It was an eventful year for the BMC, notching more criticism than appreciation for its fewer achievements. However, on the sunnier side, the city was declared open-defecation free; promises of addressing pothole problems were made; penguin drama was brought under the scanner and BMC managed to rope in Bollywood celebs to bring awareness to issues...
More than an array of bouquets and a slew of accolades, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had to contend with a rash of brickbats. The BMC completed this year with fewer achievements and major backlashes due to a failure of several of its projects. The year flagged off with the flames at the Deonar dumping ground, but ended with an open-defecation free city. Although, the journey has been bumpy for BMC, important projects like coastal roads have been flagged off in this year. Since the civic body will be facing a crucial year ahead due to civic elections in February 2017, Afternoon D&C; would like to drive you through the functional lane of BMC in 2016, so that you can appraise the civic body that runs your favourite city...
Road Scam
The road scam was unearthed in two phases, where the first phase blew the lid off the Rs 353 crore scam and the second phase where 16 contractors reportedly cheated the BMC of Rs 572 crore. 16 contractors were proven guilty for shoddy construction work of over 200 roads of the city, and were found guilty for not adhering to the mandated thickness of crust while repairing roads.
BMC's Take
The BMC withheld payment worth Rs 908 crore to these 16 tainted contractors and directed them to complete the existing work. Two chief engineers- V. V. Achrekar and K. H. Yeerme - were suspended.
The civic body added a criminal liability for work not done properly to ensure that future contractors learn a lesson.
Penguin Drama
The BMC had imported eight Humboldt penguins (five females and three males) for the Byculla Zoo from an aquarium at Seoul in South Korea. However, unfortunately one female penguin succumbed to bacterial infection and a dysfunctional liver. The death of this penguin, named Dory, caused the civic body to face a backlash from various citizen groups and environmental activists for its bad planning and hasty decision to bring such an exotic species into the country.
Further probe and media reports revealed about the irregularities of a contractor firm named 'Highway Construction'. The company lied about its tie-up with SIVAT Services which specialises in aquatic life support systems. Despite this slur, BMC decided to award the same contractor the contract for being in charge of the penguins for the next one year.
BMC's Take
The BMC penalised 'Highway Construction' for this major lapse, resulting in the firm forfeiting Rs 1.4 crore which was paid as deposit from the contractor firm to the BMC for this penguin enclosure.
BMC also cancelled its Rs 120 crore zoo revamp contract with 'Highway Construction' company and decided to appoint a new contractor.
Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta made a compelling statement saying, “Penguins should be ready for display in the next 15 days. As far as the lying contractors are concerned, an inquiry has been ordered and no culprit will be spared. An international expert will also look into the matter, as we are no experts.”
Pothole Perils
Potholes too drilled holes into the civic body’s tall claims of solving this problem. This monsoon was no different than any other for Mumbaikars. Roads filled with potholes, a blame-game between councillors, administrators and contractors and new tenders being floated. However, the issue of potholes intensified this year as elections were round the corner and so the councillors even threatened to bring in a 'No-confidence motion' against the Municipal Commissioner, Ajoy Mehta. Such a move has reportedly happened for the very first time after Mehta assumed office in March 2015.
BMC's Take
To deal with the problem, the BMC identified 455 pothole-prone roads which will be targetted with a permanent solution. The BMC also sought contractors, locally and internationally, to fill in the potholes with materials using the latest technologies, but expensive solutions proved to be a hindrance to the plan. Mehta said, “We are very clear that the quality of roads that were built in the past were of poor quality. From here onwards, we will build pothole-free roads. As regards the existing roads, we have identified 455 pothole-prone roads. We will reconstruct the patch of these pothole-prone roads completely and pay attention to drainage too. If there is a proper way for the water to drain out, there will be no potholes. We have already doled out Rs 85- 90 crore worth of contract to agencies to work on these areas.”
Open-Defecation free Mumbai
In order to accelerate the 'Swacchh Bharat Abhiyan' the ambitious project of PM Narendra Modi, the BMC had assured Mumbaikars that they would make the city open-defecation (OD) free by mid-December. However, after much ado, the city was finally officially declared OD-free on this December 29. Clean-up marshals were employed by BMC to prevent people from defecating openly. The civic body had identified 118 chronic spots which have now been declared OD free. In this year, the BMC has built 1,641 new toilet seats. Barring the salt pans and railway lands, the entire city has been declared OD free by BMC.
Mehta's Take
“As far as open-defecation is concerned, there are two things - providing infrastructure and changing mindsets of the people. We have provided toilets and made quantum progress and through Bollywood stars and other ways we are trying to change public mindsets. It's an ongoing process as new colonies come up and the population is expanding.”
Bollywood & BMC
Being in Mumbai, the civic body has tried to benefit from the fame and fan-following synonymous with Bollywood stars. Akshay Kumar volunteered to promote healthy living for a civic body, ‘Jaan Bachao Campaign’. Municipal Commissioner, Ajoy Mehta said during the event that the civic body now needs to shift its attention from tertiary health care to primary health care.
By the end of the year, BMC had roped in Salman Khan to be the 'Open-defecation free Mumbai' mascot and luckily this December, the BMC also announced that the city is open-defecation free.
However, not all celebrities had it going smooth with the civic body. Case in point: Kapil Sharma. His tweet to PM Modi, on the wee hours of September 9, stating that he was asked to pay a bribe of Rs 5 lakh by a BMC official, rocked the civic body the entire day and the state government as well.
Soon, CM Fadanvis replied to his tweet saying that his complaint will be considered. However, a series of events followed in which the civic body showed the comedian as to who the boss is. Illegal construction at his Andheri and Goregaon residences was brought to light. Reportedly, an FIR was filed against Sharma for killing mangroves at his Andheri residence. Commissioner Mehta said, “We have not yet got the names of the officials who asked for the bribe from him. But if he would have given us the names, it would have helped us to better the system.”
Metro Line & Coastal Road Projects
This year, the BMC tried hard to push two major projects, Coastal Road and Metro Line. Although, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRC) is the authority meant to deal with Metro, BMC’s Tree Authority is the body that has the power to grant permissions to cut or transplant trees. Reportedly, the tree authority was upset with the fact that the trees were not transplanted properly and citizens at Aarey too caused an uproar when thousands of trees were to be cut for the Metro car shed. However, as this was BJP's pet project, the approval to cut and transplant trees was given rapidly. Recently, the state government even passed a resolution which gave powers to the Municipal Commissioner to sanction cutting down of up to 25 trees without referring the proposal to the Tree Authority.
With regards to the Coastal Road, the BMC made a slight improvement this year. Unable to get environment clearance for a single coastal road, the project was divided into two phases, North and South phase. After much delay, the BMC has till now appointed five consultants and the consultancy cost is pegged at around Rs 600 croreone to prepare the document and the other to review it. The progress on the project has been slow.
Mehta promised that by next year, the construction of the coastal road will begin. He further added, “We are awaiting only one clearance from Delhi. We are working on a parallel basis, as the oceanography study, soil study, survey for bore wells, all is done.”
Ward Delimitation
The restructuring and reservation of 227 wards gave a heavy blow to political parties and councillors who lost their seats to reservation and delimitation. As the boundaries were re-drawn, many councillors had their wards divided into several parts. The restructuring of wards added five seats in the Western suburbs, two in the Eastern suburbs and reduced seven seats from the island city. Around 80 per cent of councillors faced displacement. For the first time, wards were restructured and political parties would have to start work afresh to form a new vote bank.
Ajoy Mehta, Big Chief of BMC stated, “Overall, this is a year when there has been a huge improvement in the infrastructure. We have brought in a lot of transparency and accountability. When our engineers were caught in the road scam and 'nullah-cleaning' scam, people looked at it as a positive move because they see it as a system working in place. Despite the rainfall being twice than that of last year, we were able to clean the 'nullahs' for one fourth the cost. Last year, it took us Rs 60 crore and this year we did the job for only Rs 15 crore. The system is working.” Mumbaikars, voice your views...