GIVE ME STRENGTH!
SERIOUSLY, WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE SMOKING?
Our esteemed Delhi government presented its budget earlier in the week, and this is what the venerable tourism-walas came up with.
In order to make Delhi a quote unquote world-class destination, we need…
…what do we need?
Less pollution?
Better public transport?
Safe streets?
Loos?
Nah.
Apparently we need better accessibility at heritage sites and interactive public campaigns.
I repeat.
WHAT ARE THESE GUYS SMOKING?
Here, don’t believe me, read it for yourself.
Listen, I hate to sound harsh.
I’ll probably get trolled &/or labelled as anti-national (the favourite insult around here these days), but Delhi already has a “brand” and an online presence, and it’s one that the city should be deeply ashamed of.
The most polluted city on the planet.
A city where a young woman called Jyoti was gang-raped & eviscerated, & where the cops used water cannons against women protesting her rape and death.
Sorry if you don’t like the harsh reality, all you pie-in-the-sky political fellas, but the ground reality is this. Delhi has a poor image and it isn’t going to get solved with mobile apps and social media.
Unless, of course, these mobile apps tells us where the spotless loos are, and what time the next clean bus will come along, minus the paan and caked vomit down the side.
But if the apps don’t address issues like these, nor the rubbish, nor the men peeing in the street, nor the dangerous unlit roads and the encroached-upon-pavements well, sorry, but this is just plain hogwash, and a waste of my hard earned tax rupees.
The only interactive public campaigns this city needs are against sexual violence. Against public urination. Against chucking rubbish everywhere. Against road-rage.
Oh God, how negative this makes me sound, but it gets me so mad when I read such rubbish as this – mobile apps, brands, skywalks – it’s downright insulting of these politicians to prioritise this kind of stuff, rather than accepting the ground reality. And then tackling the problems.
Until the streets of Delhi are litter free, devoid of illegally parked cars, and well lit, until the streets of Delhi are safe for half the population, unless the streets of Delhi are not paan-stained and urinated upon…sorry, all the apps and skywalks in the world will not make it world class.
It is SUCH a crying shame, because this city is stuffed with unbelievably fabulous monuments, but have you seen the state of the smaller ones of late? Strewn with rubbish, graffiti-ed upon, often encroached upon? Tackle these problems first, please, before wasting our money on mobile apps and skywalks.
There was a time when I used to visit the Mehrauli Archeological Park (mentioned in the article) quite regularly, on guided heritage walks.
Admittedly, it has been a couple of years now since my last visit, and so I am prepared to be contradicted (oh, how I hope so!) when I say that the last time I was in this Park it was a heartbreaking mess of rubbish, and smelly to boot. Utterly fantastic tombs and monuments, which should be the city’s pride, instead of which there was plastic everywhere and that unmistakable smell of open defecation.
Actually the more this blog-post progresses, the angrier your blogger-at-large gets. It’s almost an insult to we tax-paying residents.
Ah, you can imagine them saying behind their tax-funded closed doors – who the heck needs wastepaper bins and street lights, safe streets and loos?
Nah, where’s the fun in that?
Give ’em a walkway and some mobile apps, and that should pull in the punters.
Utter nonsense!
Peux-tu m’envoyer la photo ?
laquelle, Veronique?
Celle du gros gros bouchon monstrueux !!!
To be fair – I believe Delhi Govt are trying to tackle the pollution and taking measures to clean the streets and deal with demolition waste. I believe they are also improving street lighting. Policing is under central control as we keep being told. Agree waste control at heritage sites vital. Don’t like the idea of walkway at Qutb Minar. Toilets – Centre was due to instal 480 public toilets under Swachh Bharat but even that doesn’t seem very many in relation to the size of the city
Solving Delhi’s real problems is beyond any of our politicians, including NaMo. They gave up a long time ago. So let them pick these ground touching fruit, symbolic of “progress” And “leveraging technology”, the only things our politicians excel at.
So we continue to live in a dirty, unsafe city, Sunil? What a depressing scenario…
I don’t want that at all, but solving Delhi’s problems is beyond me. They are doing what they can. Unless you can do better why run them down. It serves no purpose whatsoever.
Sunil Nehru fair enough, but I just wish the powers that be would concentrate on things that are so basic for us all – safety. Sanitation. Then move onto the sexy flashy stuff like skywalks.
That is obviously true and nobody will dare contradict it. It therefore qualifies as a motherhood statement!
You only get labeled anti national if you speak against the central govt. local govt is fair game since they lost heavily here! And I agree with you. We need to spend money on infrastructure; not to feed the personal vanity of a few politicians.
what delhi needs is a propor govt not a bunch of low-talent-highly-paid-cartoons.
May I share this?
Balaka Dasgupta please do
Christine Pemberton Thank you