PETROL,DIESEL, PDS, LIFE AND THE CYCLE
It is people who make the law, change the law so people are served for their prosperity.
The Hon'ble Chief Minister will surely enact a law designed to serve
life and not death. See Terry Taminen, Lives per gallon. And Mahatma
Gandhi: Given enough time modern civilization will destroy itself.
Life:
From food creatures become;
Food comes from rain;
Rain from practice of return;
Return from action;
Action from harmony with all
that is negentropic;
And negentropy comes from life;
The Living being has the power
To bring back order;
Therefore fight the injustice
Which hails the motor monster
At the cost of infinitely superior life itself.
Why should the lifeless motor
Be preferred to life's splendour?
Restore the right of life to life.
Those who disregard this wheel of health
Are living for themselves
And are committing suicide
At the altar of the inflationary petrol,diesel
Those who eat food and recycle
Perpetuate and bicycle.
Better address food and the public
distribution system,
Let pedal power forever prosper.
Written this day 10 September of 2013
Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal's
R. Ashok Kumar
From: NAPM India
To:
Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2013 2:48 PM
Subject: Letter to West Bengal CM : Ban on non-motorised transport in the city of Kolkata by Police
NATIONAL
ALLIANCE OF PEOPLE'S MOVEMENTS
National Office : 6/6
Jangpura B, New Delhi – 110 014 . Phone :
011 2437 4535 | 9818905316
E-mail:
napmindia@gmail.com
| Web : www.napm-india.org
New
Delhi, September 10, 2013
To,
Smt. Mamata Banerjee,
Smt. Mamata Banerjee,
Chief
Minister of West Bengal
Sub:
Ban on non-motorised transport in the city of Kolkata by
Police
Dear Mamata Ji,
Namaskar !
We
are stunned to know that the Kolkata Traffic Police through 29th May,
2013 Gazette Notification has passed an order to ban cycles, hand
cart, pull cart, tri-cycles and other forms of non-motorised roads
from 174 major and minor streets in the Kolkata city. The order is
not only in violation of the National Urban Transport policy of 2006
that encourages non-motorized forms of transport but also an assault
on livelihoods of working class people. Millions of poor and working
class people in Kolkata are dependent on these forms of transport for
earning an honest living and also commute within the city.
Cycles
are a perfect manifestation of your party's slogan and vision - since
Bicycles and non-motorized transport are socially inclusive, directly
support livelihoods, inexpensive; take much less space, good for the
environment and health, and least likely to cause jams and
accidents.
Here are few facts
and figures for your attention:
- Data of the Union Ministry of Urban Development shows people in Kolkata make nearly 2.5 million cycle trips a day, second only to Delhi.
- Kolkata is the only metropolitan city in India where trips by cycle (11 per cent) outnumber trips by cars (8 per cent).
- Traffic accident data for West Bengal (2011) shows only 1.5 per cent of road accidents happen due to fault of cyclists against 71 per cent due to faults of motor vehicle drivers
- Kolkata has the lowest number of private cars and the least amount of road space (6 per cent) among metro cities. Even smaller cities like Gwalior have more registered motor vehicles than Kolkata. Cycling is practical and popular with the masses.
- Cycles do not slow down vehicular traffic. Average speed of traffic in Kolkata varies between 14-18 km/ hour. The national average is 22 km/hour
- With a population of over 14 million, urban agglomeration of Kolkata is among the most densely populated in the country. At least 7,750 people live in one sq km area. Cycling is a practical mode of transport in such areas
We are aware that
these notifications have been passed on the orders of the Honorable
High Court, but we feel your government must deal with this legally,
rather than taking this anti poor and anti working class step.
Hence we urge you to
revoke this ban and demand that adequate authorities on lines of
other Metro cities be set up to take
where local authorities can work with experts to find a holistic
solution to Kolkata’s traffic congestion problems that focuses to
provide safety to pedestrians and Non Motorised Transport through
building of cycle tracks, public cycle scheme and integrate that with
other forms of public transport.
We
do hope your government will take adequate notice and revoke the ban
at the earliest.
Yours
Sincerely,
Medha
Patkar - Narmada Bachao
Andolan and the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)
Prafulla
Samantara - Lok Shakti
Abhiyan, NAPM, Odisha
Dr.
Sunilam - Kisan Sangharsh
Samiti, NAPM, MP
Gautam
Bandopadhyay – Nadi
Ghati Morcha, NAPM, Chhattisgarh
Vilas
Bhongade, Suniti SR, Suhas Kolhekar, Prasad Bagwe -
NAPM, Maharashtra
Gabriel
Dietrich, Geetha Ramakrishnan –
Unorganised Sector Workers Federation, NAPM, TN
C
R Neelakandan – NAPM Kerala
Ramakrishnan
Raju, Saraswati Kavula, P Chennaiah
– NAPM Andhra Pradesh
Bhupender
Singh Rawat, Rajendra Ravi, Anita Kapoor, Sunita Rani, Madhuresh
Kumar, Seela M – NAPM,
Delhi
Arundhati
Dhuru - NAPM, Uttar Pradesh
Sister
Celia - Domestic Workers Union
& Sudhir Vombatkere -
NAPM, Karnataka
Vimal
Bhai - Matu Jan sangathan,
NAPM, Uttarakhand
Krishnakant, Anand
Mazhgaonkar, Paryavaran Suraksh
Samiti, NAPM Gujarat
Pranab
Banerjee, Samar Bagchi, Anuradha Talwar, Debjit Dutta, Amitava Mitra,
Kalyan Sengupta, Pasharul Alam – NAPM
West Bengal
===============================================
Phone : 011 26241167 / 24354737 Mobile : 09818905316
Web : www.napm-india.org
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Twitter : @napmindia
posted by Ramaswami Ashok Kumar at 10:33 AM
1 comments
