As a part of Mumbai’s celebrations for the auspicious Ganesh Chaturthi, the Aam Aadmi Party Mumbai today, launched the Mooshak Yatra – A five-day yatra across the city with Lord Ganpati’s aide – Lord Mooshak, to witness the unfathomable plight of the daily lives of Mumbaikars. Over the years, the apathy of the Shiv Sena government has deprived Mumbai’s common citizens of their ability to pursue even the most rudimentary standards of a dignified life and sustenance. As corruption and complacency prevail in the ruling parties, the Aam Aadmi is left to struggle under an incompetent administration with no regard for essential civic infrastructure, a failing economy with overwhelming inflation and unemployment, and a collapsing ecological system wrought with encroachment and pollution. Through the Mooshak Yatra, the AAP prays to the ‘Vignaharta’ that he deliver us from our anguish, as a people who have been repeatedly failed by our elected representatives and our administration.

On the first day of the Yatra, Lord Mooshak was escorted to the Dahisar Check Naka – an epitome of Mumbai’s transportation crisis, and the Shiv Sena’s administrative failure. The Dahisar Check Naka is one of the worst-affected traffic zones in the city, facing overwhelming vehicular congestion due to bad planning and encroachment. With an average of almost 4 lakh vehicles passing through the checkpoint every day, it takes at least 30 minutes to 1.5 hours for helpless commuters to be able to cross the toll booth – a stretch of merely 300 meters. Multiple lanes of the toll are encroached by a Police Chowki and a Covid Facility, and there are not enough bypass or ancillary roads to support the traffic. The Government had made promises in 2016, 2018, and now in 2021 – to shift the toll, reorganize the traffic flow, add bypass roads, and implement FASTTag, but the solutions have either only remained on paper, or lacked the conviction for proper implementation.

“The AAP prays to Lord Ganpati that the Toll Naka either be removed, or relocated beyond Mira Road. Shifting the Police Chowki and the container of IRB/SRDC office to the defunct BMC Octroi Collecting office, aligning auto-stands & BEST Stops, implementing 100% FASTTag along with proper signage, footpaths, lighting and diversions at the Toll Naka are just some of several potential solutions, a few of which have been promised by the Government, only to be forgotten as soon as the elections pass.” said AAP Leader Gopal Jhaveri.

“The Dahisar Toll Naka has become the perfect example of the failure of every Government authority, and every elected representative across party lines. We earnestly pray to Lord Ganpati to absolve us of this incompetency, as the people no longer have any hope from the Shiv Sena – the ruling party which has overseen the Toll Naka’s miserable condition for decades, and chosen to do nothing.” said Preeti Sharma Menon, AAP National Executive Member and Mumbai Prabhari.

Sincerely,
AAP Mumbai Media Team