“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's
character, give him power”... Abraham Lincoln.
Some names doesn’t need any introduction, former USA President
Mr. Lincoln is one such & indeed was a person who lived by his above quote.
While the result of Pune & Pimpri Chinchwad Corporation’s elections i.e.
PMC/ PCMC started filtering in, many faces got darkened & many got
brightened with this unexpected power shift! With due respect I am saying
unexpected as no one has predicted such victory of BJP, I am restricting myself
to PMC & PCMC of course! And no winning candidate has the grace to accept
that they haven’t expected this kind of victory as well no losing candidate
will gracefully accept their defeat! Instead a cry on social media is this
victory of BJP is due to malfunctioning of the electronic voting machines i.e.
EVM’s!Let me clear in first
place I am non supporter of any political part & this sharing is plain
analysis of the election which will be deciding fate of Pune & PCMC, still
when it comes to making claims then this recent cry over EVMs’ by opposition is
perfect display of their mentality & that is main cause of their defeat in
first place! As if such was the case then same machines
were in last elections too & the then ruling govt in State has won with
thumping majority in PCMC as well the alliance has won in PMC, so why this
objection wasn’t raised then, is the question the common voter will ask. And
then in a way doubting on EVM’s means doubting judgment of common man which he
has clearly put in favor of BJP or whatever party he has wanted in power!
So let’s put aside the EVMs’ as that’s something Election
Commission is capable enough to deal with, let’s see what now lays ahead for
Pune. Here when I mention Pune, it’s in a way jointly both the corporations
i.e. PMC & PCMC as in both one single party has come to ruling & the
very same party has Govt in Central as well the key portfolios related to the
city development are also with the same political party in State, so in a way
citizens has wisely played their card after a long time. Since last many years may it be State or local level, we have
seen what happens when no single party is in ruling as it’s always easy to pass
the buck especially when things are not happening as they have been promised.
And worst was all the time every single party is busy in putting their party’s
interest ahead of city's; result is any policy decision was analyzed on this
basis only how & whether it will benefit the party & not the city. And as per that alliances used to
break & made newly which is defeat of the citizens who has voted the
elected members as per the so called “ashwasan nama” i.e. agenda of their
party. Nobody bothers asking for such document after winning the election is
what we all have witnessed as if you read the election vision doccument of any
party, especially the earlier ruling party’s, as they were supposed to execute
it; then its same one. Right from strengthening public transport
to riverfront development to garbage-less wards, so many issues are same &
no mention why it’s not done in last five years or what efforts have been taken
on these issues. Take example of riverfront development, in first place when
most of the riverfront is under ownership of private people then how we are
going to acquire it, this itself no one bothers! And on top of it we declared
in new DP the riverside area as zone so ownership remains with the concerned
land owners, why we didn’t made it reservation by virtue of which PMC could
have acquired the said riverfront & develope as per their so called
vision document? Same is with public transport, right
from making proper bust stops to giving space to park the busses which or else
keeps standing on road at nights, nothing concrete has been done on this front
yet each party came with same promise of better public transport, how, is the
question we should ask later but why not till now, is the question we should
ask now! And it’s not about attitude of just ruling parties but those who were
opposite party then & today has come in ruling what was their stand on all
these issues of the city that also must be remembered.
On this background the election outcome has two major plus
points showing how we have grownup as mature citizens when it comes to choosing
our rulers. First all caste & religion
equations have proved wrong as on the background of Marathas & OBC marches
it was a general thought that those castes will vote for a particularly party
or candidate. Similarly the venom of caste system which has reached to new high
by damaging the statue of a great writer, has not affected the wise voters.
Rather by the voting pattern, it’s shown clearly to such tendencies that we
care for only one thing & it is development of this city & nothing else
matters here! And second is common man can
differentiate between National & Local issues, as demonetization weren’t a negative
factor for casting vote to the very same party of which govt in central has
taken that decision! Message is very clear, we are one society which is free
from shackles like caste & on a city platform there is only one caste or
religion that is citizen of Pune city. Here PCMC clearly took lead over so
called big sister PMC by voting percentage reaching to highest in State &
this surely a matter of concern for Pune citizens. While remote Zillah
Parishads in rural have voted with 70%, we have just reached 55% that means
nearly 50% of the citizens care a hang about who rules them! Somewhere PMC needs
to take more effective efforts to make its citizen understand their own
importance towards the city development.
Now hereafter with all three govt’s under one party the
responsibility of we the voters has increased more as we have put all our eggs
in one basket & we can’t blame just the basket to take care of the eggs. A
responsible voter is the one which keeps follow-up of his vote & sees it
doesn’t goes in drain. Now, many people will ask what they can do about it.
Well, I can understand meeting MLA or MP isn’t easy but your local corporator
sure is accessible & see that you form a group of citizens & make him
or her answerable on periodical basis about the promises which has made you
vote in favor of your elected member. First of all see that your corporator
makes a proper list of his promises & updates you periodically about the
same. At the same time you don’t forget you are part of the agenda as garbage
less ward means you are also supposed to participate in it or else you will
keep throwing garbage on roads & will expect your corporator to make the
ward garbage free, it won’t work! Keep track of issues related to your wards
right from garbage to many petty works like storm water drains & foot path
conditions. Ask your corporator to be accessible via email or whatapp groups
where all such issues can be documented. Remember by voting once your
responsibility doesn’t ends rather it starts from there!
The challenges in-front of the new rulers are many as this once
beautiful city is like sitting on tip of multi mouthed volcano named urban
disaster where a city dies under the pressure of its own needs for survival.
Right from millions of vehicles causing air pollution which is outcome of worst
public transport to loss of tree cover to slum to illegal constructions to
water supply to garbage to affordable home to public health to education; the
volcano has so many mouths, which any time can erupt now. One more thing now with people has put their faith in one party,
at least now the city can hope for Flex or Hoarding free sky line that much
assurance the city expects from the rulers! From here we can be either very
best or extreme worst, such is the scene & time is running out fast.
The first thing we need to work out is overcome the curse in delaying the
projects & reasons may be many, right from poor planning to lack of
funding. The missing link in the civic body is
coordination between administration & elected members & high time for
party bosses to make a special task force for this delicate task at elected
candidates’ level. As whichever party comes in ruling it’s the administration
which is going to execute the development works & ruling party is the
driving force to make them their job! Another important aspect is
opposition party, as till now the joke was even the party in alliance of power
also used to enjoy status of opposition party & possess posts like
opposition party leader! Even now nearly 50% of voters have voted parties
other than ruling party, so the opposition party’s elected member has more
responsibility to oppose wrong doings of ruling party. And their responsibility
has increased as the ruling party is in absolute majority; though some typical
Punekar may ask, when the present opposition party candidates didn’t thought
about the interests of city when they were in ruling, how it can be expected
now when they are in opposition! Well, let me tell to the opposition
party members who have got elected, the only way to get back in power is to do
justice to their present job & fight for the city’s interests!!
Hereafter for the city development, not just the elected
corporators but equally responsible will be all the MLA’s, MP, State as well Central
Ministers & the CM himself, who has assured express track for deciding
policies & its implementations.For the years this city has been shown
many dreams of which very few has been came in existence & that percentage
is so low that the common citizen is afraid of even sleeping, leave apart
dreaming! Here I will share
my personal experience at home regarding post election scene in minds of common
man; my mother goes to senior citizen club at nearby PMC garden in Patwardhan
baug area, Erandwana. After election results, I asked her next morning has any
of the candidate came to meet them post election outcome? On hearing my
question her casual reply was, “why now any candidate will come to meet us?”
She was neither irritated nor astonished; it was plain simple reaction telling
us what people feel post election! By voting to BJP, once again citizens
of Pune have put their faith in dreams & supported to what BJP wanted i.e.
“Shat Pratishat BJP” (from Central to Local Body, one their party’s govt). Now
before the gulal clad streets gets cleaned from processions of the victory
& the dhol tashsa sounds gets fade of from the ears of citizens, the rulers
must put aside every reason & make their agenda as “Shat Pratishat
Pune” i.e. 100% dedication for Pune city’s well bringing only. As Mr. Lincoln
has said, this city has given power to rule its fate to one sixty six persons
now it’s time for every elected candidate to show his or her character or else
in next PMC/PCMC election the only button which will get pushed is of “NOTA”!
--
Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
--
Sanjeevani Dev.
--
Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)
Sanjeevani Dev.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)
http://jivnachadrushtikon.
Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/
For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below
www.punecorporation.org
Think Green, Think Life
www.sanjeevanideve.com
Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/
For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below
www.punecorporation.org
Think Green, Think Life
www.sanjeevanideve.com
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