‘We pay our Taxes’!!! So, of course, it gives us the right to burden the already overworked, understaffed municipal corporation and the sanitation dept of our city! But does the government really have a role in everything that we do or want? We get a clean city every morning when we come out, the roads are swept, the lanes are clean and the garbage is all picked up. The city’s average population is 30 to 35 lakh. We hear casual comments – So what? It is their duty. I pay my taxes. Sure. If everyone really pays the taxes regularly, then the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) would have enough time to look into the sanitation matters. But instead, the civic body has to spend a huge time to recover taxes.
We keep blaming the government. Bad roads, corruption, departments don’t function, bad attitude etc. etc.
The Big Question is What are we doing as citizens?
We make a clean road unclean by littering, urinating, spitting. My duty, because, I pay the taxes? We are like educated illiterates who pay taxes. We drive a Mercedes/Audi and open the driving door and spit the kharra because we are paying our taxes. Each person is a somebody, who likes to show his political clout.
We have pets. We take them for walks and make them poo on the road because ‘We pay our Taxes’. We jump the traffic signals and bribe the traffic police, because we have no time. -We are the ones responsible for corruption. We love to park our vehicles under the ‘No Parking’ board because ‘We pay our Taxes’. Educated illiterates! We go the wrong way, take shortcuts without a thought for others, because our time is precious. Educated illiterates! We make sure to litter the theatre before leaving because we have paid the taxes. We go to the market, bring home lot many plastic bags and discard them on the streets, because again ‘We pay our Taxes’. We take out time for our entertainment but keep blaming those people who keep giving their day and night of their family time to make us happy citizens, because ‘We pay our Taxes’. If these people were to stop their work for us–are we as educated illiterates ready to switch jobs with them ever, because the fact is even they pay their taxes.
We don’t want anyone to litter our surroundings but we like to litter other’s, because ‘We pay our Taxes’. We just love to exercise our rights as citizens but when it comes to our duties -our excuses are always ready!!!!! ‘We are paying Our Taxes,’ Is that enough?
We all need to change we need to act today. We have to address, engage and understand the real issues. the biggest challenge is addressing the fixed mindset, only then will we see and be the leaders of change.
