Tuesday, August 30 2005 14:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

The key to solving a particular problem or rather thwarting it is first envisaging one. Majority of our politicians are not trained or talented enough to foresee a problem. When you see a crippled Mumbai in this light, it clearly shows our politicians ability to resolve issues. Today the rain was more than 37 inches. Tomorrow it may be 74 inches. Can our politicians foresee this happening again?

One theory that must be applied to test our readiness in terms of disaster management is to put the city under the worst possible scenario. Can our politicians imagine that the worst earthquake measured is over 9 on Richter or that this reading could be read in Mumbai? Can they imagine that Mumbai may sometime in the future consume energy even more than New York City or 37 inches of rain can be substituted by 37 inches of snow? Can they imagine that Mumbai might be sitting on a volcano? All these may sound absurd but extreme imagination is always absurd because of its definition.

Mumbai, rains and poor infrastructure

Mumbai was made by our planners with lowest imagination power and highest excuse factor. The city is an incredibly complex machine that evolved in years. What ever the people needed, they added it to this machinery. Every module functions, given sunny day conditions. Water drains, trains run, the out station passengers entering Mumbai in the morning will see people sitting near railway tracks doing very happily their morning activities. Every part of this machinery runs by chance. But this fix and patch system has to break under non-sunny day conditions.

Believe me or not, Mumbai is a mess. You cannot come out of a mess unless you fix it. How will a better administrative structure handle a city submerged waist or neck deep? Drain water by buckets or hand pumps? You cannot. The disaster management was indeed a process failure. The sight of Mumbai was enough to break any process. Disaster management will only work when the system can handle the external pressure and its underpinnings can minimize the damage by self-initiating corrective action.

Vilasrao Deshmukh had a chance to be Vilasrao Giuliani but instead he chose to be Vilasrao Deshmukh, sitting inside telling how much worth of relief he has secured. Vilasrao Giuliani would have been out in raincoat with public showing how he is utilizing the secured relief materials. When they should have been doing public service, they chose to hold the swearing-in ceremony of a new politician into Congress. What a shame?

Let's act right for a better future

One thing the politicians need not imagine is that India is developing and will require huge amount of resources and world-class infrastructure. I grew up when India was not even a developing country, just a third-world country. Even then we had to pray for power failure so that we could skip homework or studies. Now if the number of people enrolling into pure sciences is dropping then we don't need an Einstein's brain to imagine what could be the possible reason.

Akola, my hometown in Vidharba, never had water problem. We never imagined that Akola might face acute water shortage. Today, getting to see water in the tap is a luxury and you can witness that luxury once every week for one hour. The reason for all this is because of huge amount of pressure being put on our existing resources and on our infrastructure because of the fact that we are developing. Can you imagine what the pressure will be like when we are a developed country considering a fact that there was never a developed country with over one billion population? We cannot live in this condition for a long time or our vision to be a developed country is terribly distorted.

Any community allows company to do business and the businesses pay taxes in return. That's a fair deal. The companies usually go beyond their set rule to do such task for the community as adopting schools or highways or help poor and down trodden of the society. It is their way of saying "Thank you for keeping us in business and we care". Well they pay taxes but get lousy infrastructure preventing them from doing business efficiently. No wonder why some companies have de-listed from the famous Bangalore.IT trade show. It is a crisp way of telling the Government to do something. Mumbai should do something like that. What is the advantage of Bombay Stock Exchange to stay in Mumbai? It can be some Timbuktu Stock Exchange in the bracket formerly Bombay Stock Exchange. Cities are competing to get businesses. They offer better these days for businesses to relocate in their community. Mumbai businesses should tell the authorities to improve.

In 1997, I was in Mumbai for monthly checkup of my surgically repaired knee. It started raining heavily and within minutes water in Dadar was waist-to-neck deep. I walked from bus stop to the clinic fearing that if I step in some pothole, I may have to get my knee repaired again. Finally I reached the clinic but as expected the doctor was not in. I took a bus for Pune but was stranded in Dadar for 15 hours. The residents came out in the night with food packets and offered us food and drinks. It was the first time I felt like a refugee in independent India.

Till when can cities like Mumbai walk on its own without getting necessary repairs. The Government should make sure that the fix is done in time or Dr. Manmohan Singh's dream to make Mumbai like Shanghai will turn into a nightmare.

The writer is a proud Indian citizen.