Jodhpur residents feel civic polls won’t solve their woes

JODHPUR: People of Jodhpur, the home town of chief minister Ashok Gehlot, are not bothered about which party forms the civic boards in north and south zones.
Inspite of massive exercise of restructuring the wards by bifurcating 65 municipal wards of Jodhpur into 180 wards and dividing the city into two municipal zones each having a separate mayor, people believe that the move will not improve the city in any manner except making things more messy.
Many are of the view that the civic polls were largely aimed at securing political control of as much area as possible and not with a view to address the civic issues earnestly.
“There are a lot of issues that people of the city face. Many of such issues have been lingering since years. But despite repeatedly knocking on the doors of the administration, nothing happened,” said Pawant Saraswat, a resident of Ward No. 3 in Soorsagar constituency.
He said people living in Siroli Bera don’t have roads and sewerage lines for over a decade and both Congress and BJP have done nothing about it.
Many complain about the pet replies by mayors and councillors about inadequate funds for development work . Some councilors have even expressed their ire over lack of funds for various work in their respective wards.
“There has always been inadequate funds with the municipal body. With tripling of wards now, more funds will be required. How will it be arranged,” asked Rajendra Vyas from the Walled City area, adding that councilors and mayors do not focus on funds generation and keep looking at the state government.
Neeta Thanvi from Ward No. 35 comprising posh localities of Prem Nagar and Gulab Nagar said she doesn’t have any hopes.
“We have perpetually broken roads and shabby parks. But if no attention is paid in such a posh area, one can guess the condition in other areas,” she said.
Even with the election being held and polling taking place, many roads, streets and mohallas could be seen with overflown sewerage lines, dug and broken roads, piles of garbage and stray animals.