The Billiken's Bluff

MUMBAI - No electricity, no food, no water and the stench of rotting garbage everywhere. In the four days following Torrential Tuesday, Mumbaikars have been to hell and back, and anger against the appalling apathy of officialdom is exploding all over the city.



Rasta rokos were staged at 16 places in Mumbai in 24 hours, as nearly one lakh citizens came out into the streets to condemn the "failure of the civic and state administration" and shouted slogans against Reliance offices at Vakola, Dahisar, Oshivara, Goregaon and other areas.

On Saturday, over a thousand people blocked traffic on LBS Marg near the Kurla bus depot to protest the absence of water and power supply in the area.

At Goregaon, a mob of 150 went berserk when they found that the garbage in their area had not been lifted, as did hundreds of residents of Mumbra near Thane, who pelted stones at vehicles and blocked traffic on the Thane-Mumbra road to protest the administration's ignoring their repeated requests to clear the filth that had entered their streets and houses. A policeman in plain clothes also allegedly pushed a woman protestor, prompting stone-pelting by the protestors.

With mounds of garbage everywhere, citizens are petrified about the outbreak of a health epidemic.

Said a police officer posted at Kurla, "There is so much filth in the area. Not a single civic official has sprayed DDT or any other pesticide till Saturday afternoon to prevent the possible outbreak of disease."