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Home > News > Opinion News > Article > Progress cannot be at the cost of citizens rights

Progress cannot be at the cost of citizens’ rights

Updated on: 27 April,2023 06:57 AM IST  |  Mumbai
The Editorial |

This war should not have been fought at all, but now that it has started it simply cannot be so tough. After protests, after pointing out numerous parking lots close by, why is it so difficult for our denizens to leave the park alone

Progress cannot be at the cost of citizens’ rights

Pic/Anurag Ahire

For days and months now, Bandra residents and even others from the vicinity, activists and green warriors across are fighting to save a park in Bandra West. 


There is a proposal to construct an underground car park, and while some reports do say it does not encompass the entire park, there is no doubt that the park will be lost if the car park scheme is allowed. 



It is also hard to believe if not impossible that the park will come up once again.


This brings us to the fight itself. We think this is incredibly tough, unrelenting and needs great patience, perseverance and time. 

This war should not have been fought at all, but now that it has started it simply cannot be so tough. After protests, after pointing out numerous parking lots close by, why is it so difficult for our denizens to leave the park alone?

There have been so many sound arguments. On the one hand, there is a real push for greening, to combat climate change and a realisation that we need to plant more trees. 

Awareness movements with catchphrases like: each one plant one are on social media, exhorting people to take that small step and plant trees. 

While you have the civic authorities, too, as part of the movement, on the other hand, you have the same people wanting to create a car park and take away a green space, puncture a lung of the western suburb. It defies logic and does not add up. One has to feel for locals and warriors who are taking time out every day, who have to dig in deep into mental and physical resources and have to ensure that a group of 100 and more stays united, focused and relentless in its pursuit to save 
the park. 

This should not have been so tough, but unfortunately, it is.

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