Tag: BMC

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Learn

Everything’s in a (road’s) name

Your elected representatives in the BMC are asking more questions about road renaming, rather than things like repairs and sanitation.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The monsoons should be upon us in the next month, and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is working hard to repair roads that are riddled with potholes and need general repairs. With more and more complaints coming from the citizens, it logically follows that the city’s elected representatives – its municipal councillors – will also take most of the complaints from their wards to the ward committee meetings.

Not necessarily.

A white paper released recently by NGO Praja Foundation recently reveals that of the questions raised by municipal councillors based on citizens’ complaints, the maximum numbers of questions pertained to renaming of roads and chowks in the city. The paper, titled White Paper On Report Of Working Of Ward Committees In The City Of Mumbai And Civic Problems Registered By Citizens, sheds light on the complaints by citizens against the quality and quantity of related questions asked by councillors in the BMC ward committee meetings. “The maximum number of questions asked by elected representatives in ward committee meetings during the year 2012 were on renaming of roads and chowks – a hefty 127 questions!” says the summary accompanying the paper.

The last such study was conducted by Praja in 2010, to similar results. “Some four years ago, when Praja Foundation had issued a White Paper on civic issues, we had found it shocking that of the plethora of problems facing the city of Mumbai, the maximum number of questions asked by the municipal councillors were on the renaming of roads,” the summary says. “In the calender year 2012, BMC received 29,852 complaints related to roads, potholes etc. The 227 elected representatives together asked 100 questions on roads, repairs, etc. However, the maximum number of questions asked by elected representatives in ward committee meetings during this year were on renaming of roads and chowks,” the paper adds.

“Unless municipal councillors learn to interpret data and raise valid, pertinent questions in the ward committee meetings, they are falling far short of the expectations the citizens elected them for. Should our elected representatives be taking the Corporation to task over the citizen’s complaints or should they be only asking the Municipal Commissioner to change names of roads and chowks?”

Incidentally, citizens have complained the most about roads in 2012 – there were 29,852 complaints received (as against 5,177 complaints in 2011). There were 16,194 complaints about drainage, 6,562 complaints against solid waste management and 6,215 water supply complaints.

(Pictures courtesy www.mid-day.com, mumbai-pushpa.blogspot.com) 

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Overdose

‘Hoarding’ the city to ransom

Nobody wants to know which politician’s birthday is today, or if politicians remembered us during festivals. So why the hoardings?
by Jatin Sharma

Today I saw a very strange thing.

A developed city like ours is forever marred by thousands of advertising messages around it. And the endless in-your-face promotions are just one reason. The actual reason is that people have a lot of purchasing power in Mumbai, and hence, thousands of hoardings adorn the cityscape to draw buyers in.

But does the city really need thousands of useless messages? Most of us are already aware of where we need to go to buy stuff, instead of looking at five foolish hoardings telling us the same. But my grouse is not even with the hoardings that are ads for products or places – I am really annoyed by the people who claim that they want to make this city beautiful and better to stay in, but who are the first ones to deface it with hoardings and banners: our politicians.

The politicians of this city, who argue that migrants are making Mumbai ugly. These same politicians try to portray that they are true Mumbaikars, who have always ‘cared for’ and who have been ‘sensitive’ to the needs of the city.

Thanks to Photoshop and thousands of chamchas, every nook and corner of the city has been plastered with mindless political agendas. And it’s not just the ‘Happy Birthday’ messages on these hoardings that I take issue with. As I said at the start of this column, today I saw a very strange thing – a hoarding that carried a Happy Birthday message for a politician’s dog in downtown Mumbai! Funnily enough, the dog went through a photo shoot too, as the pooch was wearing sunglasses in the picture.

How does wishing a politician’s dog on his birthday align me, a citizen, with that political party? Like, really? What is so special about this dog? Does it go out and do public service with its master? Does it do election campaigning? Does it attend civic meetings and vote in favour of important measures?

And this is not the only example. What about the rash of hoardings wishing people during Ganesh Chaturthi, Ramazan, Ambedkar Jayanti? Don’t you think these hoardings instigate communities against each other with divisive ideas?

Every hoarding seems like a burn mark on the skin of the city. A city that is progressive in spirit still houses these political factions that promote yesteryear political agendas only to remind people of issues that should be last on their list. Half of the times, these hoardings feature youth leaders that no one knows and no one cares about. Some of them even have all the photos of family members. I continue to be puzzled by hoardings that have a giant hand in the centre and the words, ‘THANK YOU MADAM’ emblazoned on it, or a lotus that supposedly stands for ‘HINDUTVA KI PEHCHAAN’ or even ‘EK TA TIGER’ for other big cats.

Seriously, who are these guys kidding? Are their photoshopped mugshots going to make any difference to those forced to look at them? If the hoardings broadcast some sound issues – like recent public works done in an area – would they make any sense to people, and even then, a small banner displayed for a day or two will suffice.

And to add the woes of the public, the rate to put up hoardings is an amount that literally anybody can afford, so putting up hoardings is possible for every aspiring politician.

And what is the Government and BMC doing? The media focusses on this issue sporadically, after which the BMC pretends to take some action against illegal hoardings, but things go back to the way they were in a few days. The Government needs to impose a code of conduct for political parties, where pushing private agendas in a public place – like wishing somebody on their birthday via a public hoarding – becomes a cognisable crime.

If we say nothing, even a politician’s dog’s birthday will become an important civic issue. Let’s not allow somebody’s birthday to feature on our cityscape. And let’s not fall prey to their fake Ganpati, Ramazan and Ambedkar Jayanti wishes, either.

Dear politicians, how about listing what work you’ve recently done? Or what work you are currently engaged in? How about telling us how much of our money you’ve utilised for us? How many of our grievances you’ve solved? And how about not putting your ugly faces on huge hoardings to make these announcements? If you’re working for the people, your work will automatically be your biggest advertisement. Think about it. And don’t announce what you’re thinking about via a hoarding.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else.

(Pictures courtesy Kunal Bhatia, www.whiteindianhousewife.com, www.indianexpress.com)

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Big story

Paani cut!

The BMC cuts 745 water connections in 22 municipal wards during a special drive conducted to assess non-payment of dues.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The State of Maharashtra is grappling with the worst water crisis in years, and in Mumbai, 22 wards have a different water crisis of their own. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) Hydraulic Engineer’s department, during a special drive in Mumbai starting March 15, 2013, found that several wards in the city had not paid its dues.

As a result, the department has cut as many as 745 water connections in 22 wards in Mumbai for non-payment of outstanding dues. So if your house taps have been running drier than usual, this could be the reason.

The ward-wise cut connections are:

Ward A: 10

Ward B: 1

Ward C: 14

Ward E: 7

Ward F/North: 15

Ward F/South: 12

Ward G/North: 20

Ward H/East: 49

Ward H/West: 28

Ward K/East: 33

Ward K/West: 43

Ward L: 50

Ward M/East: 124

Ward M/West: 145

Ward P/North: 10

Ward P/South: 27

Ward R/Centre: 10

Ward R/North: 21

Ward R/South: 24

Ward N: 31

Ward S: 23

Ward T: 48

(Source: Hydraulic Engineer’s department, the BMC)

(Picture courtesy thesquaredfactor.wordpress.com)

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Learn

BMC will help poor women set up businesses

The women organise 20 per cent capital, BMC will examine the business and put up the remaining 80 per cent.
by Krishnaraj Rao

It was a meeting that gave several possibilities for livelihood among the city’s poor and marginalised, and especially its women. “Citizens are not generally aware of many schemes that the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) has initiated to empower economically weak sections, especially for womenfolk,” said Assistant Municipal Commissioner (P-South) Ramakant Biradar yesterday, speaking at a large public meeting held at Somanigram, Oshiwara, Goregaon West.

The meeting was held to motivate and assist the locals to form cooperative enterprises for their own economic upliftment, and also to manage their localities. “If you can manage 20 per cent seed capital for starting your own enterprise such as tailoring, the BMC will assist you with the balance 80 per cent,” he said, addressing the women in the gathering.

The meeting was organised by RTI activist Sulaiman Bhimani on behalf of the Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MSWA), on the theme ‘Kaise Badhayen Aamdani Sahakari Udyog Ke Saath’ (How to increase income with cooperative enterprises). MSWA chairman Ramesh Prabhu spoke about how the 97th Constitutional Amendment passed in January 2012 enabled much-needed reforms to the cooperative sector. “If anybody wishes to start a cooperative enterprise, he can approach us for free guidance, mentoring and assistance,” said Prabhu.

As Somanigram is a poor people’s locality full of SRA colonies, the main objective of the meeting was to enable the increase of people’s income by coming together in cooperative societies. “If a dozen onion and potato pheriwallahs (hawkers) form a cooperative enterprise, they can increase their income by Rs 500 per day, while making onions more cheaply available to the residents,” said Bhimani. “Unemployed youth, housewives, senior citizens, autorickshaw and tempo drivers, plumbers and other service providers can all benefit by forming a cooperative enterprise. We will help them in various ways and make their jobs easier.”

The MSWA has 30,000 member cooperative societies in Mumbai, to which it provides legal advice, accounting services, assistance in deemed conveyance etc. It has a decade of experience in the cooperative sector, which is being leveraged for the CSE initiative.

 

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Big story

Shiv Sena gives in on memorial issue

The Chief Minister didn’t relent. The BMC chief remained firm. Other parties attacked the idea. Shiv Sena now gives in.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

It started as a raucous free-for-all, even before the ashes of the late Bal Thackeray could be immersed in the ocean and a reasonable period of time could elapse after his death, for a controversy using his name to begin and burn harder by the day. But a controversy did erupt, about making the makeshift memorial dedicated to Thackeray a permanent site, and as the days passed, the Shiv Sena’s stubborn demands began to be viewed with annoyance.

Now, after the State Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Sitaram Kunte remained firm on their stand that the makeshift memorial would have to be removed – the CM even refused to grant permission for a permanent memorial at Shivaji Park citing ‘legal issues’ – the Shiv Sena has reluctantly agreed to dismantle the makeshift memorial.

Replying to the December 3 notice that Kunte had sent to Sena MP Sanjay Raut and mayor Sunil Prabhu, asking them to remove the temporary structure at the earliest, Raut has now agreed that the Shiv Sena will remove the structure and level the ground over which it stands before handing it over to the Government.

This comes days after hundreds of Shiv Sainiks arrived at the spot to ‘guard’ the memorial from BMC action, in day-and-night shifts. The party had previously sworn to guard the memorial come what may, and that if the BMC tried to forcibly remove the memorial, Sena MP Sanjay Raut had said, “there could be law and order problems in the city.”

Earlier this week, as news of BMC’s vans being readied at their Worli garage to arrive at Shivaji Park did the rounds, six vans were vandalised by Sainiks. The BMC chief then called for the vandals to be suitably penalised, while holding firm on the notice sent to the Sena on removing the memorial.

 

 

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Big story

Bal Thackeray makeshift memorial still stands

Shiv Sena warns against State and BMC decision to remove the memorial from Shivaji Park; several Sainiks ‘guarding’ the site.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

It seems that the time for the removal of the makeshift Bal Thackeray memorial at Shivaji Park is drawing close. The Park is witnessing heavy police presence, and the numbers of Shiv Sainiks pouring in to ‘guard’ the memorial from demolition are also on the rise. Reports say that a few BMC vehicles used in razing structures were damaged at the BMC’s Worli garage, after a rumour spread that a demolition squad was arriving at Shivaji Park soon.

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray passed away last month. After his demise, a tussle between the Shiv Sena and the State, followed by the Shiv Sena and other parties, including the MNS, started over, of all things, a memorial to the late leader.

A makeshift memorial was erected at Shivaji Park for Thackeray’s followers to pay respects to him before he was cremated at the Park itself. The State had given permission for the memorial on the understanding that the Shiv Sena would have it removed just days after it had served its purpose.

However, the days passed by and the Sena made no move to remove the memorial. Senior Sena leaders such as party spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut expressed the opinion that the memorial be allowed to stay, in fact, a permanent memorial to Thackeray be built at the spotThe State then gave Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Sitaram Kunte orders to have the memorial removed. That only riled the Sena more – the party threatened that if the memorial was touched, there would be a law and order problem in the city.

The Sena-led BMC has also decided to pass a resolution to rename Shivaji Park as ‘Shivtirth’ in memory of Thackeray. However, the State will have the final say in this matter. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is not amused by the Sena’s antics, and has declared that “nobody can take the law in their hands” in the matter.

(Picture courtesy ibnlive.com)

 

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