Most visionaries are of the view that reservations, if at all made, must be on the basis of economic backwardness and not caste. While caste based reservations invariably aid in garnering votes, they serve no practical purpose. Come to think of it: we have had reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs for many decades now. But has it served to eradicate the social inequality among classes? The “vision” of making caste based reservations for the sole purpose of bringing about social equality is inherently flawed.

For all we know, the people who “get the benefit” of these reservations are invariably in an environment that has people who have made the cut purely on merit, and hard work. So it Is natural then, that the community becomes polarized. Those who have obtained admission into a top school, or made the grade for a top brass job are bound to look at their colleagues with probably the same talent, but having the backing of their caste with a sense of superiority. And mind you, the people who get through because of their “social backwardness” don’t enjoy it either. They’d rather have a level playing field. And moreover, there are plenty of instances where well to do families take unfair advantage of their so called caste, even though they can well afford a lavish lifestyle.

This is where the Maharashtra government plan is a breath of fresh air. Now, the reservations will be made taking into consideration the economic status of the person. This makes much more sense, since everyone would acknowledge equal opportunity for everyone. The basic message is “let everyone have access to education and employment, and let people not miss out merely because they cannot afford it.”

Now, all that needs to be done is to slowly phase out caste based reservations. This will not be simple, since the political babus will put the vote banks before the society at large. However, it is up to the masses to realize the greater good this will do. Anyway, an economically backward individual of a “reserved caste” will still have access to the privileges, but this time purely because he cannot afford it. This will also mean that affluent people will not be able to misuse the quota system.

The entire process will be long and arduous. But, it is the society that stands to benefit from this. Let the small mindedness of individuals not act as stumbling blocks to what looks like, in theory at least, a system that will make everyone happy, reserved or unreserved.

Firstly, the reasons for the overburdening of infrastructure need to be analysed. The amount of private vehicles on the roads of the city has exponentially increased. Flyovers have been constructed at various locations, but more flyovers will only mean more cars on them. The BEST has now introduced buses on various routes, but the potholes and constant digging up of roads has meant that people no longer want to travel by bus. The sorry state of most of Mumbai’s roads has ensured that the public buses are constantly incurring losses.

Then there are the local trains. Emergence of BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing) and call centres in various parts of the city have generated an influx of people in search of employment the likes of which have never before been witnessed. Add to this the population that deviates away from the buses and chooses trains and you are left with jam packed metallic worms snaking through the city.

The only way that congestion can be reduced on the roads is by ensuring that more people use public transport buses. A very simple way of achieving this is to reduce the number of cars that are allowed to run on Mumbai’s roads. Also, by levying taxes on those who use private cars for entering business districts, people will automatically start using buses.

The metro rail that is being laid is a step in the right direction, but not big enough. Surveys show that the capacity of the metro must be at least four times that which is planned, to take the load off the existing trains. The overground and underground network must complement each other, and so, must be connected at various nodal points along the routes.

So, all said and done, a lot of infrastructural as well as techno-politic upgrades need to be implemented in order to guarantee a comfortable ride to the average Mumbaikar. The special case of the ‘rush hour’ needs to be tackled as well. Only the widening of roads and increasing the number of railway lines is useless, if more people are not drawn toward the public transport system. Not many other cities in the world can boast of having a trustworthy and massive public transport system like that of Mumbai. It is time that this system not only becomes efficient, but also world class.