Citizens must join together to bring about change

Work on street lights is underway. Pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

A little road in Colaba, quite close to the landmark Radio Club got an extra set of lights recently, so that it is better lit.

The Mereweather Road was the site of a project where an extra arm was put onto streetlights that already lined that road. This meant that the light poles now had lights with two arms. Better visibility means safer city living. This edit space has highlighted the need for public infra to be well-lit at all times because this has a direct correlation with safety.

The project was done by a former corporator but there was significant citizen involvement as well. In fact, the local leader said that citizens were stakeholders in the movement and they were proactive in getting it off the ground. This shows the importance of people coming together to improve or get things moving in their areas. We need to see involvement and initiative from people. If each person says that we should leave it to the other to take up the issues, the system has a serious problem.

Even if one cannot do everything alone, joining a citizen group, supporting those at the forefront is important to drive this change.

It is the people who are most in touch with happenings on the ground. They are experiencing different situations daily. They also have their ears to the ground.

They need to be roped into community projects and keep divisiveness to a minimum. While healthy argument or difference of opinion is one thing, too much opposition and infighting may derail a project altogether.

Take interest and initiative and do not think you are powerless or ineffective. Here's to people power and the engine it is to transform your city in small but extremely significant ways.