One of my frequent online activities is to look for news. I look for news to read and to post on the internet forums that I am a member of and to write about on my blog. This morning, I was looking for infrastructure development news from Lucknow to post on the SkyScraper City forum, and I realized, once again, that nothing but bad news seems to be written for that city.
While I loved Lucknow when I lived there, I realize it was a protected life away from the grime and filth of the city. Now that I have grown up, I have a growing interest in political commentary, and reading about Lucknow always leaves me angry and bitter. While looking for news on infrastructure, all I came across was news on crime, politician-criminal nexuses, and brazen misuse of power by people in charge. Add to that all the instances where the civic authorities are too busy blowing each other to do their work. There are dead bodies floating in the Gomati, you think the Lucknow Municipality cares? Nah, they dont. Criminals are ruling the roost in the city, but can the Police do anything? Of course not, they are too busy providing the politicians protection. Of course politicians in India need protection. They need it from the millions of us, the common men, who have been mutilated and used by these genital warts we call UP politicians.
Having lived in Lucknow, I think I have seen first hand how things work in the city. Every part of the city gets massive power cuts, every part but the colonies where the top government officials and the politicians live. I think in Lucknow everyone thinks they are important. Every second car will have a board announcing their position. Puny party activists will proudly display their party flag and everyone else is expected to respect their right of way and provide special privelages.
You know, as much seedy money as the politicians and most bureaucrats earn, they are still cheap. I think an undying similarity between all these people is the way they try to get out of paying toll. In the smaller cities, and on smaller highways which haven't been touched by the NHDP, toll is usually collected by youth who man temporary posts made out of tin sheets, and use jute ropes as barriers. Everybody stops to pay the tolls, but as a 'big' figure approaches, the beacon goes on, and that important person's police escort will roll the window down and announce who is in the car, and they will be let through, and no, they don't pay the 5 rupees. I believe that is how most of these people roll.
So here's a Lucknow that is steeped in crime, much of it under the patronage of the politicians who come from all parts of the state to make it their home, and the civic and other public authorities are busy pandering to their whims and fancies. Some projects do come up once in a while, like a 6 lane road through the city that is supposed to cut travel time, and other such random projects, but as things stand, cities like Lucknow seem to have no chance of providing their residents the basic civic amenities that define city living.
The state chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav leads from the front in corruption and crime. He and his family have been busy amassing land in all parts of the city, but of course, since US is a gangsta's paradise, there will be no repercussions.
'No concealment of properties by Mulayam'
There is no concealment of properties by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, against whom a petition alleging amassing of wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income is pending in the Supreme Court, and there is complete disclosure of all properties, state Advocate General S M A Kazmi said on Sunday.
He told reporters here that the properties have been assessed with the income tax department and other taxing authorities on year-wise basis and all properties had been disclosed by Yadav and his son.
Kazmi also claimed the petitioner Vishwanath Chaturvedi had a long association with Congress party as a functionary holding high offices. Chaturvedi had filed a PIL in the apex court alleging that Yadav and his family members had amassed wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.
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Thats one picture. The second one is how crime and politics go hand in hand in our glorious city.
Getting gunners by using his ‘milky ways’
LAND MAFIOSO Govind Bajpai alias Guddu Bajpai (of Narora in Kakori), who used his ‘milky ways’ to get into the good books of quite a few IPS and IAS officers’ better halves, flaunted his connections brazenly to get things done. A smooth operator that he was, he managed to get not one but three gunners to provide him round-the-clock security. Here is how.
Completely brushing aside his criminal activities, secretary, Home, RM Shrivastav had directed the then Lucknow SSP Ashutosh Pandey to provide a gunner to him.
Since the Home Department was not in a position to provide three gunners to Bajpai, two more gunners were given in the names of Raghuvansh Bajpai and Kamal. But all the three were always with Govind Bajpai, who had a long criminal history.
Several cri#minal cases were pending against him in Kakori, Mahanagar and Vikasnagar, including a case under NSA in Kakori. But the Home department in flagrant violation of rules did not bother to even seek a report from the DGP headquarters before directing the SSP Lucknow to provide security to him. The application of RM Bajpai indicates that his “cows were dying unnatural death”.
That was a matter of serious concern. He had been after all supplying cow milk free to IAS and IPS officers.
Guddu Bajpai, who had given the address of his house in Paper Mill Colony Nishatganj, moved the first application to the Home secretary on November 18, 2005. The same day it was sent to the SSP with the instruction to provide security. The SSP marked the letter to the concerned officer on November 19. But no action was taken.
Again on December 31, 2005, Bajpai’s second application was forwarded to the SSP and he was provided a gunner in the first week of January 2006. Similarly, the Home department forwarded applications of RM Bajpai and Kamal Ahmad to the SSP on December 19 and 21, 2005 respectively. Both “VIPs” were quickly provided security. But the two gunners were at Guddu Bajpai’s disposal.
However, with his criminal activities coming to the notice of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav last week, the gunners allotted in the name of Govind Bajpai and Kamal Ahmad were withdrawn on June 1 and 6, 2006 respectively. But even then he was left with one gunner.
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Then theres the drugs. There was a report in one newspaper that much of the city's drug business is run by the politicians and their kin. Another exemplary public service performed by our beloved leaders.
Drug peddlers operate openly in Lucknow
Lucknow: The Rahul Mahajan episode may have put the police on alert over narcotic drugs in cities like Mumbai and New Delhi, but drug peddling in this Uttar Pradesh capital remains unabated.
"One of the peddlers, a woman, operates from a well-frequented historical monument in the heart of Lucknow though cops are aware of this," he said, adding that her customers were mainly young students and rickshaw-pullers.
Another outlet is near the Lucknow railway station, he said, where customers openly queue up to get their 'puria' (packet) of the intoxicant. Asked about the open drug peddling in the city, a top police official said, "We have booked many people under the Narcotics Act."
According to police records, 537 people were arrested under the act between January 2005 and April 2006. However most of those arrested were either ordinary drug users or petty vendors.
A senior official of the Special Task Force (STF) alleged connivance of local police and officials of the Narcotics department."Every one knows that drug trade emanates from Barabanki (30 km from here), from where the contraband is carted by youngsters," the official said.
"While opium is ostensibly grown under the direct supervision of the narcotics department, large quantities are passed on to drug merchants who get it converted into heroin before it finds its way through well-knit conduits into the international market," he said.
Operations are carried out through a three-tier system targeting the source, agent and petty peddlers, he disclosed.
Sting operation
"But how can anyone lay hands on a big fish, which include some important politicians?" asked the official.
A sting operation by a TV channel recently showed a minister in Uttar Pradesh agreeing to cart drugs in his official car - for a hefty price.
He named another cabinet colleague who he claimed was willing to be a partner.
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And then, to portray the filth that the residents of the city have to live in, heres an report on the excellent work being done in keeping the water bodies clean. This is the clean water that the residents are fortunate enough to get to drink every day.
A cesspool of drinking filth
The sight is outright repelling. Human excreta, cow dung, sewage waste spread all over is eventually making its way to a nullah. The nullah, in turn, specially during monsoons, deposits this waste into the Gomti.
As it is there are 27 nullahs opening into the river at various points in the city but this one is the most hazardous. It is the only one which is threatening the source of raw water supply to the city. For many months now the raw water supply to Lucknow has been highly contaminated with both bacteriological and botanical waste.
Sewage of an entire locality coupled with cow dung and the other waste of the Radhagram cattle colony has been finding its way upstream into river Gomti at the spot from where water is being pumped for treatment. The source of the contamination is the Nagariya nullah, one of the oldest in the city. This nullah caters to the Nagariya village and the cattle colony close by.
Set up in the year 2000 the cattle colony has around 350 dairies and a bovine strength of 2500. The waste of this colony which includes truckloads of cow dung finds its way into this nullah.
What has caused the alarm bells to ring is the intermixing of this filthy water with that of Gomti at the Gaughat channel. This channel is the sole source of raw water supply to the Gaughat pumping station. Water from this pumping station is sent to the Aishbagh and Balaganj water works where it is treated and made fit for human consumption.
Says general manager Jal Sansthan RK Tripathi "in view of the waste coming from the Nagariya nullah we are forced to use more chemicals to treat water. This means increased use of alum and chlorine.
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So there you have it. The people of the city get to feed on bullshit from these monkeys in khadi, and get to drink cowshit from their protected votebanks. Mera Bharat Mahan indeed. But then, these are minor problems when the ruling party workers have much more important national matters to worry about.
Samajwadi Party protests 'income tax notice' to Amitabh
Despite all my optimism, I can't help but wonder at times, dude, we're screwed. By the time I will have kids my age, our politicians will probably have sold the country out.
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