VIEWS FOR BOMBAY

In Bombay, traffic and congestion is a major problem. The infrastructure in the city is on the verge of collapsing and the people across various part of the city are facing problems like never before. The city is the commercial capital of the country but the image that one sees is that of despair. There are many things that the Government and the citizens can do to improve the problems in the city. The fist step in this direction is the involvement of young blood in the police. Mumbai Traffic police needs a major overhaul. The force is severly short staffed and the personnel are severly stressed. It is impractical for us to think that they can serve the city in an improvised way. What the govt can do on its part is to induct graduates, especially from the lower strata of the society. This will generate employment for people. The recruitment has to be in a major way which should increase the force strength by at least six to seven times.This kind of recruitment will create a severe budgetry constraint on the state government but there is always a way out. What needs to be done is to increase the fine imposed for various traffic problems in the city. For eg, a traffic violation if now attracts a fine of Rs 100.00, the same should be increased to Rs 5000 - 10000.00. Some art of this fine should be directed towards the payment of salaries for the new recruits. The salary should have a viable component which is linked to performance in collecting fines. This will give incentives to police to bring more people to task and also reduce the burden on the government. The force should be seperated from the normal police force and ssues like cleanliness etc should also be brought into the purview of this force. Impose such high fines for petty offences like spitting , smoking in public places.. This will also generate revenue for the government. This find should strictly be used for improving the facilities in the city so that more and more people make use of public system. Fines and Taxes should be imposed so that private vehicles usage is discouraged by the government. There should be a top priority given to connect the western suburbs with the central suburbs through metro and sea links. This will reduce the burden on railways and rush at stations like Dadar, VT and Churchgate. All outstation trains should be halted only till Virar and Kalyan. They should not come into the city as they interfere with the suburban traffic on peak times. The trans in the city should immediately be equipped with aircooling system so that the people can commute in more hygenic conditions.

The state government could also talk to the various corporates to ask their employees to work from home. This will have major implications like commcial property rates will come down, people will travel less on trains and thereby bring reduction in pollution and infrastructure burden. if youth involved in the mass employment program then there will be less unrest and bandhs.. Overall there would be improvement in income levels and overall reduction in proverty.