Just Want To Walk

By Manuwant Choudhary

Its just impossible walking in India's cities.

And when we have all kinds of rights I wonder why there is no Right To Walk?

Every pavement is occupied by pavement dwellers and hawkers (who are useful but they need a place) and so people are forced to walk on the roads.

In Bombay you can see the traffic police hold thick ropes to stop people like they would do to cattle!

In Delhi, even after a yearof the Commonwealth Games and with Kalmadi & gang in Tihar jail the dust hasn't settled at Cannuaght Place...I asked shopkeepers when the dug up roads would return to normal and they just shrugged.

If you get into New Delhi you will see its not really a city...the only green cover is some thorny bushes, there are no pavements even on the main roads, and if they exist they are usually broken and in poor shape.

Then garbage....its such a stink.

Calcutta, its worse. Now they don't let you park your vehicle near the Victoria Memorial so its a breath of fresh air there but the rest is madness.

And in the monsoons,,,the lanes become the Hoogly.

Patna under Nitish sushashan still does not have street lights and in five years all he did was build road dividers which made the traffic situation worse.

In fact, Buta Singh has been the best ruler of Bihar since independence. His sons may have looted but at least he gave Patna's streets Cats Eyes.

Our rulers don't really love this country.