Mumbai: Mumbai and its suburban areas have always had a problem with bad roads. Potholes, missing manhole covers and accidents have long plagued the city, and this condition only worsens every monsoon.
The city’s residents have been expressing their anguish against the municipal corporations, sometimes even taking to the streets or lashing out on social media. Some even found a creative outlet, using memes and dubbed videos to vent their frustrations.
This monsoon, however, common citizens’ woes have found support from an unusual quarter – Marathi theatre and film actors who have decided to speak up against the civic authorities for not doing enough.
Last week, Marathi film and theatre actor Prashant Damle travelled from Mumbai to Kalyan, a town in the neighbouring Thane district, for his play Saakhar Kahlela Manoos. The distance of about 40 km took him over three hours to complete. Damle took to his Facebook profile to express his frustration. “The audience in Kalyan was brilliant, but the roads are absolutely third class,” he wrote. The post soon went viral. Several people shared their own daily travel struggles.
Several other Marathi actors and film celebrities, like actors Pushkar Shrotri, Priyadarshan Jadhav, Subodh Bhave and Chinmay Madlekar, joined Damle and questioned the state government for neglecting the roads. Shrotri said, “While potholes are a common problem across the city, have you ever wondered why isn’t it the case outside Varsha bungalow (the chief minister’s residence in south Mumbai) or Governor’s resident or even Mayor’s bungalow. That is because roads are looked at as an essential amenity only for important people. They are not meant for the common man.”
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Actor Subodh Bhave posted on Twitter to criticise the pathetic condition of Mumbai roads after he lost two people close to him in an accident.
Among the angry posts, there were a few others who used satire to talk about the city’s potholes. Celebrated radio jockey Malishka Mendosa was seen on Mumbai roads dancing on a medley of Bollywood songs, where she compared Mumbai’s potholes with the moon’s surface. Dressed in a red saree, Mendosa danced to several old and new Bollywood numbers and mocked at the civic authorities for not ensuring safe road travel.
In 2017 too, Mendosa had tried to use a similar video to draw civic authorities’ attention to the problem. “Mumbai, tula BMC war bharosa nahi ka? (Mumbai, don’t you trust the BMC?)” she asked in that video. While the video gained massive traction on social media platforms, it had landed her in a trouble with the Shiv Sena-led Mumbai Municipal Corporation, which served her with a legal notice.
The Marathi film industry, like any other, is highly political, with actors and other celebrities endorsing political parties of their choice. This, however, has not stopped them from speaking up against the government. Stands taken by these actors are a welcome sign, particularly when Bollywood actors are seen speaking in favour of the current dispensation. Actor Akshay Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan’s tweets and videos favouring the Devendra Fadnavis-led government’s decision to cut trees in Aarey is only one such example.
Also read: Deaths Due to Potholes Are Unacceptable: Supreme Court
Every monsoon, the city gets flooded for at least a week, coming to a complete standstill. While this is partly because of the rains that the city receives, the state government is also to be blamed for its perpetual unpreparedness. More so since the BMC is one of the richest municipal corporations in India, and claims to spend an average of Rs 7.5 crore just on fixing the city’s potholes.
In an RTI application made by city-based activist Shakil Ahmed, the BMC has claimed that to fill 3,981 potholes in 2017-18, it spent more than Rs 7.73 crore and in 2018-19, Rs 7.98 crore was spent to fill 4,898 potholes. This means the BMC has spent a whopping Rs 17,000, approximately, to fill one pothole.
But all these expenses have not ensured safe travel for Mumbaikars.
Mumbai’s terrible roads have made daily commutes a dangerous affair. The residents are miffed with the BMC over its lackadaisical attitude. Mumbaikars tweet photos and post videos to grab attention, but nothing changes. In August alone, at least three people died in Mumbai city from accidents caused by potholes and bad roads. Several others have suffered grievous injuries.
Year after year, the city’s infrastructure has only become worse, and this year too, nothing, not even satirical jibes, have moved civic authorities to act on the problems. Instead, Shiv Sena leaders have chosen to be in total denial, claiming, “there are no potholes at all”. With this attitude, Mumbai will simply have to live with potholes.