Indore a possible role model for KMC

KOLKATA: Indore did in two years what West Bengal could not do in 25. Unlike in the Left Front ruled state, promises about taking peoples’ participation to grassroot levels have not remained on paper in Indore.
The civic authorities of Indore have set up an enviable model in blending people’s participation with revenue generation, which might serve as a model for Kolkata and other municipalities of West Bengal on to what civic bodies can achieve.
In the last two years, 66 stretches of lanes in the city have been developed at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore of which Rs 64 lakh have been contributed by residents. A degraded hill has witnessed plantation of 15,000 trees. For each tree, residents have contributed Rs 251, totalling revenue of Rs 37,60,000. No such schemes exist in West Bengal.
“Our main aim was to ensure that people are effectively made part of the decision-making process,� Indore municipal corporation representative K.K. Khabya said at a seminar here on urban governance.
While legislation to set up ward committees in each West Bengal municipality was enacted only last year, the system has been flourishing in Indore, where “Grahavasi Sanghs (resident committees) take the initiatives to tell us what projects are necessary in their area, after which they are put up at the meetings of the mayor in council and approved�. At present, more than 40 such proposals are under consideration.
A novel idea that has become very popular is called ‘Mayor at your doorstep’. Every week, the mayor, along with elected members and senior civic officials, visits a specific ward and listens to grievances. Any problem recorded on his helpline is sorted out in 20 days.
Revenue generation has also been ensured by IMC. “We have launched a social security scheme for senior citizens as well as an accident insurance cover for all citizens. But the condition is that they must be taxpayers,� Khabya said.
Compare this with the situation here. While IMC has a continuing management information system as part of its e-governance programme, which provides information about an employee at the click of a mouse, the MIS still remains on paper in KMC.
Another point of comparison are the websites of the civic bodies. While the IMC website, indorenagarnigam.com, has an updated list of projects, in the KMC website, calmanac.org, the project link shows the page is under creation since the site came into existence two years ago. “We currently have a 100-page website. This will be expanded to 300 pages soon,� Khabya said.
Indore, however, has a population of 1.6 million, as against Kolkata’s 4.3 million.