Navi Mumbai Notebook — NMMC drama

MUMBAI, July 20: The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation's a stage, and the city fathers are its players. Shakespeare may balk at the compari...

MUMBAI, July 20: The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s a stage, and the city fathers are its players. Shakespeare may balk at the comparison, but the usage is apt if the antics of the corporators in the NMMC is any indication. When the ruling Sena corporators start to speak, the opposition Congress corporators’s response is to thump their desks. The mayor’s appeal to maintain decorum often falls on deaf ears, both of the opposition and the ruling party. Some corporators have even gone to the extent of alleging that the chief minister is a goonda. Well, their own credentials are not exactly up to the mark.

They need to be reminded that they are in the corporation for the explicit purpose of fulfilling the civic requirements of Navi Mumbai’s citizens. As a wag commented, “We will be subjected to entertainment tax if the Collector finds out about the drama that takes place at NMMC!”

A bhooka bandh

Last week’s bandh organised by opposition parties to protest against the police firing at Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar, Ghatkopar, and the subsequent vandalisation of Chaggan Bhujbal’s house by Sainiks seem to have aroused the agitational tendencies of the party. Right from the morning of the bandh day, Congress workers, led by the Navi Mumbai district unit chief Dyaneshwar Ramdas Patil, went around ensuring that all the shops downed their shutters. Ironically enough, by the end of the day, the workers themselves were hungry and thirsty, and even Patil had no water to offer them. His wife and Congress corporator Babytai patil ultimately sent them water, food and snacks from her home. Patil himself is now toying with the idea of organising 24 hour bandhs to ensure that no one keeps their shops open even at night. Maybe someone should find out his workers’ opinions first.

Hell-o!

It is common knowledge is that MTNL stands for Mera Telephone Nahin Lagta. But the non-functioning of telephones in the area ceases to be a joke, and leaves one wondering as to what the corporation is really up to. While the well-heeled can revert to their cellphones, the less fortunate can continue to wonder whether their phones will ever run normally.