The state of our state

Last week I was surprised to see the sudden repair work being carried out on the road to my son's school. I was happy that the municipal corporation is doing this work as the road was in desparate need of repairs. The speed of work was also terrific. An entire stretch was repaired in flat two days. The side walls were painted white as were the boundaries of the roads. I have always been very critical of the way the government and its machinery works. Although this was a welcome change.

Then came the day after the work was completed. The morning drive to the school answered the question of how come such fast work on this road. Our honorable Chief Minister was scheduled to inaugurate some project on that road that evening. This is unfortunately, the sad fact in our country. The roads are repaired for the ministers to ensure a smooth ride wherever they pass. The ordinary citizens can go thru the same pathetic road throughout their life and no one would care. But when any big minister passes by the road has to become perfect. People have become wise these days. When the roads in the locality becomes unbearable they just invite the CM or any big minister and 'voila' you have a great road in a matter of days.

These ministers give a pat on the back on the people responsible for the 'great' roads while being fully aware of the ground reality. We citizens pay taxes for the improvement of the roads, water, power, security, etc. But our hard earned money goes into the pockets of unscrupulous bureaucrats who couldn't care less about what is going on.

I don't see this changing for at least the next two generations as corruption is so deeply rooted in our system that it will take this much time for it to slowly get drained out. India can easily grow at more than 10% per annum if only our govt.put a check on corruption. It is not enough for a party to simply raise the slogan of 'Aam Aadmi' but actually focus on the aam aadmi by ensuring that development reaches the people it is meant for. I also know that this blog wouldn't make any difference to anything but I just had to bring this out and share my frustration with this pathetic system that we are forced to live with day in and day out.