Recently the Government of Tamil Nadu declared open the beautified "Marina Beach" for public. The beach, for many, is associated with some unforgettable childhood moments. The beautification of one the longest natural beaches in the world hopefully would represent the need for recognition of the natural creations before they are consumed by manmade negligence. One definitely is left wondering if we have mastered the art of fire fighting as more often than not we were instrumental in creating the fire!
That apart what caught the eye was the press release that stated that beach has been more "tourist friendly"! What is that supposed to mean - Resident Unfriendly?! This represents yet another instance of negligence to recognise the rights of the locals and that is invariable is the source of problems in future. We end in creating second class citizens of our own residents. Tourist friendly autos when the local residents are being fleeced? I was reading an interesting news item according to which the estimated amount of excess charging by autos in the city of Chennai alone is in excess of Rs.1100 crores!
It is high time we overcome this export quality and export surplus obsession. The world is recognising the potential of the Indian markets but we are still looking external!
Another news item that irritated me was the proposal to clean up the Elloits beach in Chennai using children from schools during the third week of January 2010. Why on earth should we ask innocent children to clean up the mess up of irresponsible elders? We make fancy statements like the current generations are the trustees of the future generations but end up doing just the opposite of asking the beneficiaries to protect their property. Wonder what the social activists are doing?
It is time we fast track on both educate and enforcement aspects rather than continuously ask children to clean up the beaches making them rag pickers. If at all we need to use children let us use them for community policing which make act a deterrent to the elders!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment