Collector calls for a change

VADODARA, Feb 21: When you have Civil Supplies Minister Jaspal Singh, District Collector Anil Mukim, Municipal Commissioner G R Aloria an...

VADODARA, Feb 21: When you have Civil Supplies Minister Jaspal Singh, District Collector Anil Mukim, Municipal Commissioner G R Aloria and VUDA chairman Krishnakant Shah on the same platform talking about Vadodara in the 21st century, you would expect from them a bagful of promises to revive the city’s past glory.

It didn’t however, turn out that way. True to his image, Singh gave the local administrators an acerbic tongue-lash, the usually soft-spoken Anil Mukim took no-holds-barred potshots at the administration and the public for their inertia, and Aloria and Shah reeled off a list of problems, future challenges and their efforts for the city’s turnaround.

Mukim spoke of the variety of reasons on which Vadodara prided itself, expressing concern that there was little to boast about. “It is very easy to blame everything on the lack of resources and staff, but Vadodara has no dearth of resources; what is lacking in Vadodara today is attitude and approach.”

Story continues below this ad

The city, he said, was losing its heritage to industrial growth. “We have industries that are lop-sided, hazardous, dangerous. The city’s getting crowded, slums are mushrooming. We have prided ourselves on a rich tradition of arts and culture as well as academics, but we have not been able to create a single new institution for culture or education during the last 20 years. Instead the city is getting polluted, the situation is getting worse,” he said.

He spoke of the “pathetic state” of the tribal hinterland, on which the State Government “spends a whopping Rs 100 crore”. Drinking water had been affected both in terms of quantity and quality; the social and health infrastructure was almost non-existent, he added.

“If a revolution has to come, it can happen only in this city. We don’t need promises of a great future, we don’t need ambitious plans, we only need to lay down eight to 10 guiding principles, postulates. Let us decide: No more chemical industries, no more hazardous industries. Let us have non-polluting industries. Let us make 10 educational and cultural centres. Land is no problem,” he said.

Mukim’s optimism was in direct counterpoint to Singh’s gloomy prognosis. “I see no hope in any sphere of Vadodara. Nobody bothers here, nobody is accountable. Sab kuchh bhagwan bharose chal raha hai; dhirey, dhirey, marte, marte. Vadodara is dying”, said the minister, who is in charge of the district.

Story continues below this ad

Clarifying that he was speaking as a worried citizen and not as minister or MLA, Singh asserted, “Go to the municipal corporation and what do you find, only exchange of expletives and allegations; an atmosphere of carelessness and indecency pervades all over the corporation. I blame the public for putting the wrong people in power, whichever party it is. People should tell them to go if they don’t perform. Nobody is interested in talking, people want work.”

Singh expressed concern over the increasing number of pigs in the city, which was caused by garbage lying in piles for days without being cleared. “There is dirt everywhere, millions and millions of mosquitoes everywhere,” he said.