“The best way to
develop people is to constantly get them out of their comfort zone.”
―
“You have no
control over your growth or development. But you have control on the
direction of your growth and development!”
―
Ziad K. Abdelnour is a Lebanese-American investment banker, financier, activist, and author. Israelmore Ayivor is a Youth Leadership Coach, Leadership Entrepreneur, Author, and Speaker, from Ghana! Well, needless to say Ziad is in America as mostly all finance people usually settle there only & Ayivor is from a small but mineral wise rich country named Ghana in the African continent! Though you must be wondering what these names have to do with our subject (which is not about tadoba, not even about forests) i.e. road digging & city! It's not their field of operation but the object of their quotes which made me use it as its about development & if Ziad thinks best way of developing people is to keep them uncomfortable then Ayivor thinks we have no control on our growth but we can control our direction of development & if you are still wondering where is direction of this sharing then let me explain! I read four headlines today in newspapers & all were about road digging though the reasons were difference, first was about road cutting charges (road digging) to be waived for power cable for Police colony by PMC & another news were about traffic jams causing due to road cutting & then one news was about digging being done by one agency when the road surface is being paved recently by another agency, needless to say both agencies are of govt only! And then there are always news of illegal road digging by private or unknown entities about which all are clueless, the list is endless like Hanunamamji’s Tail (plz google for meaning)! At the same time road digging in Pune are dear subject for memes on social media, right from “idhar Khuda hai, udhar Khuda hai, jaha dekhu waha Khuda hai” (keeping all good & right & respectful intentions for religion, this is just used for prank, now a days such clarification is a must) to Pune has hidden treasure underneath as or why we would be having so much of digging going around on the roads,” are to name a few which are circulating along!
Well, many readers (if they read further) will ask what’s big deal, a lot is already being printed in newspapers, as well on social media, why to write so much about it & why we should read lengthy articles on road digging like a boring subject, we have better work to do! And all such people are right as sometimes I myself also wonder why I write or think even on these subjects, as one, I am not an authority to decide on the cause or any action plan about subjects like road digging nor its going to make any difference to anybody! But I don’t think so as I write because I feel & I write as I can think & somewhere somebody can make the difference only if we (not just me) keep writing or expressing or say sharing but if we don’t do that also, then we have no hopes nor have any right to expect so! Ok, about road digging charges first, as that is directly related to the economy of the civic bodies (PMC, PCMC, PMRDA etc) as well that of businesses also! For those who don't know about such charges (lucky souls) the if you want to dig a road in city or say anywhere then you first have to take permission from the local authority which can PMC/PCMC etc & you have to pay certain charges per running meter of the length of the digging work! That’s ok, you damage the road so you have to pay for it, its that simple but, this but, is the reason for my sharing!
First is about the charges & before that why one has to dig the road & there are many reasons as unfortunately in our country development is handled by many agencies & they seldom work in hand. When you build a home (I am deliberately not saying builder or else the dimension changes, will explain about it in the last part of sharing) then you need water connection, gas connection (pipe gas), electric connection, drainage connection, Wi-Fi connection & all these comes through the cables or pipes which are usually underground. Naturally to avail these services one has to dig the road surface around your home (read as project). Similar things are needed to do even for the agencies which mostly are govt run, for their own development or expansion or repair works. For e.g. drainage dept needed to enlarge the size of existing drainage line by replacing the older line with a bigger diameter pipe & such. Here the real issue lies, as when PMC (in our case) needs to dig the road for their own work then obviously don’t have to pay any charges as well when other govt dept such as MSEDCL or Telecom dept dig the road for their cables or the work is for some govt dept such as Police depts’ homes in the news case then these charges are, say Rs X per running meter. But when a private person is needed to dig the road for same cables or pipe lines then though the supply & beneficiary is some govt dept yet just because the private person is doing it the road digging charges become Rs 4 X per running meter & that’s huge amount where the length of cabling or piping runs for more than few hundred meters! At the same time what is logic of this Rate for private entity, nobody has answer to it & in many cases where some other govt agency is involved then the redoing of road surface is not done at all properly, who is responsible for that, again nobody has answer, then why are we paying the road cutting charges!
Now coming to the basic issue, why in the first place somebody is needed to dig a road, unless to replace existing pipe line type works, is my question for the authorities! Why can't the local body itself dig the road once for all & lay proper conduits or ducts crossing the road at regular intervals so every now & then no-one is required to dig the roads & makes the mess of traffic as well redo the road surface, is my second question! And if at all the road is needed to dig then why the rate difference for such charges when providing the essential services is the job of govt only, & from the common man’s purview any agency may it be local body or state govt or central govt, all are govt itself, right? High-time our leaders must acknowledge such vital urban issues which are directly related to ease of doing business as well affects citizens (which includes individuals’ as well businessmen) mentally & financially. And another aspect of this road digging is the nuisance it causes to everybody, mostly to the commuters using the respective road & people living along that particular stretch of the road where digging is going on! As along with traffic jams, these road diggings & their repairs are the major cause of road accidents also, right from people falling in the dug section to vehicles skidding from the wrongly done resurfacing many accidents happens in the process is a known fact & all of this can be avoided with right planning of works, is my subject of sharing!
And when the subject is development then one bad practice which is growing fast in our country (thanks to politicians & media) & that is, blaming some industry for any policy or development! As in one news, in Bihar a bridge is built & media blamed it, it's built illegally by some local real estaters’ (read as builders) for rise in the land rates of their lands which are supposed to be on the other bank of that river. Well, about legality of the bridge, it must be built only after proper permissions, no two minds about it but why some private people are needed to build a bridge, this is the question I want to ask to the media! Leave the Bihar news, here in Smart City Pune also, if not bridges but the developers are needed to build roads, lay water lines, get power cables, & many such infra works on their cost; while these works are supposed to be done by the govt only, right? We want affordable homes for masses but we don’t want to build infrastructure for the same & when some ring road or bridge or water line is proposed in some area then the media makes noise about such development that it's in the benefit of some builders only! Joke is, the very same govt which wants industries to invest here in this State/ City, & promises to provide infrastructure for these industries such as water, electricity, transportation on fast-track basis & at govt cost but when it comes to provide the infra services for the homes which are needed by the people who will be working in all these industries, there the govt puts its responsibility on the builders, “baat kuchh hajam nahi hui’ (please google for translation)!
Friends, high time for our rulers to understand purpose & meaning of terminologies like “development” & “growth,’ because a city is just like our human body & if every organ of the body is healthy & fit then only, we can call the person fit or else if only hand or leg is getting bigger in size, it’s called as swelling & we all know outcome of that type of fitness, right? Adios with this waidhanik ishara (again please google for meaning)!
-
Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...
https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345
Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying!
https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html
https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html
Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345
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www.punecorporation.org
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