Heavy showers unleashed by a
somewhat delayed monsoon have flooded Kolkata nowadays. The picture is
identical almost everywhere. Perhaps one of the worst hit zones in terms of
water-logging is Sector Five of Salt Lake City, the prestigious and elite
township situated on the eastern fringes of Kolkata. Ministers, politicians,
bureaucrats, doctors, engineers, industrialists, businessmen and
professionals reside at Salt Lake City. In fact an address at Salt Lake City
is in itself a status symbol.
Sector Five was earlier known as Salt LEC ie Salt Lake Electronics Complex.
Now it has been recently rechristened as Naba Diganta i.e. New
Horizon. The communist rulers of West Bengal have ostensibly come a long way
from 1977 when they first came to power. They had banned the entry of
computers in the state, stopped teaching English at the primary level and
even contemplated training an entire generation of barefoot doctors (quacks)
to complement the mainstream public health system that they considered to be
inadequately equipped at that point of time.
The state government has since then done a turn around in its policy
priorities. It has reintroduced English teaching at the primary level and is
trying its level best to woo the big names in the information technology
sector to invest in West Bengal. Infosys is yet to enter while Wipro, IBM,
Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Cognizant, TCS, Mindtree etc have already
established their operations at Sector Five in Salt Lake City.
Salt LEC will soon become a Notified Area. It will no longer be under the
jurisdiction of the Bidhan Nagar Municipality. The government authorities
have decided to upgrade the civic amenities of Naba Diganta. Improved road
connectivity, enhanced condition of roads, better public transport
facilities, tightened security, vigilant law and order situation, solid
waste management, sewerage and drainage, street lighting, piped drinking
water supply are the major concerns at the present moment.
The rains this season have exposed the inadequate civic facilities available
at Naba Diganta. This is supposed to be the information technology hub of
West Bengal where multinational giants have started their operations on a
more or less reasonable scale. Call centers have been set up and software
development is taking place simultaneously to cater to growing domestic and
international demands.
Kolkata is fast catching up with technopolises like Bangalore and Hyderabad
(Cyberabad). Some of the best brains of the country work at Naba Diganta.
These whiz kids mint fortunes in terms of their pay packets and are seen jet
setting along the new information technology horizons of Kolkata. Formal
training in information technology enabled services and business management
is the key to open the magical doors of success: a ticket to Silicon Valley
and a Green Card along with the NRI Status.
But the picture that has emerged this monsoon is indeed a sorry one. All
around vehicles have broken down, half submerged in water. Traffic has
almost come to a standstill. Dirty and turbid water has entered the
wonderful and futuristic office complexes that are architectural marvels of
steel and glass. Litter is floating on the water and spreading everywhere.
As far as the eyes go there is water water everywhere but not a drop to
drink.
White collar laborers are stuck on the flooded thoroughfares of Sector Five
along with their blue collar menials. The streets resemble rivers. People
cannot enter or get down from their generally low slung cars for fear of
water entering the inside of these vehicles. Cars have broken down as water
has entered their exhaust pipes and choked their silencers.
It is as if all hell has broken loose and the rain gods above have unleashed
their pent up furies against a city that is saturated in sin and
senselessness. New cars like the Maruti Swift, Toyota Innova, Maruti Wagon
R, Maruti Zen, Tata Indigo, Toyota Qualis, Honda City, Honda Civic, Hyundai
Santro, Tata Indica, Tata Sumo Victa, Fiat Uno, Daewoo Matiz etc have
generally failed to swim through the waters of hell that are swirling in an
angry manner all around Naba Diganta.
Upwardly mobile Kolkata residents had so far read about the Mumbai floods
last year or even this year. They have seen pictures flashed across the flat
screens of their expensive television sets of film stars and celebrities
getting stuck in the rains. They have also read about the erosion of River
Ganga elsewhere in the state where poor and hapless people have lost their
homes and hearth due to changes in river courses catalyzed by torrential
rains. But apocalypse now appears to be the present mood of nature vis-à-vis
Kolkata, and especially Sector Five of Salt Lake City.
The ineptitude of the civic authorities both in the Kolkata Municipal
Corporation as well as in Bidhannagar Municipality is partially responsible
for this dismal state of affairs. Drains have not been cleared on a periodic
basis. Plastic wastes have clogged the catchpits and drainage outfalls. This
has led to choking of drains and obstruction of their free passages. So
rains and storm water cause backflow of wastewater onto the city roads and
even into private premises.
Kolkata is supposed to be logistic hub centering around which the Government
of India’s much-hyped Look East Policy will be implemented to promote
economic development and better road / rail / water / air connectivity in
South and East Asia. New roads, airports, special economic zones, townships,
knowledge cities, health cities, food park, chemical hub, textile park,
bridges, flyovers, interchanges, automobile factories, software development
centers, industrial complexes etc will be designed and constructed in this
connection. But the future will not be secure until and unless basic
amenities are provided efficiently in and around Kolkata.
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