Rajan Gandhi
With the conclusion of Jammu Municipal Elections after thirteen years came the hope for accountability, solutions for public grievances – hope for a change. Corporators arranged thanks giving lunch/dinner and subsequently visited their wards with respective MLAs, who still had the CDF (Constituency Development Funds) as the assembly was still active and public got much needed confidence booster, once again promises of clean Jammu were given and public started believing the Corporators of their wards. Each and every Corporator’s Facebook wall is full of pictures, either of felicitations or of drain cleaning which earlier MLAs were flaunting on social media. Along with all these activities background canvassing for Mayor and Deputy Mayor were also going on.
Despite BJP having clear majority in JMC, election of Mayor seemed to be a tough but ultimately Jammu got its Mayor and Deputy Mayor on 15th November 2018 after many deliberations. With this also the process of photo sessions, felicitation ceremonies commenced and in between Governor dissolved J & K assembly on 21st November and suddenly all MLAs disappeared from scene in shock mode, Mayor and Deputy Mayor became the ultimate VIPs to be invited for inaugurations which they lapped up happily as if posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor were carved out for this purpose only. After nearly one month of their elections first general body meeting of JMC was convened and whatever expectations or dreams public were having got shattered with a bang. If one goes through the agenda of the meeting, ‘Seva Bhav’ for public disappeared and top priority with unanimity is to increase honorarium of Corporators to at least forty to fifty thousand despite the example laid by PM Modi who had donated 21 lakhs rupee, his personal savings as Chief Minister’s salary in 10 years, for educating daughters of drivers and peons working with Gujarat Government. In today’s contest it is to think about your interests rest all is secondary.
Eleven items were listed in agenda and it included demand for opening of school for Children of Municipal employees as if there is no government school in entire Jammu , recruitment of Safai Karam Charis – what about the existing ones who work for few hours in the morning and then disappear for their private assignments, promotion orders of employees – for their outstanding efforts to make Jammu a City of garbage and chaos , beautification of JMC walls – as if it is the only place in whole Jammu, no parking zone in JMC premises- to further congest adjoining roads , plantation in and around JMC – to provide better air to corporators, outsourcing of autos for garbage collection, night sanitation and animal birth control programme- to claim no responsibility of theirs in future. Jammuites are shocked and amazed to see no agenda for Jammu public as if all these corporators have been elected for their own cause, for the building of JMC or employees there in. It’s not long ago when State High Court had to intervene when a RTI revealed that Rs. 34,65,374 were spent to convert a cattle pond to Municipal Quarter No.10 at Gandhi Nagar which was later allotted to Joint Commissioner (A) who was nearing his superannuation, a gift was given to the former officer at the cost of the rights of the animals.
Similarly a PIL seeking high level probe into the illegal/backdoor allotments of Municipal Quarters/ Flats/ Shops in favour of ex-employees of JMC /private persons and sought investigation by State Vigilance Organization as JMC further extended lease of their accommodations for 40 years at a meager rent of Rs.600 to Rs.900 per month for prime municipal flats situated at Gandhi Nagar, Jammu and beneficiaries included former Commissioner/ Secretary to Government of J&K Housing and Urban Development Department who at one time was JMC Commissioner as well, former Joint Commissioner (Adm) JMC, ex-PA to Commissioner JMC, Driver of JMC, PSO to Commissioner/ Secretary to Govt. of J&K H&UDD to name a few and ultimately the Division Bench ordered for the entire record of more than 600 allotments of JMC assets made in the similar fashion without adopting any procedure/ criteria. Past and present actions are in sync depicting only self use of JMC resources with impunity.
Contrary to JMC, right now SMC (Srinagar Municipal Corporation) is working day and night with Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu leading from front as any feedback on his twitter handle is treated as complaint and corrective measures are taken immediately. Srinagar public is actively participating and enjoying the proactive approach of their Mayor. No day has gone since taking oath when Mayor and Deputy Mayor have not visited different problematic areas and on spot decisions have been taken. All reharis have been asked to register so that some alternative arrangements are made to accommodate them in a phased manner but in Jammu Mayor has ordered restoration of illegal Kiosks in front of GMC to be restored at unused matador stand despite traffic bottle neck in the area. Another worth mention decision by SMC is collection of waste from butcheries so that the it is properly dumped at the authorized site but no such initiative at Jammu. Sunday bazaar market of Lal Chowk has been regularized with nominal fee, all encroachments are getting removed in a phased manner including bunkers , traffic police kiosks on footpath, suggestions / plans are being made for beautification, requisition for funds for water bodies preservation are few other measures. Though identical is the situation at Jammu’s Sunday market right from Bus stand, Shalamar, City Chowk, Super bazaar, Purani Mandi, Raj Tilak road to Parade but no such stream lining or revenue generation initiative. SMC Mayor is regularly arranging meetings of different departments for better co-ordination for quick and better results but it requires a herculean effort to get one’s street light repaired at Jammu. All talks little action is the buzz word at Jammu.
Coming back to JMC, only way to lodge complaint is through their web site and believe it requires hell lot of effort to get registered your complaint and the mobile number of contact person you receive by return SMS is either non -existent or the concerned person is not responsible for the concerned ward. Countless Commissioners have been replaced in a span of last three years without any result so much so that Smart City project is standing at same place from where it started but who bothers. There is no Solid Waste Disposal site/policy in place despite number of reminders from High Court, no STP in place as such whole sewage waste is being dumped in river Tawi from where drinking water is supplied to whole old city, no fogging during monsoon to check dengue. Plastic carry bags are sold openly in the market, from where they are procured and how they reach market is not priority of JMC reasons better known to them only. No scheme in place for door to door household garbage collection and no campaign in media for public awareness. There is no transparency in dog sterilization program as these services are shuttling between NGOs and Municipality and both blaming each other for the failure to curtail dog menace in almost every ward. No biometric attendance of employees in place with the result even newly elected corporators are running pillar to post to get allocated nonexistent Safai workers of their respective wards. Leaking water pipes of drinking water in drains are there in every ward as there is no mechanism in place for coordination between JMC and PHE, civil wing of JMC unable to get repaired the damaged lanes as there is no accountability, illegal infrastructures coming up despite army of 17 exclusive employees in Enforcement wing of JMC to look after 75 wards. High Court has to intervene time and again to rap JMC for repeated deficiency of services but that too is of little use and all these glaring lapses are testimony to failure of parental department which was with BJP for last 3 years.
Earlier MLAs were performing the duties of Corporators, looking after lanes, drains of the area but their half hearted efforts were more intended for photo sessions as such it had yielded only shoddy work which disappeared with the first monsoon shower of the season as there is no check on quality of work as no supervising engineer is there on site to see whether drains have proper slope or lanes have been laid as per set parameters or the resultant malba lifted. There is urgent need of streamlining the system with latest techniques along with innovative ideas to get the things done in proper manner. Installing vending machines for plastic bottles at all public places, converting flowers collected from temples to incense sticks, rain water harvesting in new buildings are few innovations which all modern cities are adopting. Mayor or concerned staff of JMC should visit Indore, the cleanest city of India, for practical ideas how they achieved this as with the elections approaching fast and BJP running the JMC now it’s their last chance to set things right which their ministers and MLAs had failed in the past and with their own Government at Centre and President’s rule in state they don’t have any excuse this time right now. One hopes JMC takes corrective measures to put a system in place instead of random knee jerk measures which are of no use. Planning and implementation are the most important aspects without which JMC is bound to fail once again this time as well as in the past. Right now the question of public is, will they deliver this time?
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