Thursday, July 16, 2009

A Blueprint for Mumbai

Left Side Pic: At Churchgate station. The Mckinsey report says although the city has "one of the more
extensive and efficient transport networks in India, its infrastructure is woefully inadequate by world-
class standards".
Right Side Pic: Britain's Prince Charles during a visit to the Dharavi slums in November. The `Vision
Mumbai' plan envisages eight lakh low-income group houses to rehabilitate slum-dwellers.

A Blueprint for Mumbai
Amid criticism, the Maharashtra government approves a plan to turn Mumbai into a world-class city.
MENTION Mumbai, and it immediately conjures up images of high-rise buildings and sprawling slums, of bustling traffic and interminable commutes and of billionaire industrialists and wretched beggars. The city is bursting at its seams but still manages to chug along under the weight of its problems. City planners, however, say that Mumbai faces a bleak future unless something is done urgently. A realistic and viable plan for the redevelopment of Mumbai has often been debated but has thus far remained elusive.
In yet another effort at resolving the metropolis' insurmountable problems, Bombay First, an organisation with representatives from the corporate world, asked global consulting firm Mckinsey and Company to prepare a comprehensive plan that will turn Mumbai into a "world-class" city by 2013. Working essentially on the lines of Shanghai or Singapore was Bombay First's objective. Commissioned in November 2001, the plan was presented to the Maharashtra government in September 2003. Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has in effect agreed to most of the recommendations and appointed a special officer to oversee their implementation.
The report, titled "Vision Mumbai", states that as India's commercial capital, Mumbai is representative of the country's strengths and therefore should become "world class". A summary of recommendations, compiled in a report, essentially lays out a blueprint for Mumbai's overall development over the next decade. Estimated to cost Rs.200,000 crores, a fourth of which will be raised from public sources, the plan focusses on six key areas: economic growth, transportation, housing, other infrastructure, financing and governance.
The report's authors, who had extensive discussions with the bureaucratic establishment, suggest a multi-pronged programme. "The exercise is to revive Mumbai by generating a debate with a plan in front of us," says Sanjay Ubale, member-secretary of the newly created task force for Mumbai. "We still need to build on the Vision Mumbai report, crystallise the vision, formulate a strategy and then come up with an action plan". He told Frontline that since there was a renewed focus on Mumbai, the aim was to keep the city's development "on the agenda all the time". Since a steering committee headed by the Chief Minister has been formed, the government appears committed to saving the city.
While nobody doubts the intentions behind turning Mumbai into an efficient and more liveable city, the report has been severely criticised by several urban planners, environmentalists and civic activists. "It comes across as a report by the builders' lobby. The recommendations scream: privatisation, corporatisation and build, build, build," an urban planner told Frontline. The city would never have declined to the present level had it not been for Maharashtra's builder-politician nexus. "Unless there is political will, no amount of reports and plans will resolve Mumbai's problems," the planner said. Besides, he said, it seemed to be a pro-rich, pro-elite piece of work. "It is unfortunate that globalisation's effect is felt in areas such as public policy. When has a private agency, that too a multinational, been used in determining policy?" he asked.
To begin with the Mckinsey plan stresses the need to boost economic growth from the current gross domestic product (GDP) of 2.4 per cent per annum to 8-10 per cent. The study states that the slowdown in economic growth has been largely responsible for the deterioration of Mumbai. A higher economic growth will only be possible with an increase in employment. In order to achieve the 8-10 per cent target, almost 0.5 million additional jobs will have to be created, it says. This could be done in high and low end service sectors and by converting the hinterland into a manufacturing and logistics hub, analysts suggest.

Transportation needs massive improvement, says the report. "While Mumbai may be acknowledged as having one of the more extensive and efficient transport networks in India, its infrastructure is woefully inadequate by world-class standards." Although several projects are under way, such as the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), which specifically looks at improving the road and rail network, their implementation has to be faster. Additionally, the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project (MUIP), funded by the World Bank involves building elevated roads, elevated light rail transit system and construction of subways. Analysts suggest an inner ring rail, an inner ring freeway and trans-harbour rail and road links.
Housing and land availability are Mumbai's most controversial problems. The report recommends increasing the availability of land by 50 to 70 per cent. Increasing the Floor Space Index (FSI), opening up mill and port lands, relaxing Coastal Zonal Regulation (CZR) II and III for Mumbai, and building the trans-harbour link, it says, will create space for housing. Furthermore, the report suggests creating 8 lakh low-income group houses to rehabilitate the city's slum-dwellers by redesigning the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) project - incidentally another contentious issue. The plan hopes to recover the construction cost by charging slum-dwellers a rent of between Rs.750 and Rs.1,500 a month. The creation of special housing zones, on the lines of the Special Economic Zones, will avoid the rental problems and will, therefore, create more housing.
"Rescind the Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULCA) and the Rent Control Act, as well as reduce the time taken for building approvals", and the bulk of the issues relating to housing will be solved, it suggests.
Other infrastructure include ensuring adequate water supply, sanitation and health facilities, reducing pollution and creating a safe environment in terms of law and order. For further efficiency, the report suggests privatising the public health system and expediting the privatisation of Mumbai airport. Additionally, the plan lays emphasis on an efficient, effective, responsive and accountable government. The analysts suggest corporatising some departments. At the end of the day it is governance that will decide which way the city will head, they say.
Mckinsey estimates that the plan requires a total expenditure of Rs.50,000 crores by the State government. Of this Rs.15,000 crores can be raised by increasing property tax and converting leasehold government land into freehold land by collecting a fee from the lessees. About Rs.30,000 crores can be raised through bonds and loans. The remaining Rs.1,50,000 crores will be raised through private investment and through the contribution of tax-payers over a 10-year period. Since Mumbai raises Rs.40,000 crores for the State and Central governments and Rs.7,000 crores for the local government annually, it should be capable of supporting such expenditure, the report observes.
Although there is no dispute over the focus areas of the report, several recommendations have been challenged. Critics in fact question the very methodology of the research. Neither Mckinsey nor Bombay First is willing to divulge any information on the collection of data. Most of the conclusions they maintain were derived from interviews, workshops and data from government sources. Owing to the lack of transparency, experts question the report's conclusions.
"No doubt things in Mumbai are in a terrible state and it requires drastic solutions. Yet is this the way we want to go?" asks Debi Goenka, a member of the Bombay Environmental Action Group. There is no need for these reports and the fanfare that goes with it. If the State government is committed to saving Mumbai from further decay, all it needs to do is amend a few laws. "Change the ULCA and the Rent Control Act and that itself will change the face of Mumbai. Moreover, how can they come to the conclusion about the CZR without conducting an environment study or consulting environmentalists?" asks Debi Goenka.
Sharit Bhowmick, a sociologist who has been working with the SRA, says: "Some of the suggestions are positively absurd. How is it possible to build a ring road given the shape of Mumbai? Why should the city be developed block-by-block? Mumbai has too many layers, too many issues to resolve. You cannot just carve it up and redevelop it. It is only likely that the city's haves will benefit if they do this piecemeal development." According to State government data, 54 per cent of Mumbai's population lives in slums; 73 per cent of its households live in one-room tenements, and 18 per cent in two-room structures. Bhowmick says one must work at redeveloping Mumbai with these percentages in mind and with some perspective. Besides, this is the category of people on which the city functions. Mumbai's population stands at around 15 million and is increasing each day with fresh immigrants coming in from across the country.
Ubale, however, argues that no plan will work unless it involves the city's people. Employment has to be generated for economic growth, and that can be done through development projects, he argues. Ever since the 1970s, when the city's manufacturing sector began a steady decline, the bulk of Mumbai's population lost the ability to earn a steady income. Thereafter the quality of life declined drastically. "We recognise that this is the first aspect we have to work on if we want the city to improve," says Ubale.

In spite of the criticism, by and large Mckinsey's plan has been accurate on focus areas, says an urban planner who has designed several major infrastructure projects in the city. Now, as the debate goes on, what remains a puzzle is why a State government that is reeling under a Rs.87,000-crore debt has been suddenly motivated to rebuild its capital city.

Corruption in Mumbai

Corruption in Mumbai

Corruption in India, as a symptom of misgovernance, exists in various forms. There are many ways to temporarily stop it, the two main ones being:
Improving law enforcement, sentencing and punishment/correction via the home ministry and the judiciary; and/or
Improving transparency in the taxation regime and tax compliance through reform of the finance ministries at the center and the state.
Neither of these functions has had much impact on current corruption. The imbalance of power between the haves and the have-nots has led to increased misgovernance. Overlapping laws should be reduced and simplified to a manageable and publicly understood size. Parliament and state legislatures should have no items under the concurrent list with instead all items under the state list or the central list so that problems of jurisdiction do not occur.
One duty of legislatures is to incrementally simplify and rationalise laws in such a way that they can be easily and universally understood and efficiently implemented. This can only happen when the legislature sets targets and the people monitor its output or lack of output in this direction.

Example

The creators of the Madventures TV series describe in their book[1] an encounter with a man who rented them a motorcycle. The man, who also tried to sell them illegal drugs, revealed the authors that he was, in fact, officially a policeman. He had borrowed a couple of thousand dollars and used them to simply buy a police rank from higher-ranking officers. He would pay back the debt by soliciting bribes, and also explained that for a larger sum, one could also buy higher ranks that would give access to even higher bribes. This example illustrates a kleptocracy.

Problems faced in reporting corruption
Lack of awareness about the fight against corruption in a regular manner.
Lack of convenience -- Until recently there was no easy way of reporting petty corruption, such as a website or a voice recording machine. This has been partly rectified via internet sites such as
Praja (municipal problems) or Reporting corruption to the anti corruption bureau But these sites are insufficiently publicized. The number 1090 for Convenient interaction with the Police, 1916 for municipal complaints and 22633333 for Crimefighting complaints also need greater publicity.
Procedures are cumbersome and exhausting.
Money is locked up. Time and energy put in by the complainant are not considered at all. The complainant is often treated very poorly and his turning hostile later is conveniently reported against him, even if the fault lies with the authorities in maintaining an unfriendly system.
Poor logistical reach and infrastructure of the Anti-Corruption organisations.
Poor track record of the Anti Corruption Bureau and lack of faith in the government.
Anonymous reports are always discarded.
Report by email or fax is not considered as proof.
Poor media image and poor perception by word of mouth.
There is no whistle blower protection or institutionalised support by the state for complainants within the government or in sensitive cases.

Problems faced in tackling corruption in Mumbai
Issues of misconduct leading to corruption are not tackled at all. There is no dedicated internet site like [1] for all citizen charters. However, the central government [2] does have a website for citizen charters.
Lack of a common measurement system . There is no common center for recording number of departmental enquiries and action taken in cases of harassment or for citizen feedback. There is no equivalent site like the central website link at the [3] Ministry of personnel, public grievances, administrative reforms and pensions for reporting complaints centrally which can act as a one stop shop for recording and measuring government efficiency and improvement.
As of November 10, 2005 there was no political will for tackling corruption at higher levels of the government, for example implementing some of the recommendations of the National Police Commission Report.
The key ministry dealing with corruption and misgovernance is the state Home Ministry headed by the Home Minister and the Home Secretary. This key organisation deals with all crime in the state, but does not have a proper website as of Nov. 10, 2005. The website does not have any mechanism to see list of departments under it, the citizens charters of those organisations, how to complain and how to follow up the complaint. It does not have any statistics for measuring its own performance. Tenure of the Home Secretary and other key officials is not fixed, but rather ad hoc. Certain officials rotate through the same departments and the same locations for extended periods and have developed into roadblocks to reform.
The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the state government is not an independent statutory body but comes under the state Home Minister and senior bureaucrats. This makes it difficult for the ACB to take action against its superiors in cases of corruption at higher levels. There is no statutory state vigilance commission, which should be the role given to the ACB as is the case for the Central Vigilance Commission at the federal level.

External problems of the ACB
The ACB does not have any control over the internal vigilance officers of various state government undertakings, who are in some cases of the same seniority or senior to the ACB director. There is no way to access a current civil list of all the vigilance officers of the state at one place and know how many of these crucial posts are vacant. Though there is an updated list of Vigilance officers of the central organisations at the CVC site.
The public prosecutor's office, which also comes under the State Home Ministry, does not cover special cases of high profile corruption. There is no provision for the ACB to have a special prosecutor for high profile cases, such as in the US.
The ACB needs to seek permission to prosecute any higher official from the state government, which is not easily forthcoming or is generally never given, which destroys the case totally.
The Anti Corruption Bureau and the
Central Bureau of Investigation do not coordinate properly and their functions are little known. The local CBI office contact details are not shown on the ACB's website, nor can CBI be conveniently contacted. The ACB also does not have any links with the state CID.
The state income tax deptt and the audit department of do not work with the ACB. The ACB has yet to have a dedicated arm for investigating cases of disproportionate assets. There is no formal linkup with the federal Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), which comes under the union finance ministry.
No action is taken on the reports of the state audit department and its reports are not easily accessible. The audit department is not a statutory body, and its findings are not acted upon since the ACB lacks the legal sanction to go deeper into the matter of wastage of public monies, as found by its own the auditor's reports. If the ACB was a statutory body, it would have this freedom of action.
There is no computerised database which is accessible to the officers of the ACB for tracking benami properties and money laundering cases. For tracking financial transactions, the ACB has to depend on the state Home Ministry's police wing for white collar crimes, which is known as the economic offences wing but is also seriously hampered. The federal income tax department and the DRI are not linked to the ACB. Nor is the state sales tax and excise department, via the state finance ministry, linked to the ACB for investigating disproportionate assets.

Procedural Issues
The system of checks and balances in the Indian constitution is not known to officials or the public.
The list of Acts to combat corruption is not widely known.
Internet and email are not encouraged to save time and energy, either within government bodies at higher levels, or between citizens and government.
Open-source software is being deliberately sidelined in ongoing computerisation and there is very little e-governance. Hence, e-governance initiatives are mostly shams or being implemented at huge costs.
Reports of committees and commissions of enquiry are still not accessible in a convenient manner, such as the internet. A few have been posted such as the Sawant Commission report
The procedure for appointment of key officials of the agencies involved in the fight against corruption needs to be made more transparent to curb political interference.
The ordinance for controlling political interference in transfers of officials has not been made into an Act, despite being promised since 1999 or before
.
Structural reforms --The city does not have an executive mayoral form of civic government, which leads to many problems and multiplicity of authorities . The executive ward committees in the municipal government are non-transparent, and as a result decentralisation of the government continues to be discussed, however power is still controlled by a few key executive ministers and secretaries at the state level.
Chairpersonsship of government-sponsored organisations and committees continue to grow.
Ad hoc-ism prevails in setting up unnecessary new organisations and government bodies.
Instead of tackling and improving existing schemes, buildings, organisations, etc., public money is being wasted on new schemes and populist measures.
Every political functionary and civil servant corners extra privileges such as chauffeur driven cars and unlimited mileage and other perks.
Financial laws and rules need to be simplified to reduce harassment.
Selective implementation and interpretation of laws is rampant, and checks and balances have been weakened due to disinformation and the breakdown of communications.

The constitutional framework, laws, rules and procedures are deliberately kept vast and vague to continue the present situation.
Financial deficits have continued to increase year by year.
Crony capitalism prevails through various modified licence raj schemes.
People have yet to correlate the size of the government with the costs of maintaining such a government. The government is top-heavy and needs to be reduced in size.
Human resource development policy does not exist in the government -- no incentive or appreciation is given to those who do good work, nor is any punishment given for poor work. There are no 5-year or 3-year contracts. It is deliberately difficult to prune the organisations. The perception is that nothing can be changed under the existing personnel rules. Therefore, the personnel rules themselves need to be made coherent.

Reasons for hope
The movement for Right To Information (RTI) is gaining ground with the passage of the National RTI Act.
New, more powerful and better media organisations continue to enter the area, improving the communication problems and the disinformation of earlier periods.
Dissatisfaction continues to grow, and more people realise what is wrong and how it can be tackled or improved.
The new ACB website is a good beginning and has been well-made, although it has a few drawbacks, as mentioned above.
More people are becoming aware, through the use of the internet, about possible solutions. Awareness is likely to grow, which will lead to increased pressure for implementing correct solutions.
Justice PB Sawant's report on a corruption allegation involving 3 ministers and a noted social worker has been published at: Sawant Commission Report.
The Maharashtra Government website is now becoming a little more user friendly through increased posting and access to information.
Other departments and undertakings are developing their own websites, which are slowly being improved.

MNS - "Making Nation Separate"

Mumbai: 17th July 2009

MNS - "Making Nation Separate"

Born
June 14, 1968 (1968-06-14) (age 41)Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Political party
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Founder & President (Since 2006)
Spouse
Sharmila Thackeray
Children
1 son (Amit Thackeray);1 daughter (Urvashi Thackeray)
Residence
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Religion
Hindu

Raj Shrikant Thackeray (Marathi: राज ठाकरे) (born June 14, 1968) is the founding president of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena ("Maharashtra Renaissance Army"), which is a regional party in the state of Maharashtra,India. He is the nephew of former Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, and cousin of current Shiv Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray.

The Party aims to Divide people and rule the state by raising an issue regarding Non-Mumbaikers, Mr.Raj Thakre plays a powerful role in making this "PoliTricks".
It is better if he concentrate on the main issues which the mumbai citizens are Facing on Drinking water, Poverty,un employement, etc... activities.

Every citizen of India had a right to live anywhere in India, No party or a person has no right to Question the Right to living/Right to speak language.

Raj Thackeray arrested for violence against north Indians.

Thane (Maharashtra), June 29 (IANS) Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray surrendered before railway police here Monday in connection with a case of inciting violence against north Indian students appearing for a railway recruitment exam in October last year.He surrendered before Kalyan Railway Police as per an order of the Bombay High Court and was immediately put under arrest, an MNS worker said.

Thousands of MNS supporters thronged Kalyan in Thane district, 80 km from the state capital Mumbai, and police deployed massive security to ward off any trouble.
The high court had last week cancelled the anticipatory bail by a Kalyan court in the matter and ordered Thackeray to surrender by June-end.

Shortly after his surrender, Thackeray’s lawyers moved for bail. It is expected to come up for hearing in the afternoon at the Kalyan court.

Murder case filed against Raj Thackeray in Bihar
Biharsharif (Bihar)
The father of 25 year-old railway job aspirant who was allegedly killed by an MNS mob in Mumbai, filed a murder case against Raj Thackeray in Bihar on Friday.
Seeking initiation of criminal proceedings against the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief and his henchmen, Jagdish Prasad, Pavan Kumar's father, filed the case in the court of CJM Abhimanyu Lal Srivastava in Biharsharif in Nalanda district.
A case has been filed under different sections of IPC including murder and criminal conspiracy. Three persons have been named as witnesses in the petition.
While two of them had accompanied the youth to Mumbai as guardians and were witness to the assault on Bihari examinees by MNS activists on October 19, another, an acquaintance living in Pune, had received the body of Pavan after post mortem. The case is likely to be taken up for hearing on Saturday.
Raj Thackeray, whose alleged inflammatory anti-north Indian tirade has led to frequent attacks on Hindi-speaking people in Maharashtra, is facing a number of cases in Bihar.
An advocate, Sudhir Kumar Ojha, has filed a murder and sedition case against the MNS leader in Muzaffarpur, while a Dalit examinee Raj Kumar Chaudhary, who suffered a fractured hand in the MNS attack, has filed an FIR in Vaishali against Thackeray for instigating an MNS mob to attack Biharis.
Keshav Kumar Sinha, a lawyer, has filed a complaint case against Raj Thackeray and Shirish Parkar, MNS spokesman, under sections relating to culpable homicide, criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder.

MNS, Sena attack north Indian Rly exam candidates

Activists of Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and later those of the Shiv Sena today attacked 17 railway board examination centres in suburban Mumbai, protesting “inadequate representation” to locals and chased away candidates from north India.
About 10 people have been arrested so far for disrupting the examination and targeting candidates, police said. Five candidates were admitted to hospitals in Thane and Kalyan after being assaulted by MNS activists.
Condemning the attack, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad demanded a ban on the MNS, calling Raj Thackeray a “mental case”. “I strongly condemn the incident. There should be an inquiry into the attack. There should be strong action against that party... MNS should be banned,” he told reporters in New Delhi.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar spoke to Maharashtra counterpart Vilasrao Deshmukh and asked him to ensure the safety of students from Bihar. He called the MNS “a divisive force” and demanded strong action against it. Railway officials said they had received over two lakh applications for posts of Enquiry-cum-Reservation Clerk, Assistant Station Master and Goods Guards. While they did not give numbers for those who finally took the examination, officials said the turnout was low in view of the MNS threat.

Please contact:mumbai.diary@yahoo.com

Mumbai-Diary

CITY UNDER 'TERROR'

Mumbai-16th July,2009 : The Intelligence Bureau (IB) on Tuesday, Jul 14 has directed that at least seven places in Maharashtra to be on high alert including reputed bank in Mumbai and railway junction in Navi Mumbai as terrorists are planning to strike these sites.

Official sources said that the Jul 8 alert was issued based on the information received from the terror suspect who was detained in Jammu Kashmir. The police also recovered photographs of key areas likely the 'terror targets' in Maharashtra."The photographs are genuine. They include the picture of a reputed bank near the Bombay high court, two railway stations in Mumbai and a railway station in Navi Mumbai," an official said.

IB also mentioned four dates on which the terrorists planned to carry out the strikes. An officer said, "The LeT has been singled out as having planned an attack in the second alert too."

The alert was revealed after the arrest of Lashkar-e-Taiba militant in Jammu and Kashmir and police recovered photographs of targets in Maharashtra from him.

India's Most Wanted

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the Lashkar-e-Toiba leader who has been detained by the Pakistani authorities
"Terrorists from Jammu and Kashmir"
Mohammad Yusuf Shah (Hizbul Mujahideen)
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed (LeT)
Maulana Masood Azhar, the Jaish-e-Mohammad leader, who was freed by India as part of a deal to end the hijack of Indian Airlines IC-814 in December 1999
Abdul Karim "Tunda" (LeT)

"The Indian Airlines IC-814 hijackers"
Maulana Masood Azhar, the Jaish-e-Mohammad leader, who was freed by India as part of a deal to end the hijack of Indian Airlines IC-814 in December 1999.
Mohammad Ibrahim Athar Alvi, Zahoor Ibrahim Mistri, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Shakir Mohammad and Azhar Yusuf.

"The Mumbai serial bombings "
Dawood Ibrahim, 'Chhota' Shakeel Ahmad Babu, Sagir Sabir Ali Sheikh, Abdul Razzaq and Ishaq Atta Hussain.
'Tiger' Ibrahim Abdul Razzaq Memon and Ayub Memon.
"The Khalistan Terrorists"
Paramjit Singh Panjwar (Khalistan Commando Force)
Wadhawa Singh (Babbar Khalsa International)
Lakhbir Singh Rode
Gajinder Singh (Dal Khalsa)
Ranjit Singh Neeta (Khalistan Zindabad Force)





Please contact : mumbai.diary@yahoo.com