The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is the richest civic body in India with a whopping annual budget of nearly Rs. 34,000 crores. Inspite of so much of the tax payers’ money being spent to provide civic amenities to the people, it is the same story year after year, of water logging, poor drainage system, pot holes, dislocation of train services and BEST transport system; causing inconvenience to Mumbaikars. The Shiv Sena-BJP coalition has been ruling the civic body for more than 20 years now. It has failed to address the civic problems confronting the city. Forget making Mumbai a world class city or converting it into a Shanghai, the BMC does not provide even the basic services efficiently.
The root cause of woes of Mumbaikars is the rampant corruption in the civic body; right from the lowest rung of the administration to politicians- all are involved in siphoning off the taxpayers’ money. The repairing work of all sorts is undertaken just on the eve of the monsoon. The roads are dug out and left without completing the work. The dirt from the nullahs remains uncleared on the roads for days. If it rains, the dirt finds its way back into the drains. Whether it is clearing drains or repairing roads, work mostly begins only after the onset of the monsoon. The work which could have easily been undertaken during the post and pre-monsoon period of October-May is intermittently done on ad hoc basis, depending on the rains.
It is widely believed that the work is done in a haphazard manner by the contractors, using substandard materials, so that the problems do not get resolved and the politicians, the civic officials and the contractors continue getting their share of illegal gratifications regularly. Nothing happens to the blacklisted contractors nor is any action taken against the corrupt engineers, the ward officers and the contractors for dereliction of duty and for compromising with the quality of work. Instead, the blacklisted contractors use their connections and manage to get the work again. It’s been only a week since the rains hit the city and there are more than 1000 potholes on the roads, putting the people in grave risk.
The BMC has not learnt any lesson from the deluge that the city saw 11 years ago on July 26, 2005. The claim that it had completed 99 per cent of the desilting work has turned out to be false. The BMC has spent over Rs. 4,000 crores during the past 10 years in contracts for widening, deepening and de-silting the drains and yet, the problem of water logging and flooding of roads remain unresolved.
Another instance of corruption can be found in the BMC schools. The children of the lowest strata of society take admission in the BMC schools as these are the only hope for the under privileged children. The BMC gives them free education, though poor in quality. It provides the children with all materials required by them. However, sub-standard materials, unfit for use, are provided and that too as late as 45 days after the schools reopen.
There are complaints of misappropriation of funds and materials not being supplied on time. The new Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta wants to transfer the money to the parents’ accounts for purchasing the uniforms and the stationary items like school bags, tiffin boxes and water bottles in order to avoid delay in supplying them and also to get rid of the middle men. However, the Corporators, cutting across political parties, are vehemently opposing the cash transfer scheme. A big racket operates there. They want the present practice to continue. It is obvious, the present system benefits the middle men and the corrupt officials and the contractors. His predecessor Sitaram Kunte, who tried to introduce the cash transfer scheme two years ago, too had to back down under pressure and fierce opposition from the ruling dispensation.
The mid-day meal scheme is another big scam. The quality of mid day meals is so bad that some children refuse to eat that and instead bring food on their own, defeating the very purpose. There is no effective supervision, control, transparency or accountability in the civic administration. For instance, the engineers responsible for supervising the quality of work on the roads fail to keep a check. Many agencies like MMRDA and PWD are involved in undertaking various projects. But there is neither any coordination between them nor any proper deadlines for completing the work on time. Follow up action seems inexistent and no one is held responsible for faults. No wonder a corrupt civic body holds the city to ransom. It is important to break the politician-official-contractor nexus.
The writer is author of the book ‘Nehru and World Peace’, Professor of Political Science and a retired Principal, Founder Secretary, Association of Indian College Principals.
