Civic Sense

“CIVIC SENSE” 

Reading the article “Towing men and their double standards” in Sunday Times (2 Feb 2008), Getting more attention from citizens is needed this time. It is essential to penalize the violators and keep practicing the towing of vehicles, as that is the way we have in out country. The possible solutions from traffic department are already been addressed in ‘Draw the lines…’ (21 Jan, AM) But as personnel, what can we do, seems easier and implemental. “Why is it that I am the only one who is caught?” – A thought like a gunshot appears when your vehicle is taken away from amongst other 40, parked wrongly just besides. But have you ever thought that other 40 have parked inappropriately, why shouldn’t I park mine correctly? Can we be proud of being a citizen of a developed (so called ‘metro) city but having zero civic sense!? A lot to think about! Self discipline is the word. It wouldn’t be enough to get a uniformed, well structured traffic and parking system, until we start following simple discipline ourselves. Common sense or say civic sense comes before the law practice, as the latter is an imposition and the previous is a willing exercise. 

Parking vehicles in a row, parking them straight and closer to the next vehicle, keep vehicle a little distance if the destination is already crowded, using main stand while parking your two wheelers, parking cars in sub streets rather than parking them on busy roads – these are very simple things that we can follow despite of having clear indications of parking zones. We can easily manage the space we have by keep it organized. Everything depends on a bit of thinking from you and me. Give it a thought before you do anything in public and it may bring a significant change over all.   

 Sneh B

Ahmedabad, 8 February 2008