We are in the the middle of 5 day working week and few thoughts of the day and brief deliberations on the same:
1. There is a news item in today’s print media that Ministry of Railways/Maharashtra govt have decided to take the help of Indian Army to build the 3 Foot Over Bridges ( FOBs) on the stations of Local trains in Mumbai. The stations are Eliphinstone Road on Western Railway , Currey Road and Ambivli on Central Railway network. This has created a lots of hue and cry from Railway Engineering Staff and Opposition Parties. The Engineering staff is saying that this means we are incompetent to build FOBs on fast track basis, and opposition parties are blaming that this is a knee-jerk decision by the Govt, by involving Indian army for the work which can be done by Engineering Dept of Railways. Secondly there is strong reactions from Army Veterans who have said that OK we are (Army) capable of doing fast track work like this, but do Army has to execute this type of works and further commented that the Politicians are over using the Army for civilian rated matter now a days.
My views on the above matter are- it is not the first time that the Army has been called to do such type of work, and considering that Babus of Railway Ministry were sitting on the Eliphinstone Road bridge file for more than 2 years after sanction proves their sincerity and urgency in this matter, Were they waiting for the disaster to happen to float the tenders. Then in this case what is wrong in entrusting the job to Indian Army or opposing Politicians are waiting for further disasters to happen at Currey Road and Ambivli Stations, and then blame the present Govt for the disaster.It looks like for Politicians there is no value to human lives, they only wants to score the brownie points. It is not the first time Army is coming out to help Railways in Mumbai, friends you will recall that few years back the Hancock road bridge near Sandhurst Road Station on Central railways was demoslished and walking people have to cross the tracks to go the other side of tracks and in the process few people lost their lives. In response to a PIL Bombay HC asked the railways to seek the help of Army to build a FOB across the tracks. That time Army placed 2 options- first one, to retrofit an existing water pipeline across the tracks and second to erect a temporary FOB, but the Railway said the Temporary bridge is not feasible, and the first option was ruled out by BMC. My point is if Army could build a temporary bridge across tracks then why Railway could not. And today railway says we are expert in building FOBs.
2. Till 3 years back people were not knowing 31st Oct is birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, who happens to one of the strongest leader of Indian Independence movement and the man responsible for merging Princely states with the India, which we got from British Raj. The only one Princely state which was not handled by him and was handled by Nehru is J&K, and I do not have to spell what has happened to that state. Over the years Nehru/Gandhi family has totally forgotten the services rendered by Sardar Patel in building united India, left to Nehru I can not even imagine how Indian map would have looked. You will be surprised to know that all the members of Nehru/Gandhi family namely Nehru himself, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were awarded Bharat Ratna award when they were either alive or immediately after death but Sardar Patel was honoured with the same award more than 4 decades after his death. It is only after Narendra Modi, when he was CM, started talking about Sardar Patel then only present day Indians realised the worth of Sardar Patel and his contribution towards building India.
31st Oct being the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi also, over the years Congressmen and their govt always gave importance to this date and celebrated as martyr day by releasing big ads in print media and holding some programs in her memory. But yesterday became anti climax for Congressmen, as most of the Print media carried ads issued by Central Govt in the memory of Iron man of India Sardar Patel and no ads regarding death anniversary of former PM Indira Gandhi, and the biggest surprise was that even Congress forgot Indira Gandhi as they never released any ad in her memory.
In the end what you say my friends.
Awaiting your feed backs and comments.
R. N. Mungale.
1.I think Army’s help should be taken if other agencies fail.
2. Sardar Patel was really an iron man of independent India. As Rajgopalacharya said he was most trusted man of Mahatma Gandhi.
Bobby
Calling in the army is not about better workmanship, not about quicker finish nor about stronger quality. It simply means our system has failed and this government which promised to change the system, to root out corruption, is now putting its hands up in the air; in a gesture of helplessness!
Our job is to improve our civilians in administration and workmanship, but by bringing in the army, finally the same army will fall prey to our corruption as they move into these messy areas of civilian life!