Bhopal Notes :: 81 :: We have a dysfunctional municipality

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Two or three days ago the local daily Dainik Bhaskar published photographs of deplorable condition of roads. Drains were shown as overflowing and so were sewers and this was happening right across the town. I got interested as one of the photographs was from my neighbourhood on the Idgah Hills.

The manhole that was overflowing was the one on the tri-junction of Cambridge School and it seems to have been overflowing for a few days. It does so frequently; perhaps the sewer lines do not have the capacity to take the muck and it gets accumulated until it moves upwards and finds an outlet through manhole cover.

I think it is highly callous of the Municipal Corporation to allow this noxious fluid to flow freely through the road with substantial traffic passing by every minute. Students of Cambridge School go sloshing through the accumulated filthy water. Besides, a fishmonger sets up his shop on the road next to it and vegetable and fruit sellers park their pushcarts not far from it. People buy their needs despite the very unhygienic surroundings. Surely the Corporation officials would be collecting their informal tax (hafta) from these street-merchants periodically. And yet all these people are made to ply their trade in such insanitary environment.

Free-flowing manholes are so common that when we see one we take it as given. Actually, when we come across municipal workers de-choking a manhole we are surprised as it is something which is rarely witnessed. And, if the municipal workers happen to be wielding a de-choking machine it would seem to be out of this world. The other day, while passing by from the New Market area I happened to come across a municipal worker at work on an overflowing drain with a machine. The Municipality, quite obviously, has these machines that have been bought at the tax-payers’ expense, yet these are generally moth-balled or are deployed in areas inhabited by VIPs or are not deployed at all. The overflowing drain near Cambridge School is a case in point.   

My mind travelled back a few decades to pre-independence India where the municipality of Gwalior, the capital of the princely state of Gwalior used to do these civic jobs quite regularly. Although all the operations were done manually yet they were done at regular intervals. As a child I used to position myself on the verandah of our first floor house overlooking the street to get a ring side view of what the municipal workers would be up to. I distinctly remember the equipment they used to bring to switch on a tap embedded in the road and to attach a fat hose to it to wash the roadside drains. The high pressure of water from the hose would clean away in minutes all the muck in drains deposited over time.

Likewise, two people would come to clean the manholes. They would remove the heavy lid and uncover the manhole and one of them would climb down into it with a pan tied to a rope. He would manually shovel the muck into the pan and then holler for the other to pull it up. A pretty simple operation and, if conducted regularly, was devoid of any risks. In our national capital this system was prevalent until recently when a few workers were killed by the noxious gases. Obviously manholes had not been cleaned regularly and the lethal gases were allowed to accumulate.

Soon after independence all these operations were discontinued, seemingly because we had gained freedom and cleaning up the muck from the drains apparently became redundant. It is such a pity that what a feudal administration could ensure for the health and wellbeing of the citizens the people’s own governments have been unable to do. During the feudal times it was the fear of the higher-ups that made the municipal workers to carry out their duties regularly and sincerely. Now it is free for all; nobody needs to carry out one’s duties. Besides, things have become so big that the right hand does not know what the left hand does. In the process, hardly anything gets done. No wonder things are in a mess.

The Municipal Corporation is provided with every necessity by way of men and material and yet it fails to carry out its duties. Obviously, it is very loosely administered and the officers have no grip over the areas of their activities. It is nothing but sheer inertia and carelessness that keeps them away from carrying out their functions effectively. No wonder the city suffers from the ravages of overflowing manholes, potholed roads, denuded greenery and what have you.

*Photo from internet

Bhopal Notes :: 57 :: Need for audit of Bhopal Municipal Corporation

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Bhopal Municipal Corporation officials are very innovative in various ways. They can think out of the box and plan projects that do not normally fall within the necessary parameters of deployment of public finances for building useful physical assets. For instance, they devised a project to create an auditorium on the Upper Lake for laser shows on a water screen for which equipment for pumping water vertically up in the air have also been purchased. The idea was to impart lessons to the local people on the history of Bhopal. For this purpose, they transgressed many of the environmental norms for conservation of wetlands and created a platform of concrete right on the waters of the Lake. They seemed to have forgotten that there was a norm, one might even say a law, that no permanent structure could be erected within 50 metres of the Full Tank Level (FTL).

Strangely, on the other hand, during the mapping of the Shapura Lake which is also situated in the city and which is a virtual soak pit, objections were being raised for constructions that fell within the 33 metres from its Full Tank Level (FTL). Such are the contradictions with which the officers of the municipal corporation function and waste public resources. They had erected a laser show auditorium a few years back on the Lower Lake. It was also put in operation. As it gave an overdose of laser shows every day the crowds thinned out and it was eventually shut down. Some of the municipal officials had said at that time that the shows flopped because the location of the auditorium was wrong. According to them, it should have been the Upper Lake. Perhaps the same set of officials has contrived to manage setting up of

this projected show. Commissioner of the municipality told the Bhopal Citizens’ Forum (BCF), the auditorium on the Lower Lake had since been handed over to some government department. The civic body is already starved of funds and the moneys spent on the auditorium just disappeared without any benefit to the citizens. Imagine how many good roads could have been built in that kind of money!  

The work in connection with current project was done surreptitiously but nothing can be hidden from public gaze or that of the media for long. There was adverse reporting in the newspapers that the municipality was breaching the environmental rules. But all this was to no effect; the Corporation went ahead with the project in a bull-headed manner. Even when the erstwhile Commissioner came to explain the matter to the members of the BCF her minions gave a different twist with a presentation that tried to brand Bhopal as a Vedic City. All the members were surprised as this was the first time they were hearing of Bhopal being a Vedic City. It was being implied that the city had been in existence since Vedic times. The Vedic period, as perhaps is well known, stretches from 1500 BC to 500 BC and to brand Bhopal as a city as old as that was nothing but a sheer unconscionably high flight of imagination. This kind of rubbish was supposed to be projected by laser beams on the Upper Lake. One wonders about the intelligence of the bright bureaucrat who gave approval to such a project which is likely to sound the death knell of the already-struggling-to-survive Lake. Curiously, even the Commissioner, a highly educated IAS officer of around eight years seniority, was supportive of the project and said that this was a good way of educating people about the history of their city. She did not think for a moment that it would be imparting false history to children of the city besides being a threat to the Lake.

The project has been controversial ever since it came out in the public domain. Even a couple of days ago the Mayor was asked about the proposal but he said he did not have the details and asked for them. Till now he has called for the details twice but the same have not been shown to him. Obviously, there is something fishy about it. The reports said construction division of the Corporation had not dealt with any such proposal. If this division does not know about it and even the Mayor is unaware of it the question that arises is who gave the go-ahead to the proposal. Was it the former Commissioner who has just been transferred or some self-serving officials of the municipality processed it keeping key officials in the dark

Another vernacular newspaper reported recently that the preparations for the laser shows are in final stages and they are intending to throw it open in October next. Unfortunately, action to put it on hold has not fructified yet. One wonders whether the project would be commissioned by-passing the Mayor.

Though it is the custodian of the Lake the Municipal Corporation has been doing all the wrong things in so far as its conservation is concerned. It has been spending scarce financial resources only on beautification and peripheral matters paying no attention to

improvement in the quality of its waters. A new view-point has been created on the VIP Road and, on questioning, was passed off as an eco-park, a patent untruth. The Corporation has never had any concept of conservation of this very vital Lake and the commissioners, who headed it, though of the premier administrative service, have also been clueless on the subject.

 This is very strange especially when there is so much talk today in the country on conservation of wetlands in view of the prevailing water stress. More so, when the experts of an institution as important as the Centre of Environmental Planning and Technology of Ahmedabad have declared that the Lake would remain useful only for another twenty years if measures to conserve it were not taken immediately. The institution was asked by the MP government to submit a report about the measures that needed to be taken for its conservation. The state government is sitting on the report and seems to be blind to the goings-on in the municipal corporation of its capital.

From what is evident in regard to the Lake it appears people of Bhopal are going to lose it as a source of drinking water. The water body may remain but it would be good enough only for taking selfies from its banks. If sewer lines flowing into it are not diverted to sewage treatment plants its water would contaminate even the neighbouring groundwater resources. The situation has somehow been brought down to a precarious level.

Having regard to all the circumstances, the functioning of the Municipal Corporation needs to be investigated and its expenditures in recent past subjected to audit by Comptroller and Auditor General failing which by the Accountant General of the state. A great many cases of corruption and wastage of public money in the municipality have so far been exposed by the vernacular press. Even the former municipal commissioner, Ms. Chhavi Bharadwaj, recently said that controlling corruption in the civic body was a matter of great challenge. The corrupt are so well entrenched.

*Photo from internet

5th September 2017

Bhopal notes 19: Of repair of buses and related matters

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I feel jealous of the towns where I find the BRTS buses running without any problems. In recent months I have been to Jaipur and Kolkata. Both the places have implemented the Centre’s proposal for introducing the system and in both the places there didn’t seem to be any corridor and the buses were plying through the crowded streets. In Kolkata I happened to notice that the JNNURM was writ large on the buses that were bought off the funds provided under the Mission.

It is only in Bhopal that the BRTS has faced all kinds of problems. These have been dealt with from time to time in these notes. It is now reported that more than 50% of the fleet of low-floor buses are off roads on account of their utterly bad condition. The Municipal Corporation has prepared a proposal for repair of these buses at a cost of Rs 5 crore which seem to have been transferred by the Centre but not released by the state government to the Corporation for want of a proper proposal.

The condition of buses has degraded within a short period of time. Obviously there has been improper maintenance. No wonder the buses have been taken off the road at great inconvenience to the rising number of commuters. Unfortunately, the Municipal Corporation has never been able to carry out any of its functions properly for the benefit of the people. In almost every sphere of activity it has failed and yet one wonders how the state government thought it fit to entrust to it the work of building the BRTS corridor and running a fleet of costly buses. Special purpose vehicles for each of these items of work should have been created for greater efficiency in both. If the State government had to wind up MP Road Transport Corporation basically because of corruption at all levels how the Municipal Corporation could remain untouched by the same culture. In fact, its employees are more corrupt and half the inefficiency of the outfit is because of its corrupt ways.

The report in the newspaper, in fact, has touched on this aspect. The employees, it seems, create situations in which money has to be spent so that they could put a large portion of it in their pockets. The proposal for repair of the buses by a contractor is also reported to be for the very same purpose. Whether it is the elected representative or permanent officials, all are alike; all look for their respective share in transactions that are carried out at the behest of its officials. The public are being ceaselessly short-changed and, surprisingly, none in the government seems to notice it. Even if they happen to notice it, probably, they gloss over it. There appears to be a complete breakdown of civic services and none seem to be bothered.

If the Corporation cannot render its services properly how can it be expected to run a so called smart city? All its staff, from the mayor downwards, are chasing the mirage of converting the town into a smart city –most of them being unaware what makes a city smart. The main reason for chasing this dream seems to be the grant of hundreds of crores that will come from the Centre and a good deal of it will be disposed of in the way the staff of the Corporation have developed expertise. Benefits for citizens is not on their minds; it is only the filthy lucre that attracts them.

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Photo of Kolkata JNNURM bus is from the net

THE INEPT BHOPAL MUNICIPALITY

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A local newspaper recently reported that the reluctance o the Bhopal Municipal Corporation in carrying out the directions issued

Encroachments being removed in Varanasi

by the local bench of the National Green Tribunal was very evident in their submissions. It seems the Corporation official want the whole process of action against the owners of the so-called marriage gardens to be stretched for as long as possible.

For all one knows, the hunch is spot on. After all, the marriage gardens would not have been able to carry out their profitable illegal activities without the connivance and support of the Corporation officials concerned. And for the favor done to them by winking at their illegal activities money would have changed hands, and, perhaps, illegal gratification of the Corporation officials continues unabated till this day. Most probably, the payments have now become heftier as the matter is speedily coming to a crunch.

No civic irregularity can continue undetected for long. If any does so, there would be enough reason to suspect foul play on the part of the controlling or regulatory authorities. For instance, encroachments on government lands cannot continue for long unless connived at by the field level municipal authorities. The so-called "Harley Street" of Bhopal where numerous hospitals have illegally come up have been allowed to function by the municipal authorities despite a court order handed out in 2005 declaring them irregular. For nine years no action has been taken - certainly not without any consideration. The Corporation has been hedging and hawing and refusing to move against the encroachers. Now that the Green Tribunal has got into the act there is some movement. The area falls in the Heritage Sector of the town between two (of the three) cascading lakes which formed a unique Nawabi system for rainwater harvesting. 

The most laughable thing is that the municipal anti-encroachment authorities routinely  move around in vehicles with police protection removing small time encroachments but none has ever been held accountable for allowing unauthorized occupation of government or other lands. Once the Urban Administration Minister had a dhaba  (a roadside eatery)demolished functioning on encroached piece of land for as many as 20 years and the incident was given wide coverage in the press. Soon, thereafter some of us of the Citizens' Forum had to meet him at his residence. During the course of conversation I happened tell him what he had done was a great job and asked about the nature of action taken against those who allowed the illegalities for all those years. He categorically stated that in his government responsibility was never fixed. The upshot is that unscrupulous people would go on illegally occupying public property and the government or the Corporation would keep removing them all the time at great public cost repeatedly ad infinitum, on many occasions at the same site. This sort of theatrics keeps occurring in New Market every other month.

That the Municipal Corporation is incompetent and inept would be an understatement. What is, however, is worse is that’s officials and elected representatives are utterly corrupt. This is the story all over the country – whether in metros or two or three tier towns. Somehow the system of local government transplanted from England  has not worked in this country – not because of any systemic fault but because of the inept and corrupt men who happen to come and work the system.