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For Mumbai's civic woes, there can be no better solution than Mayor-in-Council

It was one of the few instances where a much-bragged-about policy, that was put into practice over the Opposition's protests, was withdrawn in just two years' time, not by the next government but the same one that had, only a few months ago, declared that there was no going back. The mayor-in-council system, which was the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party's election promise during the 1997 civic elections, has been dumped in a more unceremonious manner than its originator, former chief minister Manohar Joshi.

It is obvious to me, as a citizen of Mumbai who has had a little experience in dealing with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, that whatever be the rationale behind finding the scheme untenable, it was not guided by what is good for the crore or so estimated to be dependent on the whims and fancies of the civic body for a peaceful livelihood.

And the problems for the common citizen are numerous, and contrary to publicity brochures begin with owning a pokey little apartment somewhere in the suburbs. Despite the best efforts of the misruling alliance in Maharashtra, Mumbai continues to attract homeless, luckless, jobless hordes, whose needs - the basic of which is shelter, water, drainage - are met by the municipal corporation, as is the case with any urban excrescence anywhere. The task is daunting at the best of times, and is made no easier by the authorities who take it that their job is the exact reverse of what it is meant to be.

The Bombay municipal corporation is often referred to as the most cash-rich civic body in the country, as well as the oldest, its budget outstripping that of some states of the Indian Union. The corporation elections take place every five years, from among who the mayor, the first citizen, is chosen every year. Yet, barring a ward development fund, the corporators have no power over the decisions of the civic body, which are taken by the municipal commissioner, a bureaucrat who reports to the state government. In a larger context, this is like the elected members of Parliament having no executive powers, and the only thing they can do is to spend their MP's fund.

Now, as a model of governance this may have suited Mumbai 30 years ago, or still suits some smaller metro. It does not take into consideration the unique problems faced by the local citizenry, all of which have revolved around the corporation. Let me try and explain from experience how it works.

Mumbai must have the biggest concentration of residential buildings, whose plans, construction etc are all approved by the corporation. Yet, chances are when one buys a flat in the city, he will be residing in a building that does not have an occupation certificate, permanent water connection, a building that is levied a higher assessment tax, and one that does have even a cooperative housing society, all of which is the builder's responsibility before handing over the flat to the buyer. Yet, the defaulting builder goes scot-free, while it is the poor resident who has to bear the building's burden.

The first step for getting all this on his own, he realises, is to register a cooperative housing society, which becomes virtually impossible without the builder's cooperation. The only way around this - again, I speak from experience - is to grease palms in the registrar's office, which could drain the residents' kitty by at least Rs 20,000. But the fun part starts from here. Emboldened by this 'success', the residents now approach the corporation for a reduction in their water tax, assessment tax, permanent water connection, and are told that all this is possible on getting the Occupation Certificate from the buildings proposal department.

Which, I am told, is the biggest money-spinner in the civic body. An ordinary clerk here is estimated to earn in the region of Rs 50,000 outside his meagre salary. When the building residents approach the authorities, starts the merry-go-round. No-Objection Certificates are sought from some five other departments, whose officials in turn tell you cannot be done since the building does not have an OC to start with. Ultimately, it is a matter of how much you can pay, the going rate for OC being upwards of Rs 1 lakh. So the residents bleed to death, through a higher levy of tax, through slush money paid to civic officials, through sheer harassment from the assessment, water departments, all for the sole fault of dreaming an apartment in Mumbai, all under the aegis of the municipal corporation which is actually to regulate life within the city's boundaries.

The local corporator, for whom one casts votes, is powerless under the traditional system. He knows his constituents - to who he will have to go to them every five years to solicit votes -- are in deep shit, and yet he can do nothing to help them out. This is what the Mayor-in-Council intended to rectify.

This, to me, was the solution that Mumbai's harried citizens had been waiting for, praying for. In my knowledge, in my neighbourhood, at least 10 buildings, whose residents had been ramming their heads against the civic rockface for almost a decade, were given OC when the local corporator, who under the M-i-C system was the local civic boss, got the officials to process the files forthwith. I also know of buildings, which were on the verge of getting their OC etc, that are back to square one since the city reverted to the traditional system.

The point here is not who is the boss, who has the power, but which system is serving democracy better. On one hand is the officialdom that is fattening itself on the woes of the citizenry, that does little to tackle the people's problems, and instead has become a problem in itself. On the other hand is the elected corporator who has little power to address his constituents' woes. If a tax-paying resident is served better under the latter system, why is it being dumped?

By jettisoning the M-i-C under pressure from the bureaucracy, the Maharashtra government has, in my opinion, shown that it does not care a whit for the citizen. Soon, it will be time for the latter to show that he does not care for this government either.

Saisuresh Sivaswamy