Gandhigiri 101!: Thane Man Installs Bouquet Over Open Manholes To Tell Civic Bodies To Cover Them Immediately

One of the most common problems in this country are the open manholes that possess danger to thousands of pedestrians on daily basis. Yes, the civic bodies should be prompt in covering these dangerous openings, but well, we all know how much does that work.

So, a citizen in Thane took the matter into his own hand and found a very polite way to let the authorities know that a deadly manhole needs to be fixed immediately.

This unknown person installed a bouquet of flowers over an open manhole on a footpath. According to reports, the flowers mentioned the message 'Saheb' (Sir) over the open manhole and were spotted by a local activist- Dr Binu Varghese.

Free Journal

The unknown person put the flowers in order to drag the authorities' attention to the obvious danger as the manhole was exposed and remained without a cover.

Local activist Dr Binu Varghese who shared pictures of that stretch of road claimed the open manholes are opposite the home of local Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Sanjay Kelkar and near the old home of Nationalist Congress Party's Housing Minister Dr Jitendra Awhad.

He pointed out and said, "Despite the clear hazards, neither the local civic authorities nor the elected leaders from Thane seem bothered. Whoever has planted the bouquet with the telling message ('Saheb' - Sir) has done a quiet service to society."

DNA

He also recalled how, on June 10th on a footpath in Bhandup in adjoining Mumbai, two women had fallen into such open gutters where the covers were apparently pushed aside by heavy rains and floods.

Both the women managed to clamber out without injuries even as Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar rushed to inspect the spot and ordered the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation to do the needful that day.

Dr Varghese called upon the elected leaders and the civic officials to cover up all the gutters or manholes in the city to prevent similar mishaps with heavy rain forecast for the next few days.

RVCJ

After this photo got viral, Thane Municipal Corporation noticed this issue and a few hours later covered this manhole along with cementing the footpath from all angles.

Earlier in June, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had informed us that 458 pumps have been installed to drain rainwater and work is underway to cover 73,000 manholes. She added that the pumps were installed near the railway tracks and were continuously pumping out the rainwater.