Sir,
A huge branch of a tree in front of our house (#2464, 20th Main, Police Station Road, Vijayanagar 2nd Stage) is broken and may crash down any time.
I informed the City Corporation Control Room and Forest Department over phone. The Forest official asked me to submit a written letter and hand it over to the Forest Office. I am a senior citizen and unable to go over as directed by him.
Hence I am appealing to the authorities concerned to clear the tree branch before any mishap occurs.
– G. Laxman, Vijayanagar 2nd Stage , 17.6.2020
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Wonder why the MCC requires a letter to take action. They can publish the E-MAIL ID of the concerned department to which a message can be sent instead of wasting paper (thereby saving trees) & also saving a lot of effort of senior citizens. In any case the letter will be left collecting dust in a store room. while our PM is calling for e-governance, other states/departments dont seem to care.
@Sridhar
Living thousands of miles away in the first world, having left India, decades ago, the reader’s section of the SOM, gives a very good insight of how Mysuru .India is functioning in 2020.
In my days in Mysuru, this problem of cutting this branch of a tree which is threatening to comedown any time, would have been easily solved with a gentle talk to my local municipal councillor (there was no fancy MCC then!), who would be living just a couple of streets away. Of course, Mysuru then was a wonderful Royal City compact, liveable place, with no marauding privately owned 4 wheelers acquired for prestige purposes, attempting to run over me, while walking to the councillor’s home. No need for e-mail ID and message. The Forest department was meant for the forests outside the city perimeter. The municipal council then was very reactive,and the tree branch would have been removed quickly. But in India, where every humble hut dweller has to have a cell(mobile phone), messaging is a must, while cows and stray dogs wander in the streets outside!
SOM gives a window of insight as to how the third world Mysuru/India wanting to be like the first world America; starting to call the elder, which has a respectable ring to it, as senior citizen. Japanese and Europeans have not adopted this American term. In Europe, in Germany for example, an elder has added rights, free medicines, free healthcare, free local transport, reduced train ticket prices, etc.. and their problems are prioritised for solution. Why copy America where senior citizens still have to pay for services, when the example of Germany is staring at Indians.T his tree branch would have been removed with a simple phone call.
I see the Indian bureaucracy has become very complex, with labyrinths of rules and regulations, departments passing the buck to each other, and happily doing nothing! When Mysuru expanded, with the forest around the old Mysuru cleared with impunity, I would have thought, the MCC has the responsibility of removing this infernal branch of a tree. Not so it appears. That seems a progress in the reverse direction!
Finally, about Your PM’s interests in all things digital. I hear him saying how India has progressed to the level of the first world, and can compete with the first world. But yet, in wishing e-governance, he does not understand that to do this, the bureaucracy must be simpler, the administrators must be receptive and the legendary Indian red tape must be non-existent. Simply wishing e-governance, and digital India, when the Mysuru street lights have to be manually switched off from a pole box for example, makes no sense.
In the days of Wadiyars, they were receptive to a citizen’s complaints. The Young Yaduveer, who has adorned the Wadiyar mantle, seems looking for a role. Why not take the role of:” Honourary Citizen Czar”, to facilitate the speedy solution to the problem like that this elderly sorry senior citizen has raised?