Fire and friends

if the government is our mai baap, we would rather be orphans. that isn’t an exaggeration; our relationship with the government at every level is so unpleasant, that we want to keep it to the absolute minimum. unfortunately, so pervasive is the government, so widely spread are its tentacles so indispensable has it made itself, that contact with one of its arms is unavoidable.and that’s almost every day. how do we make the best of a bad deal we didn’t ask for ? here are two answers, provided by two different organisations in two different parts of the country. the first is agni, based in mumbai. i went to its third birthday celebrations on a recent sunday morning at a school in the suburbs. 1100 people turned up. simply put, they had come to work as goodcitizens. agni’s foundation is based on the premise that your voice is heard when a lot of other voices are joined behind you. in mumbai, there are a lot of bodies which dedicate themselves to what is generally called social service. an umbrella body which organises organisations would provide a framework for cohesive action. if that umbrella organisation could also include the residential organisations which are part of our urban scene, those numbers would go up considerably. mumbai, for example, has 2500 of these. agni (action for good governance and networking in india) speaks for them with one voice. agni’s main work is in two areas. at the time of elections, it puts politicians through an agnipariksha, when candidates of each area engage in debate and answer citizens’ questions. their credentials and records are published so that there is a more informed electorate. the other area centres around civic amenities. a joint area action group is formed and each municipal ward office designates a nodal officer as a single access point to all municipal services (garbage removal, water, encroachments, illegal hawkers, etc.) the agni co-ordinator for the area liaises with this nodal officer to ensure that services are provided as they are meant to be. if you are in mumbai and want to volunteer, ring 3611327. if you are outside mumbai and want help in replicating its model, you could write to gerson da cunha, convenor agni, peacock palace, bhulabhai desai road, mumbai 400 026. the second organisation in kerala is smaller in scope but if it lives up to its early promise, will be a shining example for other states to follow. an initiative of the kerala government, friends (fast, reliable, instant, efficient network for disbursment of services), is a service centre set up by the kerala department of information technology in association with the thiruvanthapuram municipal corporation. essentially, it enables citizens to pay at a single point a whole host of utility bills (electricity, property tax, professional tax, ration cards, motor vehicle tax, university examination fees ) and file documents. in fact, friends now handles as many as 1000 types of bills and documents.