Let’s not act like we don’t deserve aesthetic things

Representation Pic

City beautification projects and initiatives may need monitoring, as some installations set up as part of the drive are crumbling while others have been reduced to dumping spots. The overall beautification project, which the BMC has been tasked with executing, encompasses the illumination of trees and poles, the reconstruction of pavements and medians and the painting of flyovers, amongst others. In a report in this paper, a recently installed statue of Koli fisherfolk in a boat on the Eastern Express Highway at Mulund junction now serves as a dustbin. The artwork, along with wall murals and a few small statues, was put in place a few months ago by the authorities as a part of the beautification drive, one local said in a report.

Trash is being dumped at the bottom of light poles installed three to four months ago by the K West ward on Lokhandwala market's footpaths.

At Mahim, a ‘beautified' traffic island has been turned into a dumping yard inhabited by drug addicts and drunks. The blue lights in this island were stolen, the railings of the plantation are broken and one can see alcohol bottles on the site.

While views differ on aesthetics, this kind of pilferage and vandalism speak very poorly of citizens. Filching of infra is sadly very common and breaking objects, removing lids, scrawling on surfaces... we see this far too often.

This paper had highlighted a Worli Seaface island, where metal flamingos had been installed as an aesthetic addition to the space. Days later, we saw the same flamingos broken and some were missing, obviously filched.

While nobody disputes that basics must come before beautification and there is some merit in the debate about public money, you can have an opinion about beautification. One can criticise it, but defiling these spaces, making it a rubbish bin speaks very badly of the people.