Thane Residents to Boycott Voting in Elections until Roads are Repaired, Mumbai

As a mark of complaint against the bad road Thane, Mumbai, more than hundred people will drive from Ghodbunder Road to Airoli Bridge. To highlight the pathetic road condition and the harassment the residents of the locality are facing due to this, the residents have thought of bringing out this citizen movement. Moreover, not only this protest drive but taking this issue seriously, many of the residents are even in favour of boycotting the elections until the roads are repaired. To make the heads turn while the participants drive on Friday, they will keep the car lights on throughout the 17-km drive and have named the event as ‘blinkers protest’.

Several residents of thane area say that right from the municipal corporation to the Lok Sabha, each election will be boycott as a sign of their protest. As decided, the driving protest will take place on Friday and all are scheduled to converge at Waghbil Naka on Ghodbunder Road. They are to commence their drive from this point to Airoli Bridge, which will be a drive of 17 km. The residents hope that through this exceptional way of protest they will perhaps succeed in highlighting the troubles they face every day due to bad roads.

The Thane Residents have even formed a forum to ensure that the road in the locality is repaired and have named their group as Road Commuters’ Forum. The group has more than 250 active members with more joining. Moreover, as an added action to attract the attention of the administration, they have begun campaigning for their cause on social media.

Not only Thane, the poor road condition is common to many other well-known places in the city. Despite being a metro city and the home to many noted celebrities and renowned personalities, the road condition of the city is beyond imagination and has harassed the commuters in many ways. The most nameable of the issues caused by the broken roads is the duration of the journey. People are compelled to travel longer and spend more time on the road.

Basil Almeida, a corporate lawyer and a management consultant and a participant of the move, says “Ours is not a political movement. We want the government to come up with solutions and all of us are firm on not voting till the issue of bad roads is fixed. What worries me is the situation is worsening every day. And if there’s a problem, like we had on August 10 when the streets were crammed with traffic due to large-scale cancellations of local trains, we could see a situation where we will reach home the next day.”