VIP VISIT

 VIP VISIT

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

26/VIII/2024

 

 

I remember in NDA when there used to be a VIP visit. The route from ‘Gole Market’ to the swimming pool used to be lined up with NDA flags hanging on street lights. The whole route used to be lined up with flowering pots and posters.

 

The ‘Academy Appointments’ would suddenly become extra strict. From behind every bush, a Drill Ustad would pop out, ‘je cadet….’. ‘I-slips’ used to go by dozens. Punishments were dished out like ‘prasad’ for our wrongdoings and sometimes when you did nothing wrong. The VIP visit had to go like clockwork and why not.

 

Fast forward forty-four years and from Khadakwasla you come to the Sun City. The only similarity was that the weather was Pune type and so is the greenery. So much grass has grown on the dividers that one cannot see the other side.

 

However, the roads and its berms were dirty. ‘Khudai’ as it is known was all over. Every road and sides were dug up with sand spewed on the roar. Workers were engaged to ship-shape the area. MNREGA funds were being made good use of. Industrial vacuum cleaners appeared from nowhere. The ‘safai karamcharis’ had brooms in their hands for a change.

 

Another problem is the drainage here. One rain and there are floods. The plastic waste clogs every drain which results in the overflow of the gurgling, smelly, greyish coloured sewer water, which I call ‘Shorba-e-Khaas’.

 

Be that as it may. Last week, we started seeing multiple police ‘Nakas’. One had to meander through every barricaded police check post. Moment your vehicle is other than RJ-19, a traffic police person signals your vehicle to the side.

 

The challan gadget is made use of, especially if you don’t have that ‘High Security Number Plate’. Even if you have all other documents in order, you could either pay the official fine or ‘unofficial challan’. My car with an MH number is an easy target. One has to be a little loud in speaking to them before showing your I card. “Jao saab, number plate change karwa lo….”

 

Where one hardly saw people cleaning the roads, we suddenly saw more than two hundred of them. The berms were being painted, tree guards were erected and painted, all wild grass was trimmed to perfection, black and yellow blobs got painted on the road sides. A white cloth screen was erected to hide the gutter water from sight, though they could do nothing about the smell.

 

Trucks which suck sewer water were deployed at every fifteen meters. Tractors and JCBs were working over time. Vacuum cleaning and manual cleaning were in full swing. Relaying of roads started. Big potholes and speed breakers vanished. Roads became as smooth as the cheeks of a baby.

 

Plastic strewn all over, suddenly evaporated into thin air. Temporary barricades came up along the roads. Vehicles with blue starred plates started doing rounds. Night vigil and police patrolling vehicles were present 24x7. Was a VIP visiting our area?

 

Yes, our dear PM was visiting the ‘New High Court’ for its ‘Platinum Jubilee’. All municipality funds of the next ten years must have been used for this visit. Traffic lights started working. Water fountains and street lights were running all day.

 

They planned the PMs move from the rear gate of the Air Force station. Had he gone through the main exit, PM would have passed the place where a few months ago a student was sucked in a nala during heavy rain and died.

 

Here, unfortunately, cattle roam around on the highway freely. They have caused many fatal accidents. Many get run over by trucks also.  The noticeable part yesterday was, till wherever the PM could have seen, all stray cattle had a luminous collar in their necks.

 

Today, those collars are gone and they sit or roam on the road again. We had a fatal accident today, when a dumper coming on the wrong side while avoiding a few cows took with him four motorcyclists who were on the way to the Ramdevra pilgrimage.

 

Rain must have welcomed the PM, a good sign. But sir, I have a request to make. Tighten the screws of all down the line. To receive you the Governor, double engine CM and the who’s who of your party was here. Why can’t cleanliness be maintained 365 days? Why can’t cows and oxen be put in gaushalas. Kindly visit us more often and go around the town. You don’t have to say a word, people responsible will be on their toes. We need more VIP visits to get things going.

 

‘Padharo Mahre Desh’ again PM saab? Does the local administration work only during VIP visits? I wonder!!!!!!

 

 JAI HIND 

© ® NOEL ELLIS