Mumbai: Max push for Maximum City

The maximum city sends all six Shiv Sena-BJP MPs for the second time after 2014 on Thursday. Being a part of the winning coalition gives the Mumbai MPs a newfound opportunity to raise issues that Mumbai is grappling within the Parliament. DNA has asked experts in the field of railways, mass public education, transport and civic issues on the kind of problems that the newly elected lawmakers should raise for Mumbai.

Experts explain how some of these issues are crucial for the residents in and around the city. As it is going to be the second term for most of the parliamentarians from the city, they are aware of some of the issues which would require their attention in the next five years.

Experts point out how there is need to ensure proper walkable footpaths as per specifications of Indian Road Congress. Currently there is neither safe road crossings for pedestrians nor motorists pay heed to traffic rules.

Experts also point out how they expect the newly elected MPs to meet commuter and passenger associations regularly so as to take feedback on the current situation plaguing the Mumbai suburban trains.

They also suggested that the MP's should join hands with citizens, thinktanks and look at developing Mumbai.

Also Read: Mumbai: Activists feel MPs should regularly seek feedback from citizens

Health: Healthcare system needs to be strengthened and expanded

Dr Abhijit More, co-convenor of the Jan Arogya Abhiyaan

Following are some of the policies and areas where the parliamentarians can focus in the next five years. 

Right to healthcare: Make the right to healthcare a justiciable right. This must be accompanied by public health legislation which ensures people's access to a range of health determinants and protection from health-harming influences. These should contribute to the process of making health and healthcare as fundamental rights in the Indian Constitution.

Policy direction for healthcare for all: Expand and strengthen the public healthcare system to ensure quality and availability of healthcare appropriate to primary, secondary and tertiary level, entirely free of user fees and provide universal access to the entire range of essential drugs and diagnostics at the public facility with a matching human resource policy and much better governance and management. Such strengthening may require supplementation by referral for select services to private providers, often specialists where these have not been possible to arrange in-house. 

Budget: Increase substantially the public expenditure on health, financed primarily through general taxation, to 3.5% of GDP (this would be annually around Rs. 4,000 per capita, at current rates, as recommended by the National Health Policy-2017) in next 5 years, with at least 60% of the expenditure being borne by the Centre and 40% by states. 

Free medicines and diagnostics: The Government of India should guarantee access to all essential and life-saving medicines and diagnostics in all public facilities across the country.

Transport: Netas, citizens need to join hands to put the city on 'track'

AV Shenoy, member, Mumbai Mobility Forum

The newly elected MPs should focus on both infrastructure and transport as a whole which can bring about a change in Mumbai. To begin with, there is an urgent need to create an Integrated Road Transport Authority for Mumbai. This is of utmost urgency as it would create an umbrella body for monitoring and improving the public transport at large.

There is already a body called Unified Mumbai Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMMTA) which however doesn't have clear-cut mandate to take decisions on all forms of public transport. For instance, the suburban railways are out of their purview. The UMMTA should be made as a constitutional body like MahaRERA to act as Regulator for transportation in Mumbai and other urban centres. The BEST needs urgent revamp. The government should ensure that the General Manager of BEST Undertaking has expertise on transport. The new MPs can look into this as BEST Committee is run by political representatives.

The revamp of BEST committee should be done as well and induct transport experts from outside who specialize in fields of Finance, Transport, IT, Electricity and Marketing. This will enable a more serious attempt at reviving the BEST with technical inputs from all corners. Only the BEST Committee chairman can be a corporator. Also, cheaper options of public transport can be introduced — dedicated bus lanes on congested roads. Such lanes should be given 'Right of Way' to buses which will automatically increase the number of daily commuters. This is better than spending crores on Metro rail.

BMC: Parliamentarians from city must prioritise ease of living

Dr Neville Mehta, CEO, Mumbai First 

As a Mumbaikar, I always feel that Mumbai should be the best city in India and be an example for other cities to emulate, a city which is not just about ease of doing business but more importantly focussed on ease of living. The city is still plagued with major civic issues and needs a major re-planning with a new vision and dedication. 

The MPs from the city can not shrug off these responsibilities, putting its onus just on the MLA's and corporators as people have elected the MP's to power too and they need to play an active role in being a voice for improving civic amenities and overall development of Mumbai. The MP's should join hands with citizens, think tanks and look at developing Mumbai and this planning cannot be done just for the next five years but keeping in mind the next twenty years. Water shortage, potholes ridden roads, flooding every year, rising air pollution, struggling to manage its own garbage and lack of proper and ample toilets is a shame for a city like Mumbai, which is the financial capital of India and aims at being one of the top global cities. Our buses run by BEST undertaking and public transportation is in a mess, we will have Metro rail in a few years but the last mile connectivity for commuters is nowhere being thought about. The MP's need to take the voice of the citizens seriously and look at how they can contribute to bringing in funds from Central government and using their own MP funds judiciously for the betterment of citizens. The key focus has to be on making Mumbai water sufficient, good roads and pedestrian facilities, seeking help from the Centre if needed to get funds for BEST, mass housing.

Railway: Denizens expect less congestion, safer rail journey

Madhu Kotian, President, Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh 

Mumbaikars expect less crowd and congestion at railway stations and preventive measures to minimise deaths on tracks. The Bhartiya Janta Party primarily won because of their motto of developing the country. And so we expect that in the next five years the MPs too should focus on expediting the ongoing rail projects and push those which are in pipeline.

These include the Mumbai Urban Transport Project – that has two phases MUTP-3 and MUTP-3A – which will, for sure, change the face of suburban rail transport in Mumbai and its metropolitan region. The MPs should personally look into these two multi-crore projects and do constant follow-ups with the Indian Railways and ensure that it is being implemented properly.

Recently the Railway ministry passed over Rs 33,000 crore for MUTP-3A. We expect that the rail authorities here make every use of this humongous amount cleared, and start with work on MUTP-3A as soon as possible. This will be the second consecutive term for many of our MPs and so they would be well aware of these projects as well. Plus the demand from local railway passenger associations and commuters at large. Moreover, the MPs should stress on getting more trains especially for those travelling from ends of the suburban rail system.

There are 80 lakh plus people travelling daily on our suburban local trains. These measures will help them.

Education: MPs should focus on improving public schools

Ramesh Joshi, education expert, chairman of Brihanmumbai Mahapalika Shikshak Sabha

Right To Education (RTE) is the basic right which we expect the Member of Parliament (MP) to work on and care for free education till class 8. The MPs are encouraging private school education more than the public school education program. Currently, we can see that since a few years, there has been a growth of private education system in comparison to the public education system.

In the next five years, the elected MPs should give more attention and look after the improvement of the public education system. It is the responsibility of the government to pay attention to the growth of government school and public education set up rather than activist coming forward and raising the issue of decline in the growth of public education system.

The newly elected MPs should increase the quality of public education. Good quality of education does mean that the students should know to speak fluent English, it is about students should be able to express themselves, gain knowledge and be confident. Once the state government's education minister had stated that there is a trend in the education system where students are getting transferred from private schools to public schools. The MPs should work on maintaining the trend and must encourage parents to enrol their kids in public schools. While the fees structure of private schools is high but the quality is decreasing. Public schools too have extra activities like music, arts, physical education but people fail to recognise it. The number of public schools and vernacular schools is decreasing. Rather than encouraging private schools, the MPs should focus on improving the public and vernacular schools.

• 80 Lakh The number of people  who commute daily on our suburban local train network in city.
• 24 million Is the estimated population of Mumbai.  The city contributed 32% of overall tax to exchequer.

Health

The public expenditure on health, financed primarily through general taxation should be hiked to 3.5% of the GDP. Ideally, 60% of the expenditure should be borne by the Centre and 40% by states. 

Transport

The BEST Committee is run by political representatives, it should have transport experts. There should be dedicated bus lanes on congested roads. MPs should set up a separate Parking Authority for Mumbai.

BMC

The city is still plagued with major civic issues and needs a major re-planning with a new vision and dedication. MPs  and their political parties cannot shrug off responsibilities.

Railways

More than 80 lakh people  commute daily on our suburban local trains. It becomes necessary for the MPs to ensure these commuters are safe  and the city’s ‘lifeline’ (local trains) functions smoothly.

Education

It is the responsibility of the government to pay attention to the growth of government school system rather than activist coming forward and raising the issue of decline in the growth of public education system.