Public amenities should not have to wait for VIPs

Eknath Shinde. File Pic

After waiting months in vain for Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's appointment for an inauguration, the BMC finally opened Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe auditorium in Byculla recently. The first paid show was organised on the eve of International Women's Day, which fell on March 8.

After rebuilding what was once an open-air theatre, the developers handed over the new, 761-seater closed auditorium to the BMC in April. The then CM Uddhav Thackeray was supposed to inaugurate it in the last week of June, but the government changed that month and the BMC approached Shinde for a date. However, the civic body did not get a single appointment in the past eight months. It instead ended up spending lakhs of rupees on maintenance even as it waited for the CM to cut the ribbons.

Sources said the decision to open the auditorium without a formal inauguration was taken by the top-level officials in the BMC, as ministers have very busy schedules.

The auditorium has also got a few bookings coming in. Logic and pragmatism has prevailed and we wish that all projects big or small, for entertainment or utilitarian or straddling grey areas, have to be opened to the public as soon as possible. Often, we see newly made infrastructure locked and lying unused for months, if not years together, because somebody or the other is unavailable to cut the ribbon.

We have numerous instances of something as dire and needed as toilet blocks lying shut because there was nobody from a chosen political party available to open the facility.

This is ridiculous, a waste of taxpayer's money, depriving people of something they need. Take logical and quick decisions and put people above politicking. Agencies must not be under pressure to wait for the correct person, whosoever that may be, to arrive for the ribbon cutting. Open our amenities and let people avail of them.