Clean streets speak of civic marvel

the roads are clean. sanitation facilities are good. rainy seasons no longer mean a nightmare. it is no longer necessary to walk miles to fetch water or to answer to nature's call. in titagarh, the unbelievable has happened. three years ago, the titagarh municipality was chosen as a test case to use world bank funds for participatory development in the underprivileged areas.a sum of rs 6.58 crore was allotted for the purpose. then the officials went to the villages, sat down with the people and asked them what they wanted for the development of their areas. they were even asked to draw maps of how they wanted their neighbourhood to look like. enlisting their demands, and after going through their maps, engineers designed the plans for development. the final maps were taken back to the people for their approval. only after their approval, the specifications were fixed and tenders were called. at the same time the people were informed about the specifications and trained to keep a check on these aspects. the result: the shanty dwellers forced the contractors to stick to the plans and designs. the whole process brought in a sense of belonging and responsibility among the people, said asutosh vaisya, assistant engineer of the municipality. about rs 4 crore has been spent and seven of the 23 wards have undergone a sea change. the per capita allocation is rs 2,600 and a population of 2,500 have been covered so far. a multi-disciplinary team consisting of five engineers and two community development officers take care of the whole affair. sewing machines have come as a blessing to us and the rs 400 per month that we earn from the venture is a heavenly gift. we contribute rs 20 each month to create our emergency fund which gives interest at two per cent, said a smiling suchitra sau, resident of ward no. 1. a visibly happy vice-chairman of the municipality, muhammad tarif alam, said, representatives of municipalities from all over the country have been sent here to study our experiment and learn from it. people from the department for international development of britain have also come and evaluated the work. we only hope that with more funds, we will be able to continue the work and extend it to other parts of titagarh.