What is it going to take to have a Clean Bombay?

The only solution to keep beautiful Bombay crisp n clean is to slice it and push it into the Indian Ocean -- way away from trash-wallowing India!

silly NRI rant..most residents of mumbai (i.e. the bhayyas) will disagree with what the author thinks as important.

Being a resident of Karachi and having an unflinching love for the city by the sea, I can very much relate to what you say. The last time I was in Bombay (1 year back) I could see the improvements in the city and very much hope that Bombay is given its due importance in terms of infrastructural improvements etc.

Some parts like dhravi are the pits and become sewer in the yearly torrential rainy season and floods as recent as 2005

Do you think, as GDP per capita rises, things will take care of themselves?

[What is it going to take to have a Clean Bombay?]

A nuclear bomb exploded at 1900 feet for maximum effect. Bombay being a longish island, we may need several. It would incinerate the trash (both the inanimate and the human kind) as well as kill all the germs.

Would out friends across the border oblige?

Re: # 2

That`s why I suggest that the Shiv Sena goons be unleashed on any littering, pan-spitting Bhaiyya. They could do something useful for the city.

#2 - ``most residents of mumbai (i.e. the bhayyas) will disagree with what the author thinks as important``

Most residents of Mumbai are used to living in filth...and so just because they are happy being in a city doted with sidewalk defecation, it does not mean everything in hunky dory.

I have traveled all over US and Canada and visited many ethnic enclaves - China Town in San Francisco, Vietnamese enclave in southeastern Texas, Korean area in LA, Greek quarters in Toronto, Little Italy in NYC. No where have I encountered the kind of unhygienic conditions we find in Indian infested parts of cities. Go to Oak Tree road in NJ and you have to raise your pants to avoid any contact with red spittles on sidewalks. In many indian enclaves which I toured as part of my investigative reporting, I had to put on a face mask and gloves to avoid direct contact with germs and indians.

This hygiene problem is not just limited to indian areas in US. Singapore is the shiniest country in the world. Except for, of course, the Little India area where it is not uncommon to see lungi wearing south indians sitting along dirty sidewalks overflowing with garbage and where dark and sordid hotels are infested with rats and roaches.

US has done an excellent job of screening us Muslims at airports since we travel to and from countries where al-qaeda is active. This stops the spread of terrorism. It is quite logical that US should also setup inoculation and quarantine booths at airports to screen Indians coming from India in order to prevent spread of diseases. In the last 1000 years more humans have died due to plagues than due to war and terrorism combined.

This War on Filth will require generational commitment.

one area where the cities civic authorities need to take blame is that they need to provide dustbins on streets where people can throw their garbage.

second thing is we cannot expect to have special police squads for checking people on littering. there aren`t enough police to take care of law and order, where will police come to check who is throwing garbage and who isn`t.

what we can have is that every housing society or a group of them adopt the streets running outside their societies and take responsibility of keeping them clean, imposing fines etc.

and lets not encourage the goons of shiv sena. those bast**ds are good for nothing and are only interested in creating noise. the sena has been sitting in the bmc since the last 10 years. the results speak for theselves. thhey got elected again this time and i have given up all hopes of them running this city efficiently.

rgds,

devkant.

Author,

U made some +ve suggestions. I too think the same way. We cant have the NEW rules of excellene all over the city but few enclaves to start with. The fever for excellence wud catch up soon to other parts. The mantra shud be `improve`: if it`s bad make it good, if it`s good make it better, if it`s better make it the best, if it`s the best make it futuristic.

There are 2 points. Inefficiency of the city government and lack of civic sense on our part. Original Bombayites are of course very civilised. Its`s the migrants who made it very very dirty. Btw, where else can we find the people who just queue up 4 anything? Where else in India can u see men and women sitting side by side in a city bus without being ogled or misbehaved?

The point is: If these guyz spend several dozen crores to get elected, do u expect them to do us service?

Chutif2: Keep ur rants to UP. Your cities aint any better. If u have Isloo, we have Chandigarh, Gandhinagar and Jamshedpur. As for Chinatown in SFO, I disagree with ur point. I had been to an eatery very close to the statue of liberty (Chinese looking goddess of liberty) but looking at the unhygeinic conditions in the eatery I walked out. U give them certificates?

add on: People who are not familiar with SFO wud find this statue of liberty as misleading but Chinatown had it`s own lifesize statue of liberty with the godess looking Chinese. It`s not very familiar but there is one.

#10 by Folio

As for Chinatown in SFO, I disagree with ur point. I had been to an eatery very close to the statue of liberty (Chinese looking goddess of liberty) but looking at the unhygeinic conditions in the eatery I walked out. U give them certificates?

If Atif mian feels China Town in SFO is hygienic, that only tells us what Paki sense of hygiene is. I also read in a Paki paper that the day after Bakrid it is virtually impossible to walk the streets of Paki cities and towns without tripping on animal entrails, and streets overflow with the blood of slaughtered animals. Some hygiene that is!

Harish,

WHy only Bakrid? Their cities are hellholes. Nearly 30% of the people in Faisalabad suffer from water-borne diseases. As for Karachi, u need to just browse the Dawn photographs everyday. Its` all abt sewage filled roads. Lahore may be better but not better than Dehli. Rawalpindi is the exact opposite of Islamabad.

May be Chutif2 was born in Norway and bred in Germany ;-)

harish and folio....what rubbish you guys are talking.

if we have to believe zeemax and some other pakistanis (behram for eg), pakistani cities are simply fantastic. infact they even rival dubai in development, if we are to believe them.

rgds,

devkant.

Dev,

Yeah...u are right.

We have an article on India, which is a rarity on Chowk and we have these jihadis navigating the discussion to Hindu vs Muslim domain!

folio....i am from bombay and i feel very strongly on how this city functions. since the shiv sena came to power, bombay has simply gone to the dogs. as someone told me recently in a very subtle manner `bombay was very tolerant and safe, Mumbai is not`!!!

so i think lets ignore these pakis here who have nothing constructive to add to the discussion and concentrate on what can be done to make bombay better.

rgds,

devkant.