Sunday Snippets
By Venkatesh Raghavan
Many years have passed since I covered the civic beat for The Free Press Journal, a broadsheet morninger that keeps coming out in Mumbai city. I remember those days when I used to sit in the civic hall and listen to a host of complaints pouring in from corporators at the General Body meeting. Frequent complaints that used to pour in was about the abysmal quality of potable water that residences in their locality were faced with, billboards that popped up at locations round the ward, uncollected garbage heaps that kept piling up on the street corners besides rampant presence of potholes on the roads that led to traffic congestion.
While the General Body meetings addressed civic problems, at the Standing Committee meetings, it was about new projects that the civic body proposed to undertake. Being present at the Standing Committee meetings on several occasions, I recall a couple of projects that were strongly debated but failed to take off.
First, it was about putting up a chandelier at the Gateway of India that would provide adequate lighting and glamour to the festive occasions as well as people who took routine outings on evenings. I subsequently learnt that the cost was prohibitive and there was also a strong contention about spending on a project that had only a beautifying utility.
Weeks later, the then Maharashtra finance minister, Jayant Patil held a conference in the press room of the civic body. He announced a beautification plan that envisaged covering the stretch from Nariman Point to the international airport. I remember this incident as my mind kept racing to how on earth such a project of gigantic proportions that was likely to eat into the cash reserves of both the civic body and state government would get underway? I straight away shot off my question. “Mr. Patil, how do you propose to fund this project?” The answer I received was disappointing. The minister told the press, “It’s the idea that is important. Availability of funds doesn’t matter.”
As a journalist covering both finance and civic beats for quite a while, I could easily figure out that it was just another instance of building castles in the air. For, had there been a concrete plan, the minister would have at least talked about a public-private partnership or even multiple corporate sponsors.
Later, I also happened to witness contrasting views being presented by the civic union leader (late) Sharad Rao and the civic administration. Both were at loggerheads, with the administration claiming that the civic body was suffering heavy losses and was not in a position to part with Diwali bonus for its staff members. Despite public opinion mounting against Rao’s union, the leader grew intransigent and threatened to force a civic strike if his demand for bonus is not acceded to.
Mumbaikars being by and large peaceful in accommodating striking unions were however, disinclined to let it pass. There were violent protests across South Mumbai with many of the civic union staff getting physically assaulted, out on the main streets. Mercifully the agitation ended fast with both sides agreeing on a face saving solution.
This was the last of my memories on the civic beat as from then on I graduated to being a full scale business journalist.
