Kolkata Korner

Under Water

So Kolkata went under water again. Like, so what's new about it? Everytime the city is lashed by heavy rains for a couple of hours at a stretch, water gets logged at various places. If the rains continue for a few hours and, calamitously, over a few days as happened from last weekend, practically the whole city and its peripheral areas get submerged underchest-deep water. And in many low-lying pockets, the water takes at least a week, if not more, to drain out. 

Every time this happens, newspapers and news channels devote rolls and rolls of newsprint or hours of airtime to the 'flooding', highlighting the citizens' poor plight and criticizing the civic authorities for failing to ensure there's nowater-logging. The civic authorities and the state government, in turn, argue that waterlogging cannot be avoided if there are heavy and sustained rains. And unfortunately, they're right. No matter what they do, water will submerge Kolkata in case of heavy rains. Our sewers and storm water drains cannot drain away, and the pumps cannot pump away, all the water fast enough. Constructing more sewers or drains is not feasible; even overhauling the entire, century-old sewer system that serves only a portion of Kolkata will take an astronomical sum of money that this city just cannot afford. So we have to grin and bear the waterlogging. 

And don't Mumbaikars, or even Londoners, share a similar fate? So why and what do we complain aboutevery time we are submerged? By now, all households in Kolkata—and especially the waterlogging-prone areas—ought to have bought boats (the affluent can go for fancy speedboats and maybe even houseboats), to set sailevery time water enters our living rooms. For those lucky few whose homes remain dry, waterlogging affords a wonderful opportunity to stay at home and away from school/college/work/business and enjoy an undeserved holiday. Why complain then?

We're To Blame

Kolkatans blame the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which in turn holds everything from the weather to lack of funds responsible for waterlogging. What we all overlook is all this happens because the water doesn't have any place to drain away fast. The gradient of Kolkata is towards the east, which had huge waterbodies--marshes, swamps, ponds and wetlands. That was till we started filling up these waterbodies to meet our housing and commercial needs. 

Kolkata's growth has been totally unplanned, haphazard and arbitrary. Planners and authorities have never bothered to construct drains, sewers and other facilities that can drain rain water away fast. Citizens have been happily complicit in this urban disaster. We haven't demanded careful and judicious planning from those in charge of such affairs, like the civic bodies or the urban development department. 

The fact remains that the best parts of Kolkata, where the streets are wide with underground sewers and which posses other utilities, were built by the British. Post-1947, whatever development has taken place has been totally unplanned, like large colonies coming up on huge waterbodies filled up by promoters virtually overnight or groups of people staking claim to some huge plot of government land and building houses on it. Such illegal (they have all been legalised later on political or monetary considerations) constructions have taken place violating all norms. Entire colonies, like those that dot Kolkata's fringes, have mushroomed in this manner without ensuring adequate space for roads, constructing drains, public spaces like parks, and other utilities and infrastructure. Today, it is because of all this that Kolkata and its neighbouring areas get flooded a few times every year. There's nothing that can be done; and there's no point blaming any one other than ourselves for this mess.

A Stark Contrast

To realise how hopeless and disgusting our city is, one needs to step across our state's border into Orissa and its capital, Bhubaneswar. Orissa's rulers and planners realised many decades ago that a modern city has to be built to house the state capital. So they engaged Le Corbusier, the architect who prepared Chandigarh's master plan, to do the same for Bhubaneswar. Today, Bhubaneswar is quite like the capital of Punjab-Haryana: broad streets, wide boulevards, parks, expansive housing colonies, well-demarcated commercial zones, efficient civic infrastructure and a pleasant place to stay in.

Orissa's rulers and administrators have maintained Bhubaneswar's ethos, unlike in West Bengal where we have defiled, destroyed or made ugly even what we inherited from the British. Bhubaneswar is not congested, and never will be, since building regulations are strictly implemented unlike in Kolkata where politicians sponsor slums and unauthorized colonies that have made this city not only an urban mess, but one of the ugliest in the world. 

Bhubaneswar was devastated just eight years ago by the super-cyclone; the city not only displays no signs of that, but has learnt from that experience and adopted a number of measures to cope with such calamities in future. Kolkata would have wallowed in that misery for decades and used it to justify its miserable state. 

Clean & Efficient

There's an air of efficiency to everything in Bhubaneswar. On a visit to the state secretariat there, I couldn't help comparing it to our Writers' Building. A well-manicured, lush garden greets visitors, unlike the chaos that reigns supreme outside Writers'. Inside, I was surprised by the absence of any crowds. There were no pot-bellied cops lounging around, no pan-chewing hangers-on, no parasitic touts, no babus scurrying around with bulky files, no peons chatting in the corridors and loud crowds waiting to gain entry to meet ministers and bureaucrats. Even the Chief Minister's Secretariat looked uncluttered, free of fixers and the babus all seemed to be working. 

I'm told that after coming to power in 2000, Naveen Patnaik brought about this sea change. Touts, fixers and other undesirables were banned entry. Visitors' entry was streamlined and ministers and bureaucrats asked to devote time to meet people instead of keeping them waiting. The administration was made extremely responsive, efficient, transparent, and largely honest. The number of cops on duty at the secretariat was sharply reduced to the bare minimum. All employees were asked to be courteous and helpful and turn up for work smartly. 

The secretariat building is simple, but clean and well-maintained, sans all those employees' union posters, betel-leaf stains, dust, cobwebs and garbage that predominates Writers'. Overall, the seat of governance in Orissa is a pleasant place and emits a positive aura that not only puts visitors at ease, but also conveys the impression that works gets done. It does, and I found that out first-hand.

Accessible To All

Having encountered, quite frustratingly, Bengal's politicians and bureaucrats for the past few years, meeting their Orissa counterparts was like inhaling a breath of fresh air. I sought, and got, appointments with top bureaucrats at very short notices. In Kolkata, everyone would have made me wait for days and in only very rare cases would have agreed to meet me. It is quite easy to meet Ministers and the Chief Minister or to talk to them over the phone, unlike in Bengal where ministers and bureaucrats make themselves inaccessible. 

And it is not just journalists who have such easy access to the mantris and babus in Orissa, the common people (and that's more important) have perhaps easier admittance. This is something I've never encountered in Bengal since landing here eight years ago. 

I'll cite my own experience: I requested a meeting with a bureaucrat whose job is to oversee relief operations in case of calamities. Orissa is experiencing the fourth spell of floods this year and this senior IAS officer ( N.K.Sundaray) was in the thick of relief and rescue operations. But not only did he spare as many as six hours for me (without letting it hamper his work, mind you; he took frequent calls andkept on issuing instructions to his staff and also planning elaborate and oftencomplicated relief operations), he and his senior colleagues put up an impressive power point presentation, patiently answered all my queries, met all my requests for information and gave me much more than what I needed for my assignment. To say that I was impressed would be a gross understatement. 

In Bengal, not only would Sundaray's counterpart never have met me for even a few minutes, his assistants wouldn't have even allowed me to talk to the officer over telephone. The standard response to telephonic requests to speakto even a middle-ranking officer in Bengal is the standard "he's busy at a meeting" from his lackeys (read: PAs and secretaries). Going by the long hours all babus and mantris spend at meetings in Bengal, a lot of work ought to have been done by now. Or do they meet to decide on how not to get work done?

Attitude Matters

To me, the underlying difference between Bengal and Orissa lies in the contrasting attitudes of the people of the two states. There's a belief among all in Orissa that their state is poised to make great strides in social and economic advancement. They passionately believe in it. And they're working towards it honestly and efficiently. Everyone, or at least a majority, is striving to contribute towards making their state economically and socially strong. This is a shared vision and there's a sense of mission. The Orissa of those starvation deaths at Kalahandi is history. The new Orissa is full of promise. 

Investments are pouring in (much, much more than in Bengal), industries are coming up, physical and social infrastructure is being created, and there's a strong belief that the goals the state has set for itself will be achieved. Unlike in Bengal, people there aren't slothful and pessimistic, nor is backstabbing or playing petty politics or running each other down their favourite pastime. Orissa, after initial setbacks (like the deaths due to police firing at Kalinganagar in December 2005), has taken firm steps to make developmentan all-inclusive and a happy process that benefits everyone. Politics isn't venal there, nor is it geared to benefit only the ruling combine and its supporters or workers. The people are simple, religious andunpretentious—fancy cars and gadgets are largely absent and ostentation is avoided. People are rooted to their rich culture and traditions and retain a strong sense of values. This is all a far cry from what exists in Bengal.

The Brickbats…

After returning to this hell-hole from Bhubaneswar, I told some friends and associates about my pleasant experiences in Orissa. Some, who had been to that state recently, agreed with me. But some, those Bengali chauvinists, bristled with rage at this comparison between Bengal and Orissa. They went hot under their collars. They rattled off names like Tagore, Subhas Bose (incidentally, a Cuttack-born) and many others right down to Amartya Sen to buttress their claim about Bengal's eminence and superiority over all other states (typical of Bengalis, wouldn't you say?). Bengal had to bear the load of millions of refugees from East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and hence fell back, they argued. Bengal was accorded step-motherly treatment by successive governments in Delhi and so couldn't progress, they alleged. The rest of India envied Bengalis and their achievements and hence have always conspired against Bengal, they contended. Industrial and economic policies were framed by new Delhi to hurt Bengal, they added. None of that cuts any ice with me. Exasperated, they finally said I should get out of Bengal and go stay in Orissa if I find that state to be so much better. My reply: yes, I'd love to relocate to Bhubaneswar. So should all other intelligent people who care for their, and their children's, well-being. Orissa is the state to watch out for. That's where all action will take place over the next few years and decades. Who wouldn't want to be part of the excitement in store at (to borrow a coinage of a media house) 'Orissa Poised'?