BMC cannot clear the muck in the city without citizens’ help, and they have made it official.
If you want tax sops or the privilege of self-assessing various charges from BMC, help the civic body in keeping the city clean.
BMC cannot clear the muck in the city without citizens’ help, and they have made it official. On April 21, they launched a scheme of involving citizens through a charter that urged the setting up of Local Area Citizens’ Group (LACG).
“Citizens groups will be the formal partner of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) through a sustainable institutional mechanism in micro-planning, monitoring implementation, awareness creation and feedback so as to help MCGM better fulfil its mandatory obligations towards providing civic services and infrastructure, finding optimal solutions for various civic related matters, as well as assisting MCGM in its role in disaster management in every local area,” reads the notification.
In a city like Mumbai, it is difficult to get voluntary participation in civic work without promising benefits for the participants, and the BMC knows it.
“We are developing various reward schemes for citizens, which will include facilities like self-assessment of all payable BMC taxes for societies or individual properties — there cannot be a higher privilege than this. But it will be based strictly on performance and monitored closely,” said officer on special duty (solid waste and environment) Prakash Sanglikar.
Other benefits would include green channels for payment of various taxes so that members of a better performing LACG would not have to stand in queues. “Deadlines for them can be extended and there can also be free collection from home,” he said.
The city is likely to be divided in 2000 LACGs, geographic area of each will be suggested by the assistant commissioner of the ward. Each LACG will have a unique number assigned to it by BMC, which would denote a particular group.
A nodal officer would be appointed at every ward with a chief nodal officer at the civic headquarters to coordinate the activities of LACGs.
LACGs that form a cooperative society would be authorised to enter into an Agency Agreement under which they could act as agents of BMC in collection and keep administrative charges or user fees as agents of MCGM in lieu of penalties from offenders.
LACGs would also implement local schemes and plans of an area and would get paid for services like disaster management, conducting surveys, reporting and monitoring various development activities.
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