Residents of a depressed eastern Indian town are painting it pink in a bid to boost morale and cut crime. Aurangabad, in India's Bihar state, had a lot of Maoist rebel activity, and suffered from killings, extortion, kidnapping and inter-caste wars, Arvind Kumar Singh, a senior local government official, told AFP.
“We are hoping that the color pink, which is soothing and pretty, will erase these blots from the past and make the town look attractive,” Singh said of the plan, which kicked off in June. “I am also hoping it will foster constructive and positive thinking among the residents,” he said. “We want to make this town a model which will stand out on the map of India for the right reasons.”
The prettier-in-pink concept came from the dominant Rajput community, who moved to Bihar from the western desert state of Rajasthan. Rajastan's capital, Jaipur, is known as the “pink city.”
PHOTO: AFP
“Only a few buildings in Jaipur are painted pink. Aurangabad will actually be the country's real pink city,” explained Singh.
Aurangabad is home to about 150,000 people, and Singh said about 90 percent of the town, government and private buildings included, are now painted pink. “The people — Hindus, Muslims, (upper caste) Brahmins and (lower caste) Bumihars — all thought it was a good idea to bring about a change in the mindset of people, boost their morale and beautify the place,” he said. But he stressed that it was too early to tell if the crime rate had gone down.”The scheme has just taken off, let's see how it works.”
(AFP)
印度東部一處貧困城鎮的居民以粉紅彩漆提振民心，打擊犯罪。一名資深地方政府官員阿爾梵恩?庫馬?辛恩告訴法新社，印度比哈爾省奧蘭加巴德市內，共產黨毛派叛軍作亂頻傳，且飽受殺戮擄掠、綁架和階級鬥爭之苦。
辛恩提及這項六月開辦的計畫時表示︰「我們希望柔和悅目的粉紅色能消弭過去的汙點，美化市容。」他還說︰「我希望這將幫助居民培養具建設性且正面的想法。」「我要讓這城鎮因正面的理由屹立於印度版圖中。」
「粉紅較優」的概念源自社經地位顯赫的拉傑普特人，他們從西部沙漠省份拉賈斯坦遷移至比哈爾省。拉賈斯坦省首府捷布市乃著名的「粉紅之都」。
辛恩解釋︰「捷布只有幾棟建築物是粉紅色，奧蘭加巴德將成為印度名副其實的粉紅之都。」
奧蘭加巴德約有十五萬居民，辛恩表示鎮上包括政府和私人等約90%的建築現在都被漆為粉紅色，他說「印度教徒、穆斯林、（上層階級）『Brahmins』和（下層階級）『Bumihars』都認為改變人民的想法、提振他們的士氣並且美化環境是件好事。」但他強調，談犯罪率是否會下降還言之過早，「這項計畫才剛展開，我們且拭目以待」。
（法新社╱翻譯︰鄭湘儀）
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