Mumbai Matters: Vote for Mumbai

earlier this week, parties named their candidates for the civic elections to be held on february 10. a major city daily tells us about things that lurk in the past and present of these nominees and therefore could surface in the future: charges of molesting women, extortion and hooliganism, arrests under the slumlord act, even involvement in murder, to say nothing of attacks (better believe it!) on policemen.parties want to seat such folk in our municipal corporation there have been weird interludes like that of a lady threatening suicide if she were denied a ticket and another rolling on the ground to press her case for a nomination. who are these people? an independent candidate, a quiet but unyielding professional who has quelled illegal noise at festival time in his area and got massive illegal structures removed by court order — this gentleman was queuing with others to file his nomination papers. suddenly, a candidate appeared with about 100 supporters and barged straight into the office. slogan shouting started and continued for half an hour. the candidate of another party arrived, duly attended by his own mob of about 100 slogan shouters. "who are these people?" the quiet independent wondered. "are these the people who actually hope to run our city?" won't their hooligans decide who will encroach our pavements, shut off our water supply, or support slumlords and builders, or make public officials corrupt and, basically, determine the behaviour of elected representatives for the next five years? come together the chances of our getting a forum of worthy corporators are so slim, they deserve to be ignored. but today, we just might be able to off-set bad corporators. citizens have increasingly come together to assert their rights. mumbai has over 2,000 active residents' associations, mahilla mandals, voluntary institutions, ngos, professional societies and the like. it has 800 alms (advanced locality management) that connect neighbourhoods with the local ward office. best of all, these bodies have linked up and networked. there are thriving organisations like agni (action for good governance and networking in india), citispace, nagar, praja, mumbai grahak panchayat, dignity and bombay catholic sabha which have all joined hands. they have become forums for discussion and civic action. they have become citizen formations that lobby and exercise pressure as never before. needs & demands but how to break into these circles, or form a new one for the elections? there are two obvious steps: we must know area by area and ward by ward what we want as householders and citizens and we must demand a route and routine to get the right response from elected corporators. questions is repair work on chawls, buildings, roads and pavements being done properly or is corruption between the ward office/ward committees and contractors swallowing money? is water supply regular and uncontaminated? is there malaria and diarrhoea in the area? what is the bmc doing about it? is service at local health centres and hospitals adequate? is garbage cleared daily and effectively? are common entrances kept clean? what is the condition of house gullies? what is the bmc doing about unauthorised structures and illegal buildings? what is happening in and about slums? are they being provided water and power? what system of meeting and consultation do we want with the corporator once elected? consult, commit, care there are a hundred questions, each of which could become a demand. electoral ward by electoral ward, these demands must be presented to candidates and commitment on satisfying them be sought. then we must hold the corporator to his/her commitment. that way it may almost not matter who has been elected. this is how to 'vote for mumbai' regardless of the person against whose name we stamp our choice on sunday, february 10.