Exercise - Question:
Que: Why did the children go to Yasmin Khala’s house?
Ans: The children broke the street-light while playing cricket. As its replacement was beyond their reach, they were very much upset. They didn’t know whom did the street light belong to. They went to Rehana’s mother who gave them the knowledge that it is the Municipal Corporation of the city that takes care of replacing lights. She also told them that Yasmin Khala would be the best person because she has just retired from the Municipal Corporation. She advised the children to go to Yasmin Khala to get their problem solved.
Que: List four ways in which the work of the Municipal Corporation affects the life of a city-dweller.
Ans: The Municipal Corporation affects the life of a city-dweller in several ways:
(i) It takes care of street lights.
(ii) It ensures that diseases do not break out in the city.
(iii) It runs schools, hospitals and dispensaries.
(iv) It takes care of garbage collection, water supply, keeping the streets and the market clean.
Que: Who is a Municipal Councillor?
Ans: A Municipal Councillor is an elected representative of a ward. He is also known as Ward Councillor.
Que: What did Gangabai do and why?
Ans: Gangabai and other women of her locality were very much unhappy to find garbage lying all over the street and spreading foul smell. One day she said that it is the Ward Councillor who they should go to and protest since they are the ones who elected him. She gathered a small group of women and went to his house to get their problems solved.
Que: How does the Municipal Corporation earn the money to do its work?
Ans: The Municipal Corporation is one of the most important organs of the three-tier government system. It is responsible for all round development of its designated area. It undertakes all the public facilities and welfare works like sanitation, water, road, education, health, etc. As these works require fund, so it collects revenue from the residents living in its corporation area. It levies taxes on property, water and other services. Taxes are fixed on the measurement and consumption of the services. Taxes are levied on education and other amenities like owning a hotel, entertainment etc.
Que: In the two photographs you see different ways of collecting and disposing garbage.
(i) Which way do you think provides safety to the person disposing garbage?
(ii)What are the dangers of collecting garbage in the manner shown in the first photograph?
(iii)Why do you think that proper ways of disposing garbage are not available to those who work in municipalities?
Ans:
(i) The way shown in photo 2 provides safety to the person disposing garbage,
(ii) Collecting garbage in the manner shown in photo 1 is full of dangers. Children are so close to open garbage that they may fall sick or they may develop symptoms of some deadly disease in the long run. There may be pieces of broken glasses. While collecting garbage in,this manner, their fingers may
get injured. We see two stray cows around the garbage searching some eatables. These cows may attack these boys which may take their lives. Thus, there is no safety at all in this way.
(iii) The proper ways of disposing garbage are not available to those who work in municipalities because firstly, the government has not done proper arrangement for this as yet. It has provided trucks no doubt but their number is not sufficient. Secondly, the workers working in the municipalities are generally less aware of health and hygeine. They do not bother whether garbage is being disposed properly or not. Thirdly, the economic condition of the municipalities is not good.
Que: Several poor people in the city work as domestic servants as well as work for the Corporation, keeping the city clean. Yet the slums in which they live are quite filthy. This is because these slums seldom have any water and sanitation facilities. The reason often given by the Municipal Corporation is that the land in which the poor have set up their homes does not belong to them and that slum-dwellers do not pay taxes. However, people living in middle class neighbourhoods pay very little in taxes compared to the amount of money the corporation spends on them in setting up parks, street lighting facilities, regular garbage collection etc. Also as you read in this chapter, the property taxes collected by the Municipality makes up only 25-30 percent of its money. Why do you not think it is important that the Corporation should spend more money on slum localities? Why is it important that the Municipal Corporation provide the poor in the city with the same facilities that the rich get?
Ans: I think it is important that the corporation should spend more money on slum localities because slum-dwellers are also a part of our society. They need education, sanitation, rehabilitation and other facilities as the common people avail. They are also human beings. They lack even basic amenities of life which cause spread of many diseases among them. They are the citizens of our country. So in order to achieve our constitutional ideals the Municipal Corporation should provide the poor in the city with the same facilities that the rich get.
