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The
once-was-richest corporation in the city has fallen into
disrepute. Struggling to get over a deficit of over Rs 600 crore,
the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has hiked octroi,
increased water charges and pushed through exorbitant development
taxes. Yet, its services are at a spectacularly low level: garbage
is not collected in spite of a flurry of private contractors and
various area management schemes. Corruption is rampant, a fact
obvious from the blatantly illegal constructions that can be seen
on every street corner. The problem of hawking zones does not
abate despite being in the courts for the past five years;
meanwhile, uncensured hawkers line fresh streets. As if people’s
opinion was not bad enough, the various trade unions in the
corporation, manning around 120,000 employees, have already
started talking about wage revision and threatening to strike work
on non-acceptance of terms.
Kale
retains his carefully cultivated non-controversial image, an image
untarnished despite the turbulence caused by one “Khairnar”
during his tenure. Which is why he took the position of explaining
the working of the corporation without passing judgement on its
working while talking to this magazine.
Having
retired from service in 1997, Kale is once again in the thick of
things in the BMC, being a member of the wage revision committee
under Justice Kurdurkar, (where the chastened trade unions had
sent their charter of demands following the public lynching of the
union leaders for striking work two years back.) Once a
commissioner, always a keen observer of the BMC, Kale believes
that “any institute with a fiscal deficit loses shine”. All
the BMC needs to do, according to this theory, is pull up its
socks and get its money matters right. Everything else will fall
in place.
Recently
we have seen the spectacle of the municipal commissioner being
given a dressing down by the chief minister. The Bombay High Court
too recently demanded that the commissioner be present in court
simply because its officers did not have the requisite information
to give to the court. The commissioner seems to be pushed from all
sides. Do you think the decision-taking authority of the
commissioner is at stake?
Ideally,
a commissioner should be allowed to use and exercise powers under
the BMC Act in the best interests of the city. Of course, these
are loaded words, but the point is it is a huge task. There is a
huge labour force of more than 120,000, it has to service a city
of more than 10 million and the Mumbai citizen’s expectation
from the city is also very high. So the role of the commissioner
has also to be exemplary -- he should be the best officer,
citizen-friendly, and the commissioner must have the clean image
of a person who does not succumb to pressure. Pulls from local
vested interests will remain. The difficulty for the BMC is that
the state government is located next door. Considering the scope
of the job of the commissioner, the person should be supported by
various organisations in the city. This is no plea for
non-criticism; of course, we are accountable. And in most cases
the government is supportive. After all, the officer chosen to be
the commissioner has completed 25 to 30 years in public service,
and unless he is very good at his job he won’t be chosen. Apart
from this, the government also wants to run the city without any
breakdowns. The state is normally not inclined to do backseat
driving.
The
problem is that a commissioner is judged by various organisations
at their levels. It is difficult for the officer to fulfil all
these expectations. Most commissioners are aware that their
decisions will have implications for the future. Nobody wants to
pre-empt good development.
How
much political pressure does the commissioner have to face in the
case of policy decisions?
The
ways of political pressures surface differently. A commissioner
uses the experience of his 25 to 30 years in public service -–
previous to the posting of the commissioner -– to be able to
recognise these pressures and tread guardedly. In actual practice,
your decision may be right, but it would still tread on
somebody’s interests. The trick is to pursue the path and not
react to criticism immediately.
How
does one explain the poor image that the public has of the BMC?
Any
organisation not surplus in resources tends to lose its shine.
Right now, everybody from the central government to the state
government is in the same position. Strained resources tend to
demoralise the organisation. So the prestige of the BMC, when it
was financially viable and surplus, was high. Taking up requisite
steps to curtail the financial deficit, on the other hand, are
unpleasant and opposed. I hope it is a temporary phase and the BMC
is able to get out of the deficit. Unless it has a way of becoming
solvent, it can’t command its earlier authority.
Has
the corruption in the corporation increased over the years?
Given
the general deterioration at all levels, it will need a bold man
to say that there is no corruption. But at least at the top levels
of administration, persons will have to have a good image, not
indulge in corruption or succumb to political pressures. The only
way the commissioner can keep this in check is by taking hard
decisions.
In
the recent fracas over post-tender negotiations on the sewage
disposal contracts, are you in favour of post-tender negotiations?
I
think you should have one set of rules, thought out and made
public, so that it is enforced without exceptions. However, the
guidelines should also leave scope for emergencies, where the
commissioner is able to show bonafide reasons for defending going
against the rules. The point is that the corruption or the cartel
formation or the favouring of a particular contractor does not
happen at the higher levels, but at the lower levels. There are
informal networks formed between the department heads and the
contractors who may be either honest or dishonest. Considering
that once a person joins the BMC, he cannot be transferred
anywhere, except in various departments, such networks do form.
They know that the higher-level officers are transferable, whereas
they will be permanently in the corporation. However, if you have
even 100 non-corrupt competent people at the higher levels, all
these can be checked.
And
does the BMC have them?
Don’t
ask me that …Of course, I had excellent officers at my time.
Is
there any way that it could be ensured that the funds allotted to
the corporator are used for the constituency and do not go back to
the corporator as kickbacks?
These
are systemic flaws. It is difficult to eradicate them. The basic
idea behind giving corporators some funds was that, considering
the gigantic budget and the allocations by the corporation, there
might be small matters that escape the attention of the
administration, and the corporator who represents the constituency
would be able to spend from his own funds. However, considering
that supervision is the main thing, works are so scattered that
monitoring is difficult.
The
recent standoff between Rokde and the commissioner has shades of
your own conflict with Khairnar. The commissioner in fact went to
the press saying that the officer speaks to the press more than to
the commissioner. What is it in the BMC that makes an officer veer
towards insubordination? And how does one overcome such a public
standoff between officers of the corporation?
I
would not like to discuss Khairnar. But, yes, there are officers,
like even Arun Bhatia, who take unpopular action and expect
support when criticised. Normally, commissioners support such
officers. In Mumbai, however, often well-meaning actions can be
counter-productive. Even when you are doing something like
removing illegal hawkers, sometimes the action may be abrasive.
However, everyone has to be accountable to the authority of the
commissioner. Even if he feels the commissioner is not right.
Normally, a commissioner is accessible to the officers. I am not
referring to the Rokde matter, but these issues should not be
debated in public.
Now
that you are a part of the wage revision committee, would you say
that the vast deficit in the corporation is due to burgeoning
establishment costs?
Why
should that surprise you? If 96 per cent of education budget goes
towards teachers’ salaries, it has to, hasn’t it? The
department has only teachers to spend on. Which does not mean that
surplus manpower has not to be shed. Then there are areas in the
suburbs where there is a shortage of staff where people need to be
redeployed. Unions need to understand this. Very often though, the
issue becomes contentious and conflicts arise. The commissioner
has to argue it out with the union. After all, the quality of work
has to improve.
Dattatreya
Mahadeo Sukthankar, who moved over to become the chief secretary
of the state after a successful stint as commissioner in the city
till 1984, straddles a different world as a member of a
citizen’s movement today. Strident in his criticism of the civic
body – indeed, the entire political system of authorities and
agencies – he is sure that it is a concerned citizenry alone
that will force the corporation to mend its ways.
You
have been commissioner of the BMC and now are a part of a movement
spearheading a citizens’ initiative. How do the two compare?
I
don’t feel embarrassed about it if that is what you want to
know. Ultimately, the person at the helm of affairs has to be
accountable to the public. I left the BMC in 1984. Since then, in
the last 15 years, public consciousness about accountability of
public institutions has grown. Secondly, even the financial
position of the BMC has deteriorated. When one is compelled to
increase resources through taxes and by putting pressure on the
public, it becomes all the more important to explain how the
situation has arisen thus. The public has a right to know.
Perhaps, during my time, there was not much pressure on
accountability. My mindset too might have been different. Now,
with the change in conditions and the environment, a former
commissioner being a part of a pressure group is not
contradictory.
And
yet, in spite of such a movement, none of the demands of the
public seem to be met except by going to the courts. The recent
example is of the hoardings. How does one explain this?
No.
Ultimately the decisions that are challenged in courts have been
made by a different decision-making authority in the corporation.
Maybe the commissioner who sees the conflict between the
decision-making authority and public interest does voice his
opinion on it. But if his opinion is overruled, the citizen has no
alternative but to go to court to seek legal remedy. But wherever
the decision is blatantly illegal or is not in the larger public
interest, it is the duty of the commissioner to strongly advise
them not to implement it. Having advised thus, if the
decision-making authority still goes ahead, he has no alternative
but to carry out the decision of the competent authority.
Every
time any important contract comes up in the standing committee,
like the recent fracas over the tenders for the sewage disposal
department, there are allegations of corruption from either side
of the board. Do you think the system can be reformed to ensure
that the pressing civic need is not delayed?
It
all stems from a mistrust due to a lack of transparency in the
system. I think if the BMC were to employ its website to announce
the contract details and the bids received, including why certain
bids were rejected or accepted, then a lot of the mistrust will at
least go. The public has a right to know why a certain decision
was taken.
Can
this system ensure there will be no corruption?
That
can’t be said. The fact remains that many contracts give bids
that are non-workable. Obviously, there is something wrong in it;
then the corporation is right in rejecting his claim. Prima facie
there is no scope for corruption. If, however, the parties meet
and money is exchanged for the awarding of the contract, it is
different. There is a feeling though that, over a period, the
corruption in the BMC has only worsened. This is reiterated due to
the mystery around the decision-making process.
In
the same vein, has increased public consciousness brought about
any discernible change in the expectations from the local
corporator?
I
would think so. Every corporator wants his work to get priority.
They are responding more and more to the demands of the
constituency. In fact, many are taking local citizens’
associations into confidence to accommodate their demands. This is
in the interest of the corporator himself –- if he is responsive
to the people, he gets elected again and again.
You
must be aware of the Tinaikar report on the corruption in the
civic body…
I
haven’t gone through it….
No,
it was not made public. In this respect, I would like to know your
opinion on how the State’s attitude towards the civic
administration has changed over the years?
It
is true that the day-to-day decisions on public issues are decided
on political grounds rather than in the public interest. In fact,
the reason I had to go to court on the ex-gratia amount was
because the State had the power to act to stop the corporation
from doing so. Here was a civic body that was suffering from a
deficit of Rs 600 crore and there was nothing in the BMC Act on
the ex-gratia issue, so we were driven to the courts.
There
is a tendency to take unpopular decisions on political grounds.
Short-term backlash is feared more than long-term gains. That is
why there is a tendency to remove such important policy decisions
from the political arena by creating regulatory bodies, like the
recent Maharashtra Electricity Regulation Commission, to decide on
tariff rates instead of letting the politician give free power to
a sector.
You
had headed a commission on dilapidated buildings in the city. How
many of your recommendations were implemented by the civic body?
How is the civic body reacting to the need for improving
infrastructure amenities of the city?
Where
we had recommended higher floor space index for dilapidated
buildings, they implemented that. However, when we said that the
maximum height of the building should be restricted for
fire-fighting safety, it was not heard. We had proposed an
increase in the rents of the tenements under the housing board,
and also proposed that chawls could be handed over on ownership
basis to the tenants. However, none of these were implemented.
So
it is true that long-term planning for the city’s infrastructure
is lacking. What is of more importance is the present instead of
the future. Decision-making has become more myopic where hard and
tough decisions are postponed or not taken at all. This is a
process of maturing of the democracy itself. Most state
governments have no money for development and will eventually come
to a situation of sitting on a brink for which they will need
reforms. The political sagacity of course is lacking.
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