350 crore statue by the sea: Hail Shivaji!

Mumbai, 10-Sept-09:

It's been in the news for the last few recent months now. News about our local politicians being keen, very keen, mighty keen on building a 350 crore rupee statue by the sea off Mumbai. This staue of "Shivaji" (A famed Maratha king of the old days) is to follow the basic idea and pose, maybe poise of the renowned Statue of Liberty off the sea of New York City.

Don't our politicians and "leaders" think before acting? While India as a whole is still a developing country, needless to say, even major cities of the country like Mumbai lack basic good support systems & infrastructure to make life, on the whole, decent. Crowded trains. Over stuffed buses. Government staff on strike. Badly shaped taxis. Crimes. Pollution. Pot-holed and collapsing roads. Don't these "problems" need attention by our politician? No, but, they'd rather use public taxes (that includes some of my money too) to build a statue. And not just any other statue. A state of the art one. In fact, a statue that has a museum around it, library and restaurants too. All for 350 crore. Are they kidding?
It's always been known that our politicians, since the start, have wanted to match Mumbai city to international standards, however, what these unthinking people don't understand is that: matching Mumbai to an international standard and making it a "world class" city, would be an aim not so far-off if they only opened their eyes and targeted "REAL" issues.
Our sea: is dirty. It's filthy and grey.
Our trains, look like they'd fall apart anytime.
Our taxis and taxi drivers don't know the meaning of being a taxi driver that drives a taxi.
The city is over-crowded.
The buses need more routes.
The roads need better building.
The routes need to be re-developed.
There isn't any place to live. People live on the street.
The buildings here seem to collapse just suddenly.
The corruption level, rises every minute.
There's too much black money doing the rounds and no real work being done anywhere.
Yet, we want to build a statue in memory of someone who would would probably hate the present Mumbai in Maharashtra had he been alive.
Aren't there other ways to pay tribute to someone? Rather, couldn't our "leaders" fix the real problems Mumbai city residents face and then think of raising a statue?

It's simply unbelievable how our leaders seem to budget and think. It's remarkable how life just moves in this country with no real decent level of living or breathing. It's too large a problem to just slide by. But, when the people who seem to be at the top don't think, it's the rest of the masses that not only suffer, they live,barely living.

Vishal Dadlani, a well-known music composer started a petition against this idea of the statue. How much could it help though? Would anyone really listen?

Mumbai's "leaders" will go on doing what clearly benefits no real citizen. And why?