Officials listen to problems but do nothing

NEW DELHI: Remember the days when you’d make innumerable rounds just to meet one civic agency staff and then mollycoddle him to listen to your complaint? Not that much has changed, except that people have become more conscious of their rights and demand action, thanks to a rising people’s movement called the Residents Welfare Association (RWA).
That’s the major roadblock the Delhi state government’s Bhagidari scheme members are up against: untangling the red tape, getting to speak to the top babus directly and expecting action from them.
‘‘The Bhagidari scheme begins and ends with the peons and lower staff of the civic agencies. If they lock up for the day, no senior official can help,’’ said M N Bhattacharya, general secretary of the Federation of Group Housing Societies, Indraprastha Extension, Patparganj.
‘‘The scheme is fabulous, but there is a clear absence of sincerity of purpose in the agencies concerned to see it through,’’ he said.
‘‘For instance, we had taken up a project under the scheme to read Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) meters in the 118 housing societies we represent, for a payment of Rs 2 per meter. For this, we needed copies of records of previous meter readings. So well-rooted is it in red tape, that the DVB took months to move, the files are yet to come. We managed to cover just 23 societies (2,300 consumers) in one year. Now, the DVB asked us to terminate the scheme from May 1 and has handed it over to a private firm at Rs 7.40 per meter,’’ Bhattacharya said.
Ditto for Delhi Jal Board (DJB). ‘‘We told them about a leaking pipe from which water was gushing out like a fountain. It took them three months to move,’’ he said.
An uncooperative agency, unhappy councillors and local members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) can lower the pace further. ‘‘The councillors hold the funds to several civic projects,’’ said P C Khanna, president, A-3 block RWA, Janakpuri.
And then again, mood swings of officials can leave projects stuck. ‘‘Implementing orders and schemes depends entirely on the mood of the officials,’’ said R L Dhawan, RWA spokesperson, Western Extension Area, Karol Bagh. ‘‘And we have no power to force accountability. For instance, if we catch small-time offenders and inform the police, we want immediate action. But who’ll ensure that?’’ he said.
Bhagidari scheme nodal officer Renu Sharma said, ‘‘We understand that there are problems, but this is a young and voluntary scheme. We don’t intend to force anyone at this stage,’’ she said.