Citizens' groups seek transparency

Mumbai: Elected representatives may have an axe to grind when they protest
the involvement of citizen's groups in civic issues. But both parties seem
to be equally irked by the BMC's agreement with the NGO council. On
Wednesday, members of the civic standing committee made disapproving noises
about the BMC keeping corporators out of the loop while signing a memorandum
of understanding with the NGO council. Several NGOs, who are ostensibly
members of the council, now claim that they too were in the dark about the
agreement. Citizens' groups are now demanding a more decentralised and
transparent process.

"If the BMC is serious about an allpervading council then the process has
to be democratic. A draft copy of the MoU should have been circulated among
all NGOs. Many of us didn't even know that we are members of the council.
Besides, many of the grassroots NGOs were left out,'' said Nayana Kathpalia
of Citispace, an NGO which opted out of the council.

On Thursday, AGNI-one of the many NGOs named by the council as its
members-held a meeting of all its co-ordinators. The co-ordinators argued
that the whole process was 'un-democratic' and none of them were aware about
AGNI being a NGO council member. "The NGO council has erred in not
communicating to its members the same way that BMC is in the wrong for
keeping its corporators in the dark. The intentions are good but when the
council has been given regulatory powers it is important to take everyone
into confidence,'' said AGNI convener Gerson D'Cunha. According to Vinay
Somani, convener NGO council, all members were kept informed through e-mails
and the Karmayog website. "We had zeroed in on 80 NGOs of which 69 had
accepted our invitation to join the council,'' Somani added. TNN