On the last Sunday of April, the entry gates of South City 1 had a new “decorative” element. A few residents of South City had installed about a dozen posters, loudly proclaiming on a bright blue background “Complete Boycott of Lok Sabha Elections by South City-1 Residents”. The reason for the boycott was mentioned too – “No sweeping No Water No Roads Overflowing Sewers”.
This outraged a few residents and chatter on colony WhatsApp groups started about why such posters are not appropriate. It was mentioned that each citizen must participate in elections. A few stated that the issues are local city-level issues, and an MP is not responsible for these. Counterpoints were offered and many residents felt that it was necessary to get the attention of the administration and political leaders for issues faced by residents. Election time was a good time for this. One resident even threatened to lodge a complaint with the Election Commission. WhatsApp discussions died and all became quiet on this front for a few hours.
Just a few hours later, one resident complained to the police about the posters. Policemen came to the SCRWA office that night and enquired about the posters. Excitement, Shock, Disbelief and Ha HaHa were the reactions.
Naysayers were proved wrong. The senior Police officials were sympathetic and heard the residents’ story. The plight of South City-1 was covered in 3 National Dailies. MCG officials, local ruling party politicians, media and even Rao Inderjeet ji (Gurgaon MP) came to know about this incident and called SCRWA EC team to know the details. The SCRWA team also submitted a list of issues to Rao Saheb, and he promised action.
No Dawaa – This exercise has only yielded publicity but no remedy. It has been almost a month as I write today, but nothing has changed on the ground and residents continue to live with “No Sweeping-No Water Roads-Overflowing Sewers”.
It appears that now only Divine Intervention can help solve our local issues as administration, politicians (local and National) and even media coverage has yet again failed South City-1 residents.
