00:00I just want to say this, and I'm playing this picture of this young boy, 11-year-old,
00:05Vihant Srivastava, goes to school in his school bus to play a cricket match.
00:11Guess what? A tree falls on the school bus, he dies.
00:15And today, in the area where I live, two trees had fallen.
00:18And the fact is, many of the citizens have been complaining about these unsafe trees.
00:23Every year, every monsoon, my friends, it's the same old story.
00:27I started journalism in the city of Mumbai in 1988.
00:31Nothing has changed when it comes to, at times, civic negligence.
00:35Open manholes, overflowing drains, roads collapsing, and yes, even trees falling on a school bus.
00:42Mumbai in the monsoons can be and is a debt trap.
00:45This is about accountability, above all else.
00:48BMC officials are suspended, but it needs much more than that.
00:52Unless, as Mr. Deora admitted, the contractor-politician-official nexus is broken, nothing will change.
00:59The question is, who will bite the hand that feeds it?
01:03Vihant Srivastava's parents, and millions of Mumbaikers, or anyone who lives in our metros,
01:09whichever part of this country who has to suffer this every monsoon, need answers.
01:14We need better urban governance.
01:17It's not enough to talk about smart cities and then have not-so-smart options on the ground.
01:25Accountability, my friends, is the big deficit we are facing across our cities.
01:31Think about it.
