MUMBAI: After featuring in the top three liveable cities in the country Mumbai is likely to get into record books for its potholes very soon.
Navin Lade, General Secretary of employment wing of the Republican Party of India, who has devised this novel way to register the discontent of the citizens said that while the India Book has approved his request for entering the city's name in the book for this deprecating record in their next edition, the Guinness Book and the Limca Book have demanded some data.
"We have started a website with the name mumbaipotholes.com and appealed people to post photographs of the potholes they find in their vicinity. Apart from the website people have sent photographs of potholes over WhatsApp and also email. In all over 22,000 photographs have been collected until now," Lade said adding that this date would be sent to the record books who require some authentic data to approve the request for entry. Potholes have been there for ages.
It is only now that they have become a political issue. Political parties do conduct some demonstrations over it. Sometimes they also try to convey the people's displeasure in a novel way by carrying out motocross race, or planting saplings in the pits or even performing pooja etc. But, that is not sufficient for the thick-skinned agencies.
A tight slap in terms of concrete data can do that, Lade said while explaining how the idea of collecting photographs struck him. According to AK Chatterjee of India Book of Records, "Intention of the team is to contribute towards the improvement of the infrastructure of the city which is why they have approved the entry." Lade has been toiling hard to shame the authorities.
He has formed a group of youngsters who go around the city on motorbikes to collecting evidence and verify citizen entries. They also distribute pamphlets and put up banners and posters, urging citizens to raise voice against this situation. "Potholes are not just minor inconveniences. The potholes might have killed more people than those in the terror attacks on Mumbai. It needs to stop. This is what we want to convey through the initiative," Lade said.