My Entry

This is my entry shortlisted for the finals of Saarang CSR Youth Summit aka Essence.It is a piece written in extreme haste just a few hours before the deadline.Just thought I'll share it here! I found it satisfactory though there was a lot more depth to the given topic which I am of the opinion, is not quite quite delved completely:

'A governance problem in my city: My solutions'

I no longer am a regular citizen of my birth-town Hyderabad but it doesn’t make me any less critical to the problems of the city which I grew up with. Most of the big cities like Chennai (where I currently stay in), Hyderabad etc. share common, inevitable problems that come with the modern urban civilisation like inflated traffic, sewage and garbage management, rise of slums, terrorism, flood management etc. But meticulous planning and implementation on the part of policy-makers and administrators can help make the situation better. The following are a few problems plaguing the city:
• Unmanageable traffic that causes fatal accidents in some cases and loss to productive work hours ruining economy to a considerable extent.
• Sewage overflowing in certain areas especially during flood throwing a spanner into normalcy of city life.
• Garbage problem on the roadside due to lack of motivation and such other problems on the part of municipal employees leading to piled up waste mottling the city beauty.
• Slums are on rise owing to more number of poor people moving to cities in search of employment sort of encroaching on the urban space. They are the breeding grounds for communicable diseases and unrelenting poverty.
• Hyderabad has been attracting a spate of terrorist attacks over the past few years. Those blasts at the Lumbini Park, the famous Gokul Chat area etc. shook the citizens thoroughly. It is one more concerning which needs to be immediately redressed.
• Floods are not, as a matter of fact, as big a problem in Hyderabad as the above but yet, when they arrive, city life is halted to an alarming extent.
• In addition to this, problems associated with burgeoning cosmopolitan circles like night life which more often than not, are reasons for drunken driving, drug peddling, raunchy culture, creating a highly imbalanced social life.

My Solutions:

• To curb the traffic menace, it’s important that a minimum degree of awareness is created among everyone that uses the road. Effective planning of city, fly-overs at appropriate locations, traffic education in schools, motivating people to use techniques to curb pollution and traffic problem like car-pooling, strict traffic supervision, monitoring speed of the vehicles through modern technology etc are a few measures which may alleviate traffic to a large extent.
• Modern science can get electricity out of sewage and garbage. So, setting up board of workers to collect them regularly from time to time to this purpose can be a productive way of solving this problem.
• Slums can be discarded through establishing rapid action committees which work towards betterment of slum-dwellers condition by providing them with compulsory education, employment, bringing them under the purview of various government policies.
• City police officials claim to have an efficient intelligence system in place to curb any impending terrorist attacks on city. But time and again, terrorist outfits managed to break all the rungs of security to make a negative impact on city. People should be made an active part in vigilance of city. Advanced intelligence methods and modern forensic techniques should be made effective use of in tracking down the criminals and prevent future attacks.
• Flood management can be achieved with effective designing of city roads, underground water management.
• Night life is not something which can be avoided or completely gotten rid of for its a matter of people’s right to express themselves, relax and indulge themselves in their own hard-earned money. But when it takes ugly shapes like drug-peddling, it causes immense damage which needs to checked. Enforcement of anti-drugs and narcotic laws should be strictly done. Youth should be counselled, drug-addicts should be rehabilitated and motivated against this menace.
• Child labour and unemployment are other major social problems affecting society. Employment schemes like NREGS should be brought to everyone’s reach and every child’s right to education should be identified and respected. Stringent legal measures should be taken against people who go against these fundamental rights. Humanity of people should be appealed to help the poor in receiving education to shape good citizens of a better nation.
• Women have better opportunities in city than elsewhere. Still, many of them are yet to come out of the confines of their kitchens and take an active part in policy-making. Fifty percent representation of women in local bodies is a welcome move. But thirty-three percent women in parliament and state assemblies is still an unrealised dream which needs to take shape through effective political lobbying. A lot of women are victims of domestic violence even in cities. This is an issue of alarming concern which can be solved by empowering women and strong legal support provided to them.
To create a model city, all the above problems need to be addressed without any procrastination on the part of legislative and executive bodies.