Why citizens will keep dying due to potholes

OPEN SPACES ARE POORLY MAINTAINED OR OFTEN GIFTED TO BUILDERS OR SQUATTERS

they are, nobody takes them seriously.

In fact, this is fallout of poor governance in our civic bodies. Most of these municipalities have budgets running into thousands of crores but there is little control over how they spend their funds collected from the taxpayers.

The result: The quality of civic amenities is poor. Roads come into focus because the potholes affect us and are clearly visible.

So, why nobody bothers to change this situation?

In all civic bodies across Maharashtra especially in the MMR, there are two major sources of corruption for those who are corrupt.

One, building construction and second, various civil contracts. The nexus of contractors/builders and corrupt politicians-bureaucrats has strong influence over politics.

Significantly, close to 50 legislators and at least nine parliamentarians are elected from the areas of MMR that are governed by various civic bodies.

And no party can claim to be free of this malaise.

Things are better in Mumbai but not beyond a limit. Mumbai civic chief Ajoy Mehta ordered a crackdown on the contractor-engineers nexus after the roads scam came into focus. However, will it prevent the nexus from existing? Highly doubtful.

Not just corruption, there is the issue of governance. Most of our civic bodies are badly governed. Roads and public amenities are in bad shape. Footpaths are either non-existent or occupied by hawkers and squatters.

Open spaces are poorly maintained or often gifted to builders or squatters. Rampant construction is allowed and it is talked about only when several parts of cities get flooded during the heavy rains. Even the words like planned development are looked with disdain.

Isn’t it time to make those ruling civic bodies—elected representatives as well as the administration--responsible for the way they govern our cities?

And the bigger question is: Who will do it?