GR Vora also adds that the discontinuing of ALM meeting is also the reason behind a spurt in encroachments, unauthorised constructions, unhygienic conditions, and other law violations
While civic activists have welcomed the decision to revive Advanced Locality Management (ALM) system in all 24 Municipal Wards, they want the meetings to move beyond just discussing waste segregation initiatives.
Welcoming the move, Sion based civic activist GR Vora in a letter written to Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi on Friday urged that it should be ensured that civic officials should not restrict these meetings to waste segregation initiatives but include all local civic issues such as bad roads, encroachments, unauthorised constructions, garbage on streets, overflowing drains, cleanliness and others in the agenda of the meetings as mandated in the revised ALM Rules of 2012.
"The ALM meetings should be held in the right spirit, something that used to happen when Ratnakar Gaikwad was the additional municipal commissioner for Eastern Suburbs. "The meetings were taken very seriously and after every meeting action is taken reports by officials were discussed. However over a period of time, civic officials reduced this important meeting to simply discussing garbage segregation," said Vora adding that while garbage segregation and waste management issues are important but it cannot be at the cost of other crucial civic issues.
Vora also added that the discontinuing of ALM meeting is also the reason behind a spurt in encroachments, unauthorised constructions, unhygienic conditions, and other law violations.
Meanwhile, Harish Pandey, convenor of Local Area Citizen Committee (LACC) for Ward number one from Dahisar said that while ALM meetings have discontinued, they have continued to have LACC meetings, which has proved extremely productive in resolving citizens issues.
Anil Joseph, chairman, Perry Road Residents' Association who has been part of the ALM meetings since 2003 said that back then ALM meetings used to happen once in three months at H/West ward. "Currently there are ALM and resident association meeting called by H/west ward once in six months. We feel that having these meetings bi-monthly or once in three months would make sense not only for ward officials but also for citizens seeking accountability and getting their issues resolved," he said adding that however these meeting will have to be then taken very seriously and attended by all concerned ward officials without fail to make it successful.
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