My column for Yuva Desh: Monsoon, Misery, Mumbai-Again!

First drops of rain after months of sweltering heat,  the smell of wet earth when the raindrops come falling, the skies turn grey and burst into torrential rain which brings the temperature down by several notches. Summer rains send people into raptures the world over.

Not in Mumbai though.

In this city, people have begun to dread rains. This, despite the respite from heat the rains provide. For years now, monsoons in Mumbai have brought nothing but misery to the people of this city.

Waterlogging and breakdown of the civic transport system throws life out of gear. Children can’t go to schools, office goers can’t reach their places of work, but worst of all, the lakhs of people who live in slums have their homes flooded year after year.

This year the rains haven’t hit the city hard yet. Already stories of waterlogging, and potholed roads have begin to surface though. And like every year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has claimed that it is fully prepared to tackle the rains and come up with figures detailing how much money has been spent in cleaning storm water drains and filling potholes.

Just months after the Shiv Sena  won the Municipal elections in Mumbai and promised the people of a much improved and more efficient Corporation, all the tall promises have been washed away by the season’s first showers.

The memories of 26^th July downpour continue to haunt every Mumbaikar who suffered on that day.

 Brihannmumbai Municipal Corporation is the richest corporation in the country and in the last five years claims to have spent, at least on paper,  over Rs.21000 crores on roads, storm water drains, water supply, solid waste management, health and education in Mumbai.

The BMC budget is more than the combined budgets of five Indian states and one Union Territory (Goa, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Sikkim and Chandigarh) in 2011-12. With a budget like this there’s just so much one can do to improve the lives of the citizens residing in the megapolis.

• After spending more than Rs7,800 crore on water supply over five years, water supply remains erratic in many areas.
• The construction and maintenance of roads have cost taxpayers more than Rs4,000 crore in five years, but in July 2011, the BMC counted 6,000 potholes on its 1,900-km network of city roads. It spent another Rs57 crores filling potholes.
• Allocations worth around Rs 900 crore were made by the BMC for the construction of new roads in the city.
• The civic body awarded contract of reconstruction and concretization of 161 major roads, worth Rs570 crore. But more than half of such projects have been stuck due to encroachments.

But despite the amount spent, despite the elections bringing back the same party and their grand promises the situation continues to stay unchanged for this city.

The monsoons have just hit the city and some areas have already seen water logging and roads caving in. The BMC has been blamed for a shoddy job done in laying paver blocks that has led to creation of bumps and depressions on the roads. The first showers on Saturday, June 19^th, brought in complaints of water logging and potholes from several areas in the city. What is amazing is that these complaints are again coming from the same areas as every year.

As complaints mount, like every year the Sena leaders and BMC officials lie through their teeth, claiming a preparedness to tackle the monsoons that is simply not there.

Mumbai, you surely deserve better.