Preeti Sharma Menon is the face of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) in Mumbai. As BMC elections approach, FPJ spoke to her about her party’s maiden effort to capture power in the richest civic body in the country.
What does Mumbai need?
Mumbai is a city of dreams for many people. But if you walk the streets of Mumbai, it’s a nightmare. It is difficult to navigate everything, from roads to toilets to medical care to good education as governments have only used Mumbai as a cow to milk. They have used BMC budgets for their own corrupt needs. It’s a shame that 65% of the population lives in slums and it is this population that runs Mumbai. You wouldn’t be having transport, cinema, restaurants, electricity, water, and police force if the slums didn’t exist. The entire security and functioning of the city is happening from slums, but we cannot give them basic water and sanitation. At the same time, we are looking at an environmental disaster. There is so much to safeguard against. Therefore, we must come up with a good plan for making Mumbai sustainable and survivable. The other problem is hygiene. Hygiene is abysmal. Around 70% of our sewage is being dumped into the sea. The consequences have been felt by the aboriginal people of Mumbai, the Kolis.
There is a big issue with the way people commute in the city and live in far-flung suburbs. They come to the South to work. They go to other commercial areas. That itself is a huge problem, especially during monsoon?
Our commute issues can’t be solved by the BMC alone. It requires state and Central government intervention. What we require more than anything else is a tripling of local train traffic. When we talk about roads we are talking about commute itself. We are not saying that it is an elitist problem for those who drive cars. In fact, they don’t feel the potholes. It is the people who are on two-wheelers and who travel in auto rickshaws and buses. It is the people who are driving haathgaadis and tempos and small three-wheelers who feel the potholes. Today, there are so many in the gig economy. Almost every 30-year-old has a back problem. Potholes are a severe life-threatening issue. A part of this commute issue is the service of BEST. BEST is an incredible institution, which they are trying so hard to sell. They are contracting it out to private players and they are selling BEST depots to builders instead of using them as parking spaces or other commercial hubs, which would benefit the people. But they are selling it outright. AAP is totally against it. We are going to encourage e-vehicles where three-wheelers are concerned. Mumbai has to transition from being dependent on natural gases to being dependent on electricity. A lot of work is to be done in this area.
Do we need more coastal roads or more metro?
We need the metro, local trains, and BEST. The coastal road is definitely an elitist project. BMC was supposed to pay for 10km of coastal roads and they were going to pay Rs12,900 crore for it. That means 1,290 crore per kilometre. That is the most expensive road in the world. They could have done the same model that they did with the sea link. The sea link is an exceptionally well-made model. It’s a little too late. It should have happened 30 years ago and the same model could have been used to connect the city. We need coastal waterways. The state government is not interested in actual solutions, they are more interested in how they can grab land. We need to have better transport, safety, and good CCTV systems across the city. It is not possible to man the city 24/7. Our police forces are overwhelmed.
Let’s come to climate change. Pollution did not use to be on the agenda. But this year everyone has been experiencing it?
Mumbai is so blessed to have the Arabian Sea. The sea takes care of your pollution. It kind of drives it away from you. Despite that, we were the most polluted city in India last month. Our AQI levels were poorer than in Delhi and many of the landlocked cities in India. We still haven’t moved out of the industries. We are still planning cement plants and other activities within Mumbai. There is no control over any kind of pollution. The main problem is that BMC is not taking any disposal of sewage seriously. Until that happens there is going to be no control.
