Mumbai’s Transformation – Citizens Connect

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Cooperation (BMC) has exciting new projects planned to develop Mumbai. As citizens eagerly await the improvement of roads, footpaths, waste-management, heritage sites and other infrastructure in Mumbai, V Citizens Action Network (VCAN) organised a discussion to allow citizens to interact with the Municipal Commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) concerning these upcoming projects, at the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, on 27th November, 2019.

The programme aimed to provide a direct citizens interaction, and clear all doubts and concerns, with Shri. Praveen Singh Pardeshi, Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai.

The Social Sanchar began with the welcome address by Mrs. Indrani Malkani, Chairman VCAN, on behalf of BMC and VCAN and she gave a brief introduction about VCAN and BMC. An informative video outlined the role of the BMC, and the different areas in which it is involved, from education to roadwork. The video also highlighted the importance of the BMC, as it serves a city as large and populous as Mumbai.

Mrs. Malkani emphasised the unique nature of this Social Sanchar. Not only was it the first time there had been such an open interaction with the Municipal Commissioner at such a session, but was also the 5th anniversary of VCAN’s Social Sanchar sessions. Started on 27th November, 2014, the Social Sanchar sessions have been connecting citizens to statutory authorities for the past five years.

Mrs. Malkani expressed her gratitude towards VCAN’s Web Portal’s founding partner, Eureka Forbes; VCAN’s Social Sanchar’s venue partner, the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, as well as VCAN’s technology partner Teknowlegion and video technology partner April Broadcast; colleagues and networking partners and friends in the media, who enabled VCAN to take their work forward. She particularly mentioned how VCAN’s biggest strength lies with their college partner Jai Hind College and thanked the students for their ready help and support.

Mrs. Malkani then introduced the five trustees of VCAN including Mr. V. Ranganathan, who was the former Chief Secretary of Maharashtra State, and invited him to introduce the Guest Speaker Shri. Pardeshi. As an IAS officer, Shri. Pardeshi has served as the District Collector for Latur and later as the Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister. During his stint as the District Collector of Latur, his rehabilitation work post the 1993 earthquake had been lauded. The same work also got him a senior position at the UN, working on post conflict rehabilitation and disaster prevention mechanisms.

To view a brief profile of Shri. Praveen Pardeshi click here

Following the introduction, Mrs. Malkani emphasised that we all have a unique relationship with our Municipality! There are multiple issues, and challenges.

The most important challenge, though, is understanding our Role and Responsibilities as Citizens and for the Officers in the Municipality on how to Engage and Connect with Citizens!

Shri. Pardeshi by way of his opening remarks, presented the work of the BMC in a few areas of concern.

Housing for all –

Shri. Pardeshi’s presentation echoed the housing problems within Mumbai. Unknown to many, out of Mumbai’s large area of 475 square kilometers, around 70% of the area is covered by mangroves and green areas, that is including only real wilderness and not artificial parks. With only 29% (142 square kilometers) available for residential area, Mumbai’s population of 15 million natural struggles to fit in. This paucity of space has resulted in 70 lakh citizens being pushed into slum dwellings, with people often forgetting the need to provide cheap housing for the underprivileged. Mumbai is also troubled by several dilapidated buildings that need urgent restoration. The problem of dilapidated buildings is one which arose from older laws that provided tenant security, thus reducing the incentive for landlords to improve the building’s condition. In response to this housing crisis, the BMC is working towards providing housing for all and to help restore dilapidated buildings.

Roads –

As an island city, Mumbai has only 11% of its area under road networks, as compared to other cities like New York that boast as much as 33% of their area dedicated to streets and roads. The reason for Mumbai’s few and narrow streets is the colonial pipeline network set up under these roadways. Electricity connections, OFC cables and gas pipelines all contribute to the complex underground system built beneath Mumbai’s roads. These roads hence can rarely be replaced with livable space and vice versa, in order to accommodate the underground network. Furthermore, with 50% of Mumbai’s land area under private open spaces, expanding or changing road networks becomes even more unfeasible and problematic for the government. Instead, Shri. Pardeshi urged the importance of looking outward by means of the coastal road initiative. Citing many fast-developing cities like UAE and Netherlands, Shri. Pardeshi pointed to why these countries are making rapid use of their seas- in order to better utilise space and in to keep the coastline intact. A coastal road would act as a landfill and protect mangroves against the threat of a receding coastline and hence against rising sea levels. In lieu of these necessary benefits, Shri. Pardeshi questioned the blind opposition to the coastal road initiative, and urged audience members and citizens to collaborate with the BMC to allow this project to succeed.

Potholes –

When it comes to dealing with complaints regarding streets and footpaths, Shri. Pardeshi assured that the BMC is working towards remaining vigilant under all circumstances. The MyBMC Pothole Fixit app allows citizens to report potholes to the BMC and have them fixed immediately. The third-party ratings of the app also verify that such concerns are being swiftly addressed by the BMC. However, once again, Shri. Pardeshi stressed the real problem in this situation was not the potholes themselves, and hence filling the potholes is but a preliminary step. Rather, the BMC is looking at long-term solutions. The underlying reason behind the frequency of potholes is the heavy rains that drain directly into the sea, with poor roads that have a capacity to take not more than 25 mm of rainwater. Furthermore, the digging and reinstating of roads to insert new cables and wires weakens these roads. The solution proposed by the BMC is multifaceted and entails building roads with a capacity of 100 mm water, re-engineering new roads, moving utilities like gas and OFC cables to the side of these new roads rather than directly under them, and building better storm water drainage systems.

Climate Change –

While Mumbai boasts more than 55 lakh naturally growing trees (nearly 9 times the number of trees found in New York City), Mumbai remains one of the most polluted cities in the world. A large reason behind this is the use of personal vehicles. In order to deal with this, the BMC is increasing public transport access and facilities, hoping to shift the use of public transport from 35% of the population to 60% of the population. This will be done by reducing fares of the BEST and purchasing new buses that are run by private fleets rather than the unionised BEST, hence making them cheaper and more efficient. The BEST Pravas app allows users to see delays in bus timings and hence provides greater accountability. Shri. Pardeshi also pointed out that a reason for the inefficiencies of public transport like BEST is due to owners of personal vehicles using public spaces as parking slots and hence delaying movement of buses. As an alternative to congestion fees, the BMC is planning to introduce a 10,000 rupee fine for such disruptive parking.

Moreover, green spaces can be better maintained in the city if they are contracted out to private entities, who can truly care for and grow these gardens. Using the Miyawaki plantation technique and increasing plantations of ethnic trees, is helping in expanding the greenery in Mumbai.

Water Supply –

Mumbai sources its water from more than 400 kilometers away, with residential water being heavily subsidised. In order to further improve Mumbai’s water supply, the BMC is attempting to work on water treatment and recycling of faecal water for use in toilets and non-potable use.

On the issue of flooding, the BMC is working with experts from the Japanese government on improved flood management technology and diverting more intense rainfall per day, a result of climate change.

Advance Locality Management (ALM) –

The MCGM’s ALM scheme is to be revived to allow for greater involvement of the citizens in the efficient implementation of BMC policies regarding waste management. In order to issue greater authority to the ALMs, the BMC has drafted a policy that allowed societies that recycle waste to get a 5% reduction in property tax. ALMs have been empowered to verify and authorise these tax cuts themselves. Mrs. Malkani also suggested later that ALMs should report to ward officers, a system that allows for better coordination on local issues between the Municipal workers and the citizens.

Education –

Mr. Pardeshi focused on the need to improve learning outcomes for public school children in order to ensure better academic performance. While public school teachers are usually better paid than other local school teachers, students continue to perform poorly due to less emphasis on these important learning goals. The BMC is having learning outcomes, teacher’s performance reviewed by independent institutions like Pratham, in order to ensure this improvement. Another solution proposed would push teachers to improve teaching methods by holding student performance reviews in front of School Management Committees (SMCs), that would include parents. Small improvements like having the teachers know the students by their names, promises to go a long way in bettering Mumbai’s municipal schools.

To view the full presentation** as shown during the Social Sanchar of Shri. Praveen Pardeshi click here

After addressing these issues in great detail, the floor was opened to questions from in-house audience members as well as questions via SMS and Twitter.

Before moving on to the citizen interaction, Mrs. Malkani expressed her appreciation of Mr. Pardeshi’s deep commitment and interest to wildlife conservation and environmental protection, himself being a wildlife enthusiast.

Mrs. Malkani conveyed that a large number of questions have already been received, so all questions may not be possible to be addressed at the Social Sanchar. However, all questions will be on passed to Shri. Pardeshi and once the answers are received from his office, all will then be posted on VCAN’s web portal. Shri Pardeshi may also directly answer on twitter, if he so desires.

The citizen interaction began with multifaceted questions being raised. For this particular session a record number of questions had already been received and more emerged as the interaction progressed. To each of the queries raised, Shri Praveen Pardeshi replied in great detail.

Please see the video and hear Shri. Pardeshi directly.

The Q & A session starts from the 60th minute onward.

To view the video of the event, click here

Some of the key questions related to some vexatious issues are shared.

To a question about the removal of encroachment and hawkers on pavements, Shri. Pardeshi illuminated the audience about the Town Vendor policy that restricts places allowed for hawking, thereby ensuring that narrow streets are not encroached upon by hawkers. While out of 90,000 BMC surveyed hawkers only 19,000 follow these regulations, the BMC has alternate solutions as well. Shri. Pardeshi compassionately emphasised that dealing with encroachments in a brutal manner is both unfeasible and inhumane, as these pavements do provide job spaces for hawkers. One proposed solution is to require private builders to give out a corner shop or small spaces for hawkers to carry out their business instead of on pavements. Municipal markets constructed to provide hawkers with a space to sell their wares are also a viable solution. However, these markets remain underused in status quo, with customers buying goods sold on the ground floor but ignoring the top floors, forcing those hawkers to return to the footpaths. While this harm can be counteracted by allowing hawkers to sell wares of different kinds and allowing them to diversify, the onus also falls on employed citizens to ensure that these markets succeed by using them and buying from them, rather than simply resorting to the nearest pavement.

Concerns about wheelchair accessibility on footpaths and public transport also came up. While Shri. Pardeshi conceded that he had not had a chance to look at non-motorist transport and their functioning yet, he assured the audience member that the BMC will look into the issue, and ensure that inconveniences like space-consuming roundabouts around trees are removed and accessibility ensured.

Worries about dengue preventions were dealt with swiftly by ensuring that BMC has a program for the inspection of all stored water areas. The BMC also reviews all patient histories in hospitals to trace back the possible water source of dengue cases and prevent the same from recurring. Dengue prevention also relies on citizens remaining aware and take notice of possible dengue sources and report the same to the BMC.

At the end of the Q & A, an in-house audience member made it a point to thank Shri. Pardeshi for taking cognizance of the need for better cycling tracks and the upcoming median cycling track being built alongside the metro.

The Session ended with Shri. Pardeshi showing three heartwarming videos about some of the essential services work done by BMC and its workers for the city, and the role that we as citizens have in cooperating with this institution. This went a long way in being a trust building effort between the BMC and citizens.

Mrs. Malkani concluded the session by inviting the other Trustees of VCAN present; Mr. Rajan Jayakar and Capt. Ashok Malkani to join her and Mr. V. Ranganathan and then requesting Mr. V. Ranganathan to present a memento on behalf of VCAN, to Shri. Pardeshi.

In the absence of the President of the RBYC, and Capt. Sohrab Kapadia Trustee of VCAN and who is also a Trustee of the RBYC, Mrs. Malkani presented a memento on behalf of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club to Shri. Pardeshi.

Thereafter, an official photograph was taken and all were invited for some light refreshments.

To view the photos of the event, click here

To view the video of the event, click here

To view the press coverage by the Times of India, click here

**Please be advised, the information in the presentation was prepared by Shri. Praveen Singh Pardeshi IAS, Municipal Commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and was presented at the TogetherVCAN’s Social Sanchar held on 27th November 2019.

All Rights are reserved with the Author and due acknowledgement is to be given to the Author should this presentation in part or in full be used by anyone anywhere. The contents of the presentation are by the Author and not by VCAN.