Nagpur :-In our last article published on 13th Feb 2023 (G 20 or C 20 in Nagpur), we had mentioned that our special correspondent had exclusive interviews with Top Guns of local bodies, prominent personalities, politicians and stake holders of Nagpur and asked them their opinion about G 20 that was to be held in the month of March.
Confusion and mis information
The interview that News Today 24×7 conducted with the above mentioned dignitaries was nothing less than a shocker to see that most of them either refrained from commenting by not picking up the phone when contacted (despite having given an appointment for a telephonic interview), Some were dumb founded since they weren’t even aware of the event being hosted in Nagpur too, Some were blatantly accusing the local body for unstructured, unannounced and sudden beautification drive that caused Nagpurians to go thru a lot of inconvenience and discomfort, blamed that all this senseless spending of tax payers money was politically driven and had a political agenda and interest that would no where benefit Nagpurians and last but not the least the eye opening statement that The commissioner of NMC gave was that the event was not G 20 but C 20 and gave a differentiating clarification on the same. He mentioned that approximately 200 delegates from 20 various countries were just coming here to relish our Hospitality and unlike G 20 the agenda was not to discuss environmental or technical issues but was simply sightseeing and to enjoy their two day stay in Nagpur, where in Nagpur will be playing the host to the guests. He had commented that Just like our saying goes, “Atithee Devo Bhava” we (Nagpurians) would play the host by giving the visiting guest fond memories that they will share in their countries once they reach back to their home. On being asked about most stake holders not being aware of the event he passed the question simply by commenting that there was a lot of confusion about the dates etc. hence he won’t be able to comment why others are not informed or aware of the event.
But the Confusion still persists. Is it G20 or C20, Was the commissioner right or is the Government right? If yes then why all the propaganda is about G 20 and not C20 being done spending millions and millions of rupees of the taxpayers Money being squandered on senseless and temporary beautification that won’t benefit the City or its resident? Confusion and misinformation Prevails.
Senseless Squandering of Nagpur’s tax payers money to create a Facade? A national event or a Political event???
In the interview that we conducted on C20 or G20, one other statement that we received was that the spending done by the local bodies was senseless, unplanned, unstructured, un announced and un purposeful. The beautification was just a façade, was not sustainable and definitely was not going to benefit Nagpurians in any manner. Had the money that was splurged by the civic and local bodies done sensibly and on issues that needed attention then that would could have been termed as investments and development. The tarring of roads and patch work here and there, false elevation on the sides of Nallah, painting of the pillars of the metro etc. was all a façade and nothing else aimed at hiding the bitter reality behind these facades.
Will Nagpurians benefit from the Countless hoardings propagating G 20, temporary Beautification at Airports and metro stations and elsewhere out of the many such expenses made by the local and civic bodies. All this needs explanation and justification by the ones involved in this frenzy. Doesn’t all the publicity suggest the event to be more of politically driven than Nationally driven???
Hypocrisy at its Epitome. Are we really serious When we speak about Women Empowerment? Do we accept them as equal or better than the male dominated society? Do we real think and behave in the way that we preach and promote Women empowerment?
In an exclusive interview given by Dr. Priya Singh (PhD. M Tech (Urban Planning) B. Arch, MBA (Fire safety &Hazard management), Principal of Institute of Fire Engineers to News today 24×7 Special correspondent Shweta Shakir, surely hints that Women Empowerment that is propagated so much today is somewhat just BOL (mere words), if not uniformly then at least at some places and at some positions. Dr. Priya Singh comments that, “Worthy advise and suggestions from a qualified and well learned professional when submits a proposal on the invitation from Itankar, The Collector of Nagpur City( asking Individuals for proposals on 14 topics that were to be discussed in the G20 Meet in Nagpur) is made to run around on various baseless reasons and then the proposal is not even entertained surely suggests that there is still a long way to go for Women before they actually get empowered in reality.
She mentioned that on an invitation (published in the Daily Hitavada) asking for proposals on 14 different topics from civil society organizations, she presented her proposal on one of the topics “Sustainable and Resilient Communities”. When she approached the Collectors office to submit the proposal little did she realize that all her efforts will go futile.
She had already E-mailed the proposal earlier and the one gentleman there was insisting on a soft copy, and despite presenting a printed copy of the proposal in the PDF format, somewhat a huge technological knowhow gap was noticed by her, and it was a herculean task for her to make Raut at the Collectors Office to understand the difference between a hard and a soft copy. The story didn’t end here since now the demand was for the proposal to printed in a larger font (specification unknown to the person asking for it and it may be noted that no specific font size was mentioned in the Newspaper article/invitation that solicited proposals from individuals). How is one to understand what is the definition of a large font and how large a large should be ? Somewhat She managed to understand exactly what was being asked. Now after furnishing the proposal (after facing many ifs and buts) as per the requirement of the Office that was assigned to collect such proposals, it was shockingly learnt by Dr. Singh that her proposal wasn’t there in the list of selected topics for untold reasons?
The question that come to mind is that isn’t this Hypocrisy if not something else? Preaching Women empowerment and practicing none. A Women who is better qualified than others in the relevant field, who holds a master’s degree and a Doctorate in the subject matter when presents a proposal isn’t even informed that on what basis has her proposal been turned down. The PhD awarded to her was awarded by one of the few prestigious Colleges in India and the best in Nagpur ( better known as VNIT today) and the PhD was done on the basis of the data that was acquired from the local and civic bodies of Nagpur (NMC and Fire Department of Nagpur), The PhD was funded by the government by paying a handsome amount towards stipend to help her pursue the studies in the relevant field and when such an accomplished Woman submits a proposal it t gets disapproved without her being intimated about the reason Why and nobody from the department even possessing the least professional courtesy to at least furnish a thank you letter along with reasons for not selecting the proposal. So much so for Women Empowerment.
Dr. Priya Singh has the credit of more than 3 journals published in her name and is available on the Google for people to see and gauge the level of details and research that has gone into publishing the journal. Moreover, the journals that have been published under go multiple international screening from Various subject matter experts before it finally is posted on the internet. It is crucially important to mention here that Dr. Singh is perhaps the only woman professional who qualifies to be termed as a combination of Architect and urban fire expert with International and acclaimed journals printed in her name.
We will leave it to the readers to judge and support the claim and just Putting her name in the Google search (Dr. Priya Singh Urban Fire) will give you loads of evidence of her unparalleled expertise in the relevant field. Readers just need to input key words in the google search as, “Hotspot analysis of structure fires in Urban Agglomeration. A case of Nagpur city” to understand what the proposal was all about.
Dr. Singh states that “Charity begins at Home”, and hence being a responsible and educated citizen of Nagpur its her fundamental duty and moral obligation to ensure that Nagpur is actually is indeed a smart city in reality and not by mere words. Fires don’t impact just lives and assets, but greatly impacts the atmosphere too, but unfortunately Nagpur needs a lot of working to be done when it comes to Fire safety and planning related to ensure such safety is ensured. In her proposal her focus was to strengthening the safety measures by starting from the grass root which means sensitization of citizens about fire and safety. Prevention is done at a later part after a fire breaks out, but why wait for a fire to start, when adequate precautions can be taught to citizens to ensure Fire hazards from not happening. Since her proposal was highlighting the needs of fire safety standards that Nagpur as a metro city surely lacks in a big way, maybe this might point out certain lacunae in this not much talked about matter and also some names and positions that have not been very effective in ensuring and implementing such standards, so speculates Dr. Priya Singh. All of the above and much more surely points out that Hypocrisy still persists big time and such an attitude might cast a good yet fake impression, but in reality, will never be beneficial for the growth of India and its citizens. Not highlighting and addressing sensitive issue like fire safety, points out “narrow mindedness” of certain people who in order to keep their images intact will brush off valid suggestions for their selfish reasons and to maintain their supremacy.
G 20 or C 20 confusion prevails. And to point out Hypocrisy and not practicing what they preach can be seen during the last 15 days of pre G20 preparations where trees are loaded with lightings and some were even chopped off (Where are the environmentalist?) Senseless and useless spending with no permanent return or benefits to the citizens (Where are the economists?) No display of Maharashtra and its culture and heritage, but a fancy dress of students from various schools dressed as anyone but Indians (to welcome the delegates from various countries) (where are the Nationalists?) Event is not suggesting equal opportunity and exposure to all the stake holders (where are the activists?) Matters and issues requiring immediate addressing and attention are brushed off from the invited proposals (where are the rationalists?)
