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Resentment against hike in bus fare mounting in Bhopal

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NK SINGH Though a Govt. directive has frustrated the earlier efforts of the MPSRTC to increase the city bus fares by as much as 300 per cent, the public resent even the 25 per cent hike. It is "totally unjust, uncalled for and arbitrary", this is the consensus that has emerged from an opinion conducted by "Commoner" among a cross-section of politicians, public men, trade union leaders, and last but not least, the common bus travelling public. However, a section of the people held, that an average passenger would not grudge a slight pinche in his pocket provided the MPSRTC toned up its services. But far from being satisfactory, the MPSRTC-run city bus service in the capital is an endless tale of woe. Hours of long waiting, over-crowding people clinging to window panes frequent breakdowns, age-old fleet of buses, unimaginative routes and the attitude of passengers one can be patient only when he is sure to get into the next bus are some of the ills plaguing the city b...
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Why Narmada is MP's Life Line

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NK SINGH



It is not a fable, but a real life story. It is a story that captures the quintessential spirit of Narmada Parikrama and the importance that the holy river occupies in lives of people living in the region.


Travelling through Madhya Pradesh, a journalist friend chanced upon a saffron-robed man peddling his rickety bicycle near the busy pilgrim town of Kshipra. The man of intermittent age seemed to be on a long trip, far away from home, all his worldly possessions loaded on the bicycle.


What attracted attention was a huge German Shepherd perched majestically atop the front seat of the bicycle, used normally for seating children. As the man puffed along, his best friend looked on contentedly from his throne.


The villager had embarked upon a pilgrimage of Narmada, a 2,600 km circumambulation of the holy river. And he had decided to take the dog along because,he told the journalist, “who will look after him in my absence?”


Narmada is the river of faith for millions living along its banks. Thousands of pilgrims circumambulate its banks, starting from its source at Amarkantak hills in MP to the river’s mouth at Bharuch in Gujarat, where it drains into the Arabian Sea. For months ---- and sometime for years ---- they rough it out, living off alms, sleeping under stars, cooking food over cowdung fire and worshiping Narmada water, the giver of life.


Narmada is indeed the lifeline of Madhya Pradesh. As its charts its 1,300 km course to sea, the perennial river supplies water for drinking, irrigation, industry andelectricity, provides livelihood to thousands of fishermen, even as it recharges thousands of streams, ponds, wells and tubewells in the parched region.



No wonder, its beneficiaries worship it.

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