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Normal ambient around the corporation schools in Malegaon |
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More Pains |
 Such things happen only in Malegaon-Denied
the
wages,
teachers
are forced to work in
powerloom factories during the night:
The life has become a hell for more than 1000 families here in
Malegaon as the local civic body is persistently failing in paying
its share of the...Read
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Malegaon:
Established in 1863 Malegaon Municipal
Council till a decade ago was regarded as one of the richest Council
in Maharashtra. It was so prosperous that when Nashik and Malegaon
both were Municipal Councils, it used to lend Nashik Municipal
Council the funds needed for the monthly payments.
But today despite local taxes becoming
many folds and excruciating for the already overburdened people,
Malegaon Corporation, thanks to rampant corruption and
mismanagement, is on the verge of bankruptcy. While the house
tax in Malegaon is reportedly more than the other D class
corporations, the Octroi rates are undeniably the largest in India. And what the
Malegaonians are getting in return is almost zilch.
Gone were the days when the
representatives and the officials at the Local Body were caring and
eager to work for the people. “The roads, the sanitation and the
health problems have become a routine torment for the Malegaonians
and appropriate drainage system still looming at large”, says Ghulam
Rasool, a powerloom owner before adding. “What can be more miserable
for the Malegaonians than the fact that the lack of public toilets
and the dismal conditions of the existing toilets are forcing women
to wait for the dark nights so as to use open grounds as
lavatories?”
More ironic for the corporation, most
of the projects that the civic body has undertaken in last few years
are lying incomplete. "The construction work for Allama Iqbal
bridge, the auditorium at Bunkar Bazaar and the old-agra road are
pending since last more than a year. The cost of these projects
because of the incompletion has become manifold. Yet the
administration is not taking concrete step to complete these
projects", says Khurshid Ansari of Citizens for Development & Peace
(CDP).
Ansari further informs that T. C.
Benjamin, then Chief Secretary in the Urban Development Department,
Government of Maharashtra had directed to the corporation in
March 2008 to blacklist the contractors who fail to complete the
projects in time. "However what action the local officials had taken
over his directives is not clear till now", he says.
Schools That
Resemble Toilets
Despite the Government stressing much
on Quality Education, Malegaonians are lagging even on this front.
“The existence of more than 70% of the Corporation Schools being
near to the public toilets is enough to explain the local
administration’s definition of Quality-Education”, a teacher remarks
on the condition of anonymity. “What’s more, the Schools and its
surroundings themselves give such a pathetic look that they can be
easily mistaken as toilets”, he adds.
Moreover the Municipal Schools shown
in the Town-Plan are disproportionate with the population and the
Corporation is not taking any care for the safety of these lands. In
some cases the landowners themselves sold them out because the
Corporation has made no payments to them.
Against this backdrop, the
Malegaonians are justified, it seems, in assuming that they are
regarded as residents of an A-class city when it comes to taxes and
levies but are treated as a third grade citizen when it comes
to deliver the basic amenities.
Till recently, the communally
sensitive image of the city always came to the rescue of the
non-performing administration and on the debris of the riots they
succeeded in hiding their inefficiencies. But the lasting peace
after the 2006 and 2008 blasts not only helped the city in changing
its image but also helped in highlighting the real issues facing the
Malegaonians.
“By remaining peaceful after two
deadly terrorist attacks, the city successfully tried in changing
its image. But the corrupt administration and inept attitude of the
State Government still remain the same”, says Mujahid Ansari, a
weaver referring to the reported admission by the Planning
Commission vis-à-vis the attitude of the State Government towards
Malegaon.
Interestingly when the Central
Government on the basis of few reports submitted to it after the
2006 blasts realized that the problem with Malegaon is not communal
but economic and it is the decades of negligence by various
Governments that is actually putting the Malegaonians on edge, tried
to push certain reforms in the city on track. However with the
inefficient and corrupt local administration and step motherly
attitude of the State Governments towards the town, for the
Malegaonians, hunuz dilli door ast.
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