We have heard everything about Mumbai. As the saying goes

IT IS NOT BAD- IT IS WORSE.

Sir, We must have heard ALL THESE REAL THINGS about 100 times
since to havoc in Mumbai.

Sir, DO YOU WANT TO BE DIFFERENT FROM THEM

AND HOW?

If you add to whatever already said - you know what
effect it will be.

YOU CAN TAKE THE LEAD IF YOU WANT TO.

CARRY THE SPIRIT OF AUGUST 15.


Warm greetings,

K.N.VENUGOPAL





MUMBAIKAR <madhu_sawant2000@...> wrote:

JOHNNY JOSEPH
Tuesday, August 16, 2005 12:52:0 IST

Man of the darkest hour




Johnny Joseph... incapable of giving reassuring answers.









IT is said that the people get the government, the
administration, they deserve. Perhaps this is true. Though what Mumbai
did to deserve Johnny Joseph, we do not know. Municipal commissioners,
like police commissioners, are appointed by the overnment. And in
giving us Mr. Joseph, no doubt, the government knew what it was doing.
The citizens, unfortunately, realise how good or bad and how efficient
or inefficient their municipal commissioner is only after he succeeds
or fails in tackling a civic issue. Most often, this is a municipal
workers' strike for higher emoluments and bonus before Diwali. At
various times, eparate departments of the corporation lay down tools
and agitate for individual causes. The octroi department is notorious
for this. Also the conservancy fellows. And sometimes the resident
medical officers of the municipal hospitals. The firemen who are also
municipal servants, poor chaps, threaten to go on strike often, but
never really do so. But all this, the city can take in its stride.
Octroi does not really bother the citizens until the prices of
commodities shoot up because trucks carrying them into the city are
lined up at the check nakas. Uncleared garbage is not such a big issue
anymore.

It is an eyesore. But then Mumbaikars have been
suffering from sore eyes for ever on account of overflowing bins,
choked gutters, and garbage on the road. That is nothing new. Strikes
in municipal hospitals, of course, are trying. They test the city's
patience. But this too has happened before, several times and passed.
And if you look at what conditions the poor municipal doctors work and
live in, you would be sympathetic towards their strikes. The complete
civic machinery shutting shop just before Diwali is what the city
cannot bear. It is generally believed that municipal staff don't do
any work rest of the year and to see them being dissatisfied and
agitating for bonus, is galling. But for all this, the city has never
gheraoed the municipal commissioner or demanded his resignation. Now
this has come to pass because Mumbai is on the verge of an epidemic.
Deaths are being reported from suburban Mumbai where people are
suffering from water-borne diseases as a result of the July 26 deluge.
Not only did the BMC fail in its management of the floods, but in
their aftermath, there was no great sense of urgency in hauling the
city back on its feet. Tonnes of garbage continued to lie about and
added to this, were carcasses of animals and other refuse. This is
where Mr. Joseph should have shown whatever talents he has that the
government saw in him at the time of his appointment. He should have
been visible, on television, at public places, meeting the media
instead of hiding from it, and telling the city that he was sorry for
what had happened, but he was ready to make up and needed the people's
support and cooperation.

Instead of making excuses, he should have warned
us of the epidemic, he should have taken the decision on his own to
ban food hawkers on the roads, he should have requisitioned additional
para-medic staff from wherever, more medicines, he should have ensured
that municipal hospitals were geared to face the deluge of fever
victims if and when they came, he should have had teams of the
municipal health department going from door-to-door warning people who
could be potential victims of lepto, dengue, malaria, cholera and
hepatitis. None of which was done. Only when the fever had set in and
people started falling down like flies (it hurts us to say), did Mr.
Joseph rise and rush to the suburban municipal hospitals. There, when
gheraoed by victims' families, and by ingratiating politicians, Mr.
Joseph showed himself as being incapable of answering charges and
making reassuring speeches. Don't know what he is doing "camping" at
the fever sites. The municipal hospitals and camps there have been
functioning as efficiently or inefficiently without him.

But he is part of the picture now. Too bad.
Too bad for us, because in our darkest hour, when push came to shove,
we found we had Mr. Joseph in our team.


"If we fight, we may not always win, but if we don't fight, we
will surely lose."

MADHU SAWANT

Save--our-- Mumbai