Sunday, August 5, 2012

MATHURA REFINERY NAGAR

Though it has been over 25 years since the mathura Refinery nagar came into existence, the township doesn’t seem to have moved a Bit with time. No wonder the people are now opting to move out, finds Vareen Ray
 
The Mathura Refinery Nagar over the years might have grown in size but it lacks a lot of aspirational value. While a little away in the main city, the residential boom has spawned mall culture, the refinery township has a dilapidated small shopping cluster comprising of stores that cater to just the daily needs. A shopkeeper selling stationery tells me, “The shop was allotted to me by the co-operative when the township was created. However, even I stay in the city.” The houses look like they have not been painted for ages; there is a jungle-like feel if you go for a walk within the gated community of Mathura refinery. The IOC township stands no chance when compared to what’s on offer outside – group-housing schemes and proper residential complexes that promises beautiful landscaping and recreational facilities in the form of a Club House. The community centre in the township is nothing compared to the club houses that these developers are creating. Yes, education has a positive side within the Mathura Refinery Nagar – it has a Delhi Public School along with the Kendriya Vidyalaya, where the children of the people working at the refinery easily get quality education. But if work at the refinery gets affected, then sending students to the posh DPS would perhaps no longer be an option, a worry that resonates within the families there.

When Nehru had envisaged that the navratnas of India would help develop townships that would be akin to temples of modern India, he had not thought that for some few of these townships, time could well stop once they were made. It is surprising that for a company as gargantuan and process driven as IOC, a township’s structured development could have been ignored for so long. I returned with a view quite depressing, if not forlorn altogether, that a Nehru’s temple, this surely wasn’t.


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