A Week Of Woes For Three Indian Mega Cities

Delhi Diary By M.Santhiran M.Santhiran, Bernama's correspondent in New Delhi shares his take on India. NEW DELHI, Feb 10 (Bernama) -- Just last week in my column I wrote about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious "smart city" undertaking that would boost the image of the Indian cities in the eyes of the world. Coincidently, in the same week the developments in the three Indian mega cities highlighted the Herculean task ahead for Modi in realising the smart city vision. The Indian capital city region of Delhi was hit by a mass strike of sanitation workers, in Mumbai residents were fuming over a non-stop burning dumpsite and in Bengaluru a mob attack on a Tanzanian student smacked of racial overtones. The Indian media, politicians and civil society organisations over the week delved deep into the woes faced by the three cities. STRIKING SANTITATION WORKERS Here in New Delhi, nearly 130,000 Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) sanitation workers have been on strike for the non-payment of their salaries for the past three months. Over the last few days, they were joined by another 13,000 nurses and doctors under the corporation crippling MCD's services in Delhi. For first few days, the sanitation workers protested before MCD's building and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's office. The striking workers dumped tonnes of garbage on major roads, that blocked the roads and brought the city to a standstill for a few days. Kejriwal directed his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Public Works Department (PWD) workers to temporarily carry out the task of the sanitation workers. As usual both the central government and AAP have been at loggerheads on who should be blamed over the problem and shoulder responsibility of paying the outstanding wages. Even though my housing area has not been affected by the strike, many people that I spoke to blamed Modi's party, the BJP, which they claimed were punishing the Delhittes who had voted AAP overwhelmingly in last year's state assembly election. MUMBAI CHOKES IN TOXIC SMOKE For the second week, fumes from a dumpsite fire have blanketed buildings and roads forcing people to remain indoors. With fire fighters still struggling to put out the fire, local residents have been complaining of eye irritation, breathlessness and coughs. Schools and colleges were forced to close for more than a week in most parts of Mumbai with netizens demanding the Maharastra government to do more on the raging fire at the Deonar dumping ground. Social media has been flooded with pictures of the massive toxic fire that has been raging since Jan 27 at the nine-storey-high local dumping ground. According a local official, the dumping ground receives about 3,700 metric tonnes of trash per day and the figure represents one-third of the city's waste. KARNATAKA RACIAL ATTACK In Bengaluru, Karnataka, a 21-year-old Tanzanian student was allegedly attacked and stripped by a mob following a fatal accident involving a drunken Sudanese student. The Tanzanian student and her four friends had nothing to do with the accident but were waylaid by the mob when they passed the accident scene half an hour later, apparently in a revenge attack. The victim claimed that the policemen who were at the scene did nothing to stop the mob from attacking and stripping her. The friends were also beaten and the car was torched as well. Mob culture is rare in India and the episode sparked outrage among locals and thousands of African students in India. What was more perplexing was that the attack occurred on Sunday night (Jan 31) and the police only initiated action three days after the incident. Most of African students interviewed by local media channels claimed it was a racially motivated attack. According to Karnataka state government officials, so far a total six policemen including two senior police officers were suspended and nine suspects were arrested. Modi's government that has been focusing on a much stronger presence at the African continent immediately responded via External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who condemned the attack and described as a "shameful act". Meanwhile, Malaysian High Commissioner Naimun Ashakli Mohammad immediately assured parents of nearly 2,000 Malaysian students that it was an isolated incident and Indian authorities taking all the necessary actions on the matter. -- BERNAMA