People have given their verdict. The Congress-NCP combine has won the Maharashtra election defeating the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. DNA talks to citizens to find out what they expect from the new government
Proper communication must, need to avoid bureaucratic delays
Civic infrastructure does not come under the purview of the state government. In the municipal corporation, elected corporators look after their respective wards. Nevertheless, there are a few issues which are interlinked and can expedite or slacken the process of development of the city. For example, the state agency MMRDA is ideally not supposed to look into matters of the city. But its area of work is now overlapping with the municipal corporation due to the lack of proper communication. This is now leading to delays in infrastructure development in the city. Therefore, the new government should try to separate the two and avoid getting into a bureaucratic muddle. If they need to interact a proper mechanism must be created.
—Indrani Malkani
The condition of the city is quite pathetic. Cleanliness and greenery have not been paid attention at all. In most cases, the government has failed to implement the various ideas that they had planned to work on. A classic example could be the rule which makes it mandatory for all buildings to have proper water harvesting system and solar power generation system. The recommendation was great but the execution was miserable. In fact, even the Slum Rehabilitation Agency or Mhada flats did not comply with these conditions. The open spaces and mangroves in the city too remained neglected. It's been reiterated several times that mangroves prevent flooding and absorb the pollutants in the environment. So, steps should be taken to protect the natural vegetation that we possess.
The encroachment by hawkers and migrants too has been contributing largely to ruining the beauty of the city. The government can setup a municipal market, similar to a mall, to accommodate the hawkers and small shopkeepers. This will help in providing more open spaces in a crowded city like Mumbai and providing employment opportunities to them.
— Neera Punj, convener, Citispace
Multi-ethnic culture should not be jeopardised
The security of the state should be top priority. Mumbai is precious to the whole of country and measures need to be taken to eliminate the vulnerability of this city to terror attacks. The efforts taken by home minister P Chidambaram to make the country a safe place to reside in are worth appreciating, but more needs to be done. State government should include security in its manifesto. It will be too early to comment on the capabilities of the Force One commandos. The fact that this force has been setup is commendable. We cannot forget that after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, we are still in the process of retraining our commandos and police personnel. Efforts have to be made to motivate the police and make them capable of handling any crisis. Several generic problems such as corruption and low salary too need to be taken care of. The new government should chart out a plan covering all these issues.Moreover, with the MNS winning a few seats in the polls, the attacks on migrants may further increase. So, the police needs to be vigilant to tackle any such emergency. The crime rate in the state also needs to be brought down. A secure environment should be created for senior citizens and women in the society. Now that a political combine has secured majority of votes, they should concentrate on the law and order situation.
— MN Singh, Former police chief
Making Mumbai a place for the Marathi manoos has been a prominent feature of the poll campaigning . This may be an individual opinion, but it is certainly not what the majority of the residents feel. Mumbai has been a cosmopolitan city. Perhaps that is the reason why it attracts people from all over. The sheer warmth that the city offers makes it worth living.
As far as the views expressed in the campaigning are concerned, India is a free country and everyone has the right to freedom of expression. Having said that, their views may not necessarily be the truth. In fact, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that the ground reality is miles away from what politicians actually state. Their slogans and speeches may sound passionate but that does not change the reality that Mumbai belongs to everyone.
The city is the financial capital of the country and contributes largely to the nation by means of income tax. So, it is only natural for people to get attracted to this place. The city too offers job opportunities, thus alluring the educated as well as the labour class. Undisputably, this has added to city’s woes as close to 55% of the city’s population resides in slums. This makes it essential for the government to improve the standard of living for the Mumbaikars rather than fighting over their descent.
— Javed Akhtar, Eminent citizen
Health sector is the responsibility of citizens too
The government has not addressed the problems and concerns of public charitable trusts at all. As all the members of the association of hospitals are public charitable sickbays, the government needs to solve their grievances as well.
During monsoon, every year there is an outbreak of diseases such as malaria, jaundice and typhoid. This underlines the fact that we need to work towards improving the drainage system. Besides, the citizens also need to inculcate basic civic sense. The system can only work when the public as well as the government work together. People need to get over their habit of spitting and urinating in public places. Basic hygiene needs to be taken care of. Why do we need people to remind us to cover our nose and mouth while coughing or sneezing? In areas where there is water scarcity, we can have dry toilets. The concept has proved to be quite effective in China. Our country is lagging behind in health sector owing to the callousness of both public as well as government.
— Dr Sujit Chatterjee, CEO, LH Hiranandani hospital
Despite several changes in the state government, there has rarely been a review of the state curriculum or a revamp of the syllabus. The government should try to mould our education system to the practical world. This can be done by employing faculty members who have on-field experience. Also, bringing in guest speakers who can give students an idea about the functioning of the professional industries can prove to be of great help. The recent decisions such as online admissions and ATKT rule were apparently taken keeping the holistic development of the students in mind. To improve the literacy rate, the state education should be funded and monitored adequately.This will help boost the standard of education. Parents who cannot afford educating their kids should be introduced to the various schemes introduced by the government. Like China and USA, we need to enforce compulsory education up to the age of 16. Organisations that use child labourers should be penalised severely.
— Supriya Atal, Educationist, faculty with a leading international school
Measures must be taken to tackle overcrowding
By merely implementing big budget projects does not mean that the transportation issues of Mumbai and the metropolitan region have been solved. The centre of focus should be the overcrowded local trains which record close to 4,000 fatalities annually. Trains should ideally run with its design capacity of 200 passengers per coach.
The traffic woes of the city too need quick redressal. By the decision to provide more space for cars, the congestion and pollution levels have only increased. The government should realise that the 146.5 km long metro rail, despite costing more than Rs60,000 crore and taking 20-25 years for the completion of the project, will be able to fulfill only 30% of the current requirement. Simply put, this means a fatality figure of about 1,00,000 plus the several persons who get disabled in such mishaps. Ideally, monorail must be scrapped as it has a very little capacity, speed, high cost and period of implementation. The Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) can easily help solve the issues of the growing population.
— Sudhir Badami, transportation analyst
The municipal corporation in the city is completely under political influence. Moreover, we have a planning authority which does not believe in integrated planning. As a result, there is no accountability. Most of the projects are directed towards helping the government and the contractors rather than towards the development of the city. Earlier, there was some hope of development in the real estate sector. But eventually the promoters themselves became victims of Transferable Development Rights (TDR), encroachment and fraudulent real estate exploitation. Today, TDR is used as a commodity and not as a planning tool. For instance, slum TDR is supposed to facilitate the SRA project. Instead,
the slums have rapidly mushroomed from 40% to 60% in the last decade. What the government has been lacking in so far is the right intent. Let's hope that the new government takes these issues into account before planning their next move. The government procedures need to be more
transparent.
—Nitin Killawala, architect
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