SUCCUMBING TO CORRUPTION

I hung up my uniform voluntarily after having donned it for more than 22 years, not counting the training period. Having stayed in Defence area most of this period we were used to well maintained and regulated infrastructure. Shifting to DDA complex was first exposure to how short sighted those in planning can be. That was in 1991 and what I felt at that time has been proved true over and over. Large number of flats were constructed on rocky terrain - part of Aravalis range. It is fine to construct building and roads but what about the other needs? Water was in short supply even then, though not acute considering low occupancy at that time. The authorities should have taken that into account and taken steps to rectify it. But instead of that they went ahead with mushrooming of Malls, shopping complexes, a 5star hotel and couple of hospitals not to speak about unauthorized shopping / recreational outlets which would need more water. Don’t you think blasting of rocks, cutting tree & shrubbery for making level space to construct buildings / roads leads to environmental damage? Scooter garages are provided for flats on first floor and above. Now with occupancy almost more than 95% there is lack of space to park cars in the residential areas. This has led to eating up of green belt or small parks to provide space for car parking. And as expected water shortage became a daily feature. It is nice of Delhi Jal Board to supply water in tankers on request as emergency measure but is that a permanent solution? This is what brings me to the title of this post.

As the supply of water does not have enough pressure to reach the tanks provided at the top of buildings all residents have got water storage tanks on ground level outside the building or even in scooter garages, some have even buried it in ground to get whatever additional water possible. So we all check water available in the ground level tanks and then pump it up to roof tanks. Here comes the crunch. Water pressure during supply time depends upon location of building – comparatively higher level or low area in respect to water boosting station. Our flat though on ground floor receives less supply by virtue of being at higher level. So we need to request for emergency supply by tanker once in 7 – 10 days. Private suppliers charge Rs 150 for filling 1000 ltr storage tank. We make our request to DJB complaint office in the morning of the day we need water, mostly by visiting their office as their telephone is perpetually busy. After following it up number of times either telephonically or by visiting personally we used to get tanker supply for about 90% times. This caused a lot of tension or burden on me. Our DIL ( Daughter in law ) to make me worry free found a short cut which she came to know from other residents that if you pay Rs 50 to the DJB tanker driver he would supply 2 tanks of water even without having made request in the morning. When I learnt about it I put my foot down as I term this as corruption and depriving legitimate supply to someone who has made request. Thereafter we felt the pinch. Our requests were fulfilled not more than 60% of times inspite of rigorous follow ups thus making us resort to private supplier paying from our pocket. This put a lot of strain on me, physically as well as financially. A stage has now come that I am at the wits end for not being able to get water even by running around for legitimate demand and inspite of contacting higher authorities. This has lead to me getting tempted to give Rs 50 to the driver and have assured supply of water whenever we need it.

What do you all feel about it?