No one cares about city management in India

Delhi is posing challenge and problems as the management of the city is going from bad to worse. The problem is created by an absurd and mindless amendment of the constitution based on advice of so called experts in government and this amendment 69 followed favorite method of compromise and not doing right, When statehood was conside3red instead of following international practices and studying the best possible method to govern the capital of India it chose to strike a moonfish solution of making it neither man nor woman approach for the city. It is neither now a state nor a union territory but transgender.The designers thought they afre party satisfting and partly sticking to direct control by the centre.

The right course was to reject this transgender approach and make it a new strongly and innovatively managed city. But in Politics compromise power handling are important not sound and efficient management.Even now it is better to remove this amendement and introduce a neew model of management of the city.

Poverty of thinking at the political level is appalling and if we examine other cities we find the same approach of fragmentation and defused accountability is introduced in all cities. Recently I was studying along with researchers the city of Varanasi that is the dream of Prime Minister as the intellectual capital of India and heritage city par excellence but today it is in shambles. We are getting all type of experts to invest to make flyovers to make ghats or set up recycling plant etc. But the root of the problem no one is addressing and that stems from the organization and management design of the city. In the present organization Mayor is just figure head with broom in his hand but he has no control on other matters of the city. As he put it to me “n there are two dozen agencies working at Ghats but they are not accountable to him and sometime working at cross purposes. District administration has its own sphere where Mayor has nothing to do . Revenue and land matters are in state or centre’s control.

In Delhi Municipal corporations are independent of the local government. LG who represents central government is supposed to be independent of the state .Land, Police and appointments are with the LG who reports to centre and incase of dispute with the state he has to go to President. This is what Kejriwal is not able to understand as to why he is Chief Minister when he has no power like state CMs. But this is legal and constitutional position and Shiela Dixit functioned smoothly when BJP was in power in the centre without any fuss. This is a question of difference in methodology of work of leader –one who wishes to work with democratic setup with persuasion and consultation rather than seeking confrontation everywhere which is being followed by Kejriwal. Giving designation of CM to Delhi ;s head was wrong as he has no full authority of a CM. Even making Delhi a full state is not the solution and can create more trouble as the seat of central government is in the city.

If we see global experience there is clear accountability and authority of the city management. Tokyo London or other cities have Mayor-Council model. Both are directly elected by the citizen.London has broughs which are something like decentralized zonal system coordinated by Council. Mayor is assisted by a committee but is accountable to the Council. Mayor organizationally reports to the Prime Minister or Home Minister. There is no confusion or overlap of accountability and that makes city work smoothly. In India we create Mayor but we don’t want him to function as Mayor, We create CM but we don’t want him to be CM. It is endless hypocritical game. It is in the interest of the efficient management of the cities to end this game and make clear organizations, Change the constitution if it is so needed but improve cities care as well as citizen welfare.

Bus Stand

First passenger: In first page of papers I read official meetings of the Government conclude that there are no problems of water shortage or disruptions of power in state. Next page is full of reports of water scarcity and power breakdowns. Whom should I believe?

Second Passenger: Truth is elastic in Himachal Government. If you are getting services you believe the government and if you are miserable without these then believe the public.

----Prof N.K.Singh former Chairman International Airports Authority