Get your aangan from BMC on lease, deck it up.
MUMBAI: “The biggest problem faced by Mumbaikars is the growing population of hawkers and slum dwellers who have taken over the streets and pavements... It is very difficult to shift them, and it is simply impossible for the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai to protect all streets and pavements.”
These opening lines of former municipal commissioner Karun Srivastava’s letter, which had been circulated among municipal ward officers in December 2002, may sound like a candid confession by a man heading a municipal corporation with a mammoth budget, but it also packed in it a solution to the problem, conceptualised in two words—Saaf Aangan.
Eighty-year-old former Flight Lieutenant from the Indian Air Force (IAF) Madhu Sawant’s years of correspondence with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for implementation of a citizen-friendly scheme to stop encroachments and maintain cleanliness finally bore fruit when Srivastava praised his idea and directed all the assistant municipal commissioners to clear applications under Sawant’s scheme within seven days.
Sawant conceptualised a scheme to keep the area around one’s office, home or shop clean by leasing it from the BMC on an annual basis.
“I simply observed what prevented me from enjoying a walk on a pavement meant for me. Citizens cry hoarse over the hawkers on pavements returning to the spot barely a few hours after the demolition and squarely blame the BMC. I thought; why not work on an idea that lets citizens take matters in their own hands. It’s their pavement after all,” said Sawant.
“It does not take much. All you need is to make an application to your local ward office and shell out Rs3 to get a right to prevent encroachment and develop the space around your premises the way you want,” said Sawant whose Saaf Aangan scheme has been implemented in many suburban housing societies and all the 84 police stations in the city.
“They (BMC) just cannot help us every day. Every one must make a minimum possible effort to deserve a clean environment. The hawkers unite and even go the Supreme Court. What do we, the taxpayers, do to assert our right to a clean environment? This is the least one can do,” said Sawant.
The uniqueness of the concept in comparison to the Advanced Locality Management (ALM) and other citizen-oriented approaches is that anyone, even an individual, can take the initiative.
“Even a licensed paanwala can apply to the municipal ward office to get the area around his stall on lease,” added Sawant.
What’s Saaf Aangan?
Aangan means the space in front of your residence, shop or workplace (from the boundary if any) to the centre of the road including the footpath (if any).
To avail the scheme, send a written application describing the location of the area and how you plan to maintain it. For instance, keeping flower pots, flower beds, provided they do not obstruct vehicular traffic.
The trees in the area must be painted in three bands: white, brown, white (in that order).
Case in point
The N-Dutta Marg ALM in Andheri (west) has used the concept to keep their road free of hawkers. This road adjoining the bustling Four Bungalows Road is lined by painted trees and has flower beds next to the boundary walls of all the 35 residential complexes on it.
“This road had many hawkers before we adopted it under the Saaf Aangan scheme,” said Alexandrina Aiyar of the N-Dutta Marg ALM. “We tried telling them to vacate, but they didn’t budge. We then approached the BMC’s K-west ward office which introduced us to the ALM concept and the Saaf Aangan scheme and the result is for everyone to see.”
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