A marriage of inconvenience
Some citizens' groups have shown what it takes to tackle civic issues in
partnership with the BMC. But these are too few
Neeta Kolhatkar

After the July 26, 2005, rains flooded the ground floor houses in Pestom
Sagar, the residents came together under the aegis of an Advanced Locality
Management (ALM) and Local Area Citizen Group (LACG). They first did their
homework to get to the root of the flooding, which turned out to be
blockages in a nullah. Then they found out about all the agencies involved
and people to contact for remedies. Finally, they brought the central, state
and city agencies as well as the company constructing a stormwater drain off
the Eastern Express highway together. The next year, Pestom Sagar was spared
the flooding.

"We learnt from the 2005 dis aster. We had to tackle it at the community
level because local people are the first to come forward in these
situations," says Narayan, an ALM member.

In February this year, the consensus candidate from Juhu-Andheri, Adolf
D'Souza, won the BMC election as an independent candidate. He was part of
the Juhu ALM which ensured that candidates from political parties that had
let them down, were not elected.

These are examples of successful public participation in civic issues. But
for a city with a population of 18 million, there are only about 25 active
ALMs and fewer LACGs. Experts say that is due to clashes between ALMs and
uncooperative corporators, as well as clashes within ALMs as some people try
to hijack them for their own personal agendas.

"Your mindset should be clear that you are going into a partnership. If the
ALM and BMC are in true partnership, then the work gets done," says Indrani
Malkani of Little Gibbs' Road ALM.

NGOs believe the administration should depend more on the public for
ensuring projects are implemented. In every area there are such efforts, but
NGOs lament the non-institutionalisation of these networks which lead to
their eventual collapse.

"The onus is on both the administration and the public to fulfil their
responsibilities. The participation cannot be informal. Information has to
flow both ways," says Vinay Somani of the NGO council.

Nevertheless, the few working ALMs have shown how effective they can be.
Some of them have gone beyond their original agenda of garbage segregation,
with initiatives like disaster management.

The Pestom Sagar and Mal abar Hill ALMs set up their own cells to tackle
disasters. The BMC provided them with equip ment and they undertook training
in fire-fighting, and even set up a HAM communication system.

Citizens often feel frustrated with inaction on the part of the
administration. But some have remained undeterred. "Our role as participants
is to be vigilant as citizens and become pressure groups," says Adolf
D'Souza.

He also defends the various means citizens use in order to make the system
more effective. "Sometimes citizens have to resort to Right to Information
Act, or filing cases."

Officials admit there is resistance from local corporators and leaders who
have stalled many projects through petty politics. "Community based
organisations are not working as well as they should. But wherever citizens
have been active, projects have been implemented and development takes
place," says RA Rajiv, additional commissioner, BMC.

Publication : DNA; Section : Mumbai; Pg : 5; Date : 22/7/07
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