Put city’s development before political ego

Aarey colony. File Pic

With a new political dispensation at the helm in the state, the news is rife that the Maharashtra government is on a mission to scrap certain projects in the city. Through the 2.5-year Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) tenure at the top, pitched battles had been fought in the digital space and beyond, with frenemies BJP and Shiv Sena taking pot shots at each other, especially with reference to different works that had started in the city.

While the Opposition is a watchdog and must question and criticise when there are grounds for it, the BJP vs Shiv Sena had degenerated into slanging matches, rather than any battles with meaning or, one suspected at times, genuine concern.

Now this government should not summarily dismiss every project just because it was brought in by the Uddhav Thackeray led government. Instead, it should weigh the pros and cons of various works and schemes and truly see if they work for the city. If it does, it makes more sense to let it continue, rather than scrap it.

One also has to take into account that taxpayers' money has been ploughed into these initiatives. They can be shelved if there is a waste in genuine terms, however, if there is use for a certain work which has been started, then, it makes no sense to pull the plug and fritter time and money already expended on that.

The city and its infrastructure, including resources, are not playthings that can be used in a tug of war or game of one upmanship between two parties. Here, this smacks of putting ego above all else, and actually pushing something with real benefits away, because of pride and spite.

This is not a comment on who is right or wrong, it is about putting people first and scoring political points last.