Who will clean up the BMC?

With the onset of the monsoon the annual ritual of making corruption allegations against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC starts a rite thatrsquos been observed for over two decades Every political party and its leaders want to clean up the BMC but not when the broom is in their handsEarlier it was the CongressNationalist Congress Party NCP making allegations against the Shiv SenaBharatiya Janata Party BJP alliance that ruled the BMC for nearly 25 years Now it is the Shiv Sena UBT levelling similar allegations against the BJP and its alliance partner the Eknath Shindeled Shiv SenaThis simply means that corruption is a given when it comes to Asiarsquos richest civic body ndash the BMC Badly Managed Corporation and the issue is not merely one of governance but a deeper moral crisis among politicians ruling the cityTake the Mithi river cleanup for example After the devastating 2005 floods which exposed flaws in the urban infrastructure a committee appointed to find reasons for the crisis suggested cleaning the natural flow of Mumbairsquos rivers Nearly two decades later the results remain the same and the Mithi river is yet to be 100 per cent cleaned and widenedIn fact the Economic Offences Wing EOW has filed an FIR in connection with the Mithi desilting scam involving five contractors three BMC officials and one or two companies Other corruption allegedly involving the BMC pertain to road repairs nullah cleaning and even malpractices during the COVID19 pandemicIdeally the 2005 flood should have been a case study and the BMC should have worked on measures to avoid a repeat of the disaster But unfortunately the delay only reflects failure lack of will and accountability of the administration and political parties leaving Mumbai as vulnerable today as it ever wasThe real worry for the city is that every political party knows that corruption exists But the cycle is neverending as no one wants to clean up a rotting system as it is also a cash cowPoliticians wax eloquent about corruption and issues of flooding the inferior quality of roads and footpaths encroachment only when they are not in power Otherwise no party looks for solutions to these issuesTake the latest example immediately after the onset of the monsoon as usual several areas of Mumbai got flooded and the annual political blame game and mudslinging began between Aaditya Thackeray of Shiv Sena UBT camp and Mumbai BJP President Ashish ShelarTo highlight corruption in civic contracts like road work drainage and waste management Thackeray Jr even coined a term lsquoladka contractorrsquo favourite contractor in a dig at the Ladki Bahin scheme But the grandson of the late Balasaheb Thackeray has forgotten that the undivided Shiv Sena ran the BMC for over 25 years during which time these problems had got worse Similarly Shelar a BJP minister in the current Mahayuti lsquosarkarrsquo is asking for a white paper on Senarsquos misrule and bad governance But Shelar seems to have forgotten that for the past three years the civic administration has been overseen by an administrator chosen by his own government If the system was so broken why wasnrsquot it fixed after a change of guardFormer Mumbai mayor and Shiv Sena UBT leader Kishori Pednekar questioned the BJP pointing out that both parties were allies until 2017 If Sena UBT is being targeted now the BJP must also be held accountable for its role during the alliance Since both political parties are right and both leaders are responsible the real test for any political party or its leader is not what it says in the Opposition but what he or she does to change the system when in powerFor the financial year 202425 the BMC has a budget of R5995475 crore The civic body was scheduled to go to the polls in early 2022 But for nearly three years there have been no elections to the 227 corporator seats in the BMC leaving the city administration to the commissioner and his team of bureaucratsBack in 2003 former municipal commissioner SS Tinaikar had filed a complaint before the Lokayukta The veteran IAS officer known for his integrity and administrative grip in his complaint claimed that the standing committee would disapprove a proposal or tender submitted by the municipal commissioner on lsquoinsignificant or flimsyrsquo grounds The same proposal would then be reopened by a member who was absent at the earlier meeting and this time surprisingly the proposal would get approved without any or with minor modifications by the committee without any justification for the change of mind All projects involving capital expenditure are approved by the standing committee Corporators across parties are members of this crucial committee The number of political representatives is decided based on the strength number of elected corporators of the respective party in the BMCNo wonder then that the late Congress leader and the then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh in private conversation used to refer to the committee as the lsquounderstanding committeersquo The ruling CongressNCP undivided government used to blame the ruling Shiv Sena undivided and BJP alliance for the poor management of Mumbai as the saffron alliance had a majority in the BMC In 2011 the then Congress chief minister Prithviraj Chavan too talked of corruption in the BMC and had stated that the builderpoliticianbureaucrat nexus needed to endTwo decades after acknowledging the problem in 2025 instead of seeing a dip in corruption the situation has gone from bad to worseMumbairsquos janta doesnrsquot want dreams peddled by politicians of turning Mumbai into Shanghai or Singapore Citizens are merely asking for politicians and bureaucrats to come together to provide basic civic amenities such as good roads clean drains reliable public transport and pedestrianfriendly and obstructionfree footpaths Are these so hard for the Badly Managed Corporation to deliverSanjeev Shivadekar is political editor midday He tweets SanjeevScribeSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper