I live in a place called Sithalapakkam, a place that is ill maintained by government. My house is on a gravel and dirt paved road, though this place is part of Chennai, the second metro on the planet earth, dust enters my home regularly.

When I take my car out, even the cement roads in part of Sithlapakkam are heavily cracked and cratered, making the drive worst.

Dogs roam the street and bark at night, denying one right to sleep. I heard in news the once a dog bit a child and when the Chennai Mayor Priya was asked about it, she said she will soon start counting the dogs? Is this a response a responsible leader should be giving? Imaging if she became a defense minister or Prime Minister, when asked `what are you going to do about the Islamist killing Indian soldiers?’ she might well reply, ‘we will count the dead bodies from now on’. Pathetic.

On streets of Sithalapakkam, no matter where you turn, you can see a piece of plastic. It flies here and there. Nothing is done about it.

Few months back, my friend who had bought a house here, went to Panchayat office to pay house tax. To pay tax of ₹ 1000/-, he was forced to pay ₹ 6500/- as bribe. The leader of panchayat, I think he said his name was Ravi, was asking others to buy road light fixtures and give it to panchayat. Maybe he will write fake bills for it and pocket the money. The leader Ravi was pointing to staffs and saying that the government was not paying them properly, and claimed this sort of bribes keeps the panchayat going. He said people were negotiating bribe amount with the leader so that their housing tax will get accepted.

If there is a problem with water lines in Sitalapakkam and if we ask panchayat people to fix it, one must buy materials and give them, plus one must pay bribe to them for them to do the work. Sithalapakkam panchayat doesn’t even know that if you have water lines, and it needs maintenance now and then. Due to the pea braind leaders they don’t even stock spares for repair. Or do they stock spares according to the books ;) and we are the one who the are fools who elected them and staying mum?

The guy who comes to pick up garbage, comes in electric vehicle. He says if the panchayat vehicle allotted for him gets punctured, then he must pay ₹ 100/- from his own pocket and get it fixed, the panchayaat never cares about it.

Almost no Sithapakkam roads have a platform, people can’t think of walking here safe without being bothered by traffic. I don’t think the panchat leaders know this is the case here. I haven’t seen any politician in Sithalapakkam in my life except for the time of elections where they go from house to house giving freebies. I imagine, they after winning, spend their time partying with oligarchs, transferring peoples money to the rich. Spending weeks touring the world and so on.

A Private Public Works Department

All these made me think, why can’t I start a non-profit for Sithalapakkam. Lot of people here are I.T guys, they like to see the neighborhood in a better shape than being dilapidated. I thought if we can form a non-profit body, collect tax-free donations from the people, then do the public works in less corrupt way, we can be a good competition to the government.

In short, one rather than paying his or her income tax to indian governemtn, waiting the center to give part of the money to Tamilnadu, then Tamilnadu governemnt giving part of it to Sithalapakkam panchayat, will see his money been donated to us, and we’re doing the public works for this place. This way we are cutting a lot of red tape and saving lot of time in putting money to action.

The government will be forced to reform, else it will be totally uprooted by our public works. Others who like India will see flaws in us, start competing public works, thus increasing competitiveness, and make stuff efficient.

Shot Down

I called my lawyer friend to explain about this idea, if he gets excited, maybe we can do something that fixes India a bit, but to my dismay he shot down the idea. He said that Indian government is very clear not to allow any competition to it, no matter how corrupt and rotten it is. The government will interpret this as illegal and will get me arrested.

When I asked about how my other friend is minting money in the name of feeding the poor, he said feeding the poor is a basic right, but road is a luxury. What? I thought. I am not sure if India considers a decent road and decent living as luxury, or it’s my friend’s interpretation of the constitution.

Illegal india

If it’s true that, if government fails, India does not want it’s citizens to run a parallel government so that the country could be fixed, then I would say that India as a nation has failed. If the constitution prevents running a parallel government in India, then I would say this constitution is illegal and its against the people, hence its India that is illegal, not one who wants to run a parallel government to make life’s of people better.