Fixing potholes and ditches on the road and sidewalks is not the job of the Prime Minister (as some Goan writers and Goanetters suggest). Surprising to many, it is not even the job of the Chief Minister.
The job of fixing roads and drainage belongs to the civil servants of the district DPW (Department of Public Woks). Approaching them personally and through repeated letters to the chief and the local newspaper by local activists would certainly help. Another useful source of pressure to get the job done can be brought about through the elected representative to the village Panchayat (or the Municipal Corporation) or / and the state Assembly. Make the folks who come to you for votes accountable for caring for your local public issues. These local elected representatives (or their relatives) meet you everyday in the market, etc and are even likely personally known or related to you. If each one took care of their own neighborhood (as the doctor who drowned in the open manhole close to his home), the whole problem would be ameliorated long before a disaster strikes. Regards, GL ------------------------- From: Bernice Pereira Mr Naguesh compares the rains in Mumbai to the calamity in Texas and Louisiana. Let me inform u? that the reasons for the flooding are incomparable. The Hurricane Harvey caused major destruction which was uncontrollable. Yet those states have put in every effort and worked relentlessly to bring whatever order they could in that situation. In mumbai where I have lived for the major part of my life, this was a matter of a bad drainage system. Every year it is the same story, potholes on roads are not repaired, drains are not cleaned, the municipality fills their own coffers with taxes from the public. One heavy shower and the streets are flooded. This year it rained very heavily and this was the result. This was just heavy rain not a natural calamity like a hurricane, tornado or typhoon. ----------------- >From : GL In the midst of the news of flooding at Houston, the recent calamity in Mumbai made it in the national evening news in America. And we commensurate with the loss of life with the collapse of a building in Bhendi Bazaar and other tragedies. The one that was a topic of conversation with my wife was the Mumbai doctor walking close to his home in the knee-deep water and stepped into an unseen open manhole and drowned.
