Define our roles clearly, ALMs demand of BMC

The new-found greenery and cleanliness in certain areas of the city is thanks to advanced locality managements (ALMs). Last week, DNA brought these citizen groups under the Conversations umbrella to come up with more ideas about how they can make a difference to the city.

ALM representatives interact with BMC officials once a month at the ward office level to take up civic issues like solid waste management, pest control and maintenance of gardens.

At Conversations, while ALMs’ success stories were lauded, there was also criticism of the bodies lacking proper structure and governance. A clear demand emerged from the session: ALMs need to have a policy defining their role in the overall civic setup.

The ALMs highlighted several problems: lack of open spaces, slum encroachment, lack of cooperation from the BMC, lack of a proper mechanism for coordination, apathy of the ‘educated’ classes, and citizen activism as a result of compulsion rather than conviction. The BMC, on the other hand, felt that though it will look into the matter, ALMs need to organise themselves into more efficient administrative setups to yield better results.