporter. It is shocking to know that this road has been existing over a period of thirty years but the authorities have not cared to broaden the road. Both CIDCO and NMMC are to be blamed for not making attempts to give respite to the residents. The road is said to be 8 metres broad. Now this is really shocking! There are many people using this road regularly and they are constantly in danger of meeting with accidents. The bottle neck area has proved to be a grave threat for those using the road regularly. Why can’t NMMC or CIDCO undertake the task of widening this road and stop the threat that this road poses to human lives? There are many residences near this road and owing to the negligence shown by NMMC and CIDCO the residents of this place are facing problems. Due to the narrow road, the residential area, including the village, cooperative housing societies, etc are facing problems galore. Why can’t the authorities shift the residences which are located on either side of the road and at the same time give those residents an alternative houses elsewhere? After that the road can be widened. This way the bottle neck of the road can be removed. The road is facing the connectivity constraint and hence this is the only way in which the problem can be solved.

A noble act indeed!

The volunteers of the Navi-Mumbai-based NGO The Kanchan Foundation and the Rotaract Club of New Bombay delivered a load of donated clothes in a township in Turbhe, Navi Mumbai. This is indeed a noble step taken by these two social organizations. They have set an example to all the well-to-do people. They have taught these people as to how a noble act like this can give relief to thousands of poor people who find it extremely difficult to even obtain a piece of cloth to cover themselves. There are those people belonging to below the poverty line who in the first place find it tough to get food to eat. And if they just manage to get food, they face the next problem and that is the fact that they don’t have clothes to cover themselves. This problem can be embarrassing for their women folk especially.

The volunteers of both the organizations teamed up and collected usable clothes, stationery etc. from various houses in the posh colonies during the pre-Diwali stage. It was heartening to see how people of Navi Mumbai donated their old clothes generously. They parted with the stuff that they would not use and which could be used by the not so privileged.

These two organizations then distributed the clothes to several hundreds of people and it was worth watching the smile on the faces of women and children collecting their gifts in the small community hall. The volunteers handed out good-as-new shirts, pants, saris and even some accessories like earrings and a wristwatch. Each item distributed by the volunteers was in good condition and usable. The place where this noble work was being carried out witnessed the handing out of the boxes full of t-shirts to the happily yelling kids in the community room. For the spectators who were present there in large number, it felt very good from within. These clothes were meant to be something that had to be thrown away for those who donated them. But for these under privileged people to whom these clothes were donated they were worth more than gold, silver or diamond.

If all the social organizations have to indulge in such noble practices there will come a day when there won’t exist a BPL (Below Poverty Line) class. 

Why this noise?

During Diwali celebration the Airoli node was found to be the most noise polluted node of Navi Mumbai during Diwali. This was learnt from the data compiled by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB). On 14th November, sound level was 82.8 decibel average, the highest among all nodes. That’s really shocking. This proves that the pollution related awareness has little impact among people when it comes to celebration. Why can’t festivals in India be celebrated quietly? Why there should be noise always accompanying the celebration? Why can’t those people who are celebrating feel for the old ones, sick patients or even the normal people who find this noise simply unbearable and something that can make their health deteriorate considerably? It’s high time we learnt from the West the art of celebrating any festival. In most parts of the West the festivals are celebrated in such a way that nobody around is harmed in any way. We should show the same type of sensitivity that the Westerners display during such occasion.