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Mumbai deserves more

The BMC designed a training ground for elected representatives for the city to participate in the local governance of Mumbai.

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SS Tinaikar

The BMC, as it was constituted, designed a training ground for elected representatives for the city to participate in the local governance of Mumbai. The civic body continues to be that even today.

However, in the last three decades with the assistance of World Bank, huge water supply projects and sewage projects were taken up which involved huge outlay, inviting international tenders and execution of contracts on a time-bound basis.

This was started in 1972 and throughout up till now, the corporation has neither been able to deliver on time nor supervise effectively the contracts that are worth thousands of crores. Politically, the state government — whether it also controls the BMC or not — has continued to take interest in development works in Mumbai.

Special schemes and special laws for implementation of schemes like the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), or construction of flyovers, which are completely controlled by the state government and more particularly the Chief Minister, has undertaken the responsibility for Mumbai’s development. 

In addition, the planning of the metro region of Mumbai, which is spread over nearly 400sqm and the final approval to the development plan of Greater Mumbai by the state government, is a very powerful instrument in the hands of the state to interfere with what once was exclusively the preserve of the BMC or its allied body called Bombay Improvement Trust (BIT).

In the process, the state government directly takes over functions of the local body. And the Centre, through the Railways, and other infrastructural facilities like airport development, had to take keen interest in the development of Greater Mumbai.

The state government and local authorities, mainly the BMC, interacted in such a manner that the exact function of the local body has been mainly confined to water supply, cleaning of streets, garbage removal and taking steps for maintenance of good roads, primary education and health services.

Yet since the population of Greater Mumbai constitutes nearly 12 per cent of state and because of the immense concentration of wealth in terms of the many central offices of corporate sector located in this region, the civic election becomes a precursor and sets the tone of Assembly and Parliamentary elections.

No other city has got such a vital role in the management of state and central governance. Since Mumbai is the commercial capital,  it can’t be treated as a mere local body to be managed by local government called municipal corporation. The stakes involved go far beyond that.

The writer is a former municipal commissioner

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