In 2022, with the world just recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, it didn’t seem extraordinary when elections to the richest civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) were postponed. Though the reasons for postponement were a case in the Supreme Court about OBC seats and an earlier delimitation exercise, any aberrations to the existing systems were acceptable in the backdrop of two ghastly COVID-19 waves and Omicron.
But decisions that seemed fine at that point have outlived the concession. In Mumbai, as the city prepares for the state assembly elections, the elephant in the room is actually the BMC elections. Not to mention several municipal elections in the state are delayed too.
Currently, Mumbai is administered by the state government through a state-appointed Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani. There are no elected representatives, i.e. the corporators, working in the BMC since 2022. As of now, there is no clarity when elections will be held. The issue has not featured prominently on agenda during campaigning of assembly elections either.
The campaigns largely focus on the splits in the political parties that happened in the past few years. Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena, BJP and Ajit Pawar’s NCP are on one side as Mahayuti while Indian National Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena and Sharad Pawar led NCP are the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
During their public meetings, the leaders highlight the big ticket projects in Mumbai, such as the Coastal Road, Atal Setu and Mumbai Metro and claim credit for initiating or completing them. In debates, there are references to BMC elections, but soon that too becomes just another blame game.
Impact on access to BMC
According to the governance structure, categorised as central, state and local, BMC is a civic body that is responsible for local governance. It is responsible for public health, roads, education, waste management and green cover and so on.
People usually approach their area’s corporators if they face any issue and depending on the gravity of the issue, the corporator can solve it on his/her own or take it to the standing committee and raise it for better redressal.
Corporators used to have offices in the BMC headquarters and in their respective wards where people could approach them. The offices were sealed last year and many corporators spoke about increasingly losing touch with their people.
When Amin Patel, MLA from Mumbadevi constituency spoke to Citizen Matters, he mentioned that corporators are unable to work on grievances and MLAs have to step in now.
Civic activists are at their wit’s end as mud slinging continues without action on ground and attention to issues — be it flooding, water supply or repair of roads.
Read more: Mumbaikars deal with another monsoon without their corporators
Impact on funding
Despite being the richest civic body in the country, the BMC has now been dealing with funding issues — not so much about having the funds, but about disbursal, allocation and effective utilisation.
Every corporator receives Rs 1 cr and 60 lakh for various development activities. This money is used for repair-related or development-related activities. However, since the elections were postponed, the corporators have stopped receiving the funds and most of the works have been affected due to paucity of funds.
The government recognised this and granted additional funds for MLAs. However, that was not without its share of controversies when it was revealed that the funds went only to ruling party MLAs.
An investigation by the Indian Express revealed that these funds were not given to opposition MLAs even if they asked. While 21 MLAs from the ruling alliance sought and received funds, 15 MLAs from the opposition did not receive any. Out of those 15, 11 MLAs had requested for funds but still did not receive.
Though the government rejected these allegations, it is amply clear that without adequate funds, the MLAs or corporators are unable to execute most of the required work in their areas. Consequently, the people feel that their grievances are not heard and feel increasingly distant from the system.
Civic activists say that political rivalries and one-upmanship have severely affected access as well as actual work that needs to be done in every ward. Some also express concern over normalisation of lack of representatives, in terms of losing the space to negotiate with the government.
Although ward officers are said to be available at ward offices, many activists say that they are not accessible or responsive to their complaints. Officials, on the other hand, maintain that the municipal work has been going on smoothly and efficiently.
Was BMC’s beautification drive a misguided plan?
In absence of discussions, debates and opposition to plans that are implemented, Mumbai has seen some strange initiatives.
For example, the beautification drive that was touted as a big achievement by the state government, received so much flak that many of those plans had to be dropped or altered.
The massive 1729 crore beautification plan, among other things, had decorating trees with lights and paints (both harmful for the trees), putting up a clock tower in M-East ward (which has many grave issues to deal with), and putting artificial bird decorations, statues on roads.
One wonders if the civic body was functioning normally, with corporators, standing committee meetings and a robust engagement with the public, would all these initiatives get cleared and implemented and implemented badly?
Read more: Why you should care about BMC elections
BMC election: A non-negotiable need of the hour
The initial delays because of delimitation no longer hold as the Bombay High Court upheld the present government’s overruling of the delimitation ordinance in 2023.
The Supreme Court decision on the OBC seats is still awaited. However, in 2022 the apex court said that elections should not be delayed because of this.
“Subsequently, in its July 20, 2022 order, the SC had directed the SEC not to postpone elections for 92 Municipal Councils and four Municipal Panchayats, ruling that they be conducted without any OBC quota. “In no case, the election process in respect of local bodies where it is already overdue can brook any further delay. The Election Commission must act with promptitude..,” the SC had ordered, the Indian Express reported in 2024.
Experts say that the municipal elections various parts of Maharashtra, including the BMC, can be held on all seats except for the disputed OBC seats. And those too can be held if the government completes the survey in those municipal jurisdictions and informs the SC, so a decision can be made. Two such municipal elections, without the OBC seats, have taken place in the state. States such as Bihar have completed the OBC survey to make way for decision on reservations in municipal elections.
The case has been delayed due to multiple adjournments since 2022 and it is not clear what the next development could be. However, when asked about the delay, political leaders cite the Supreme Court case as the reason for not having the elections.
And in November 2024, the city continues to be managed by a state-appointed BMC commissioner. Not only the local governance now depends on the state but also on the centre in some cases.
When a city is governed by the state (or centre), the principle of decentralisation, which is core to our democracy, is seriously impacted.
Without representation from its people, whether it is for a pothole or podtaxi, the decisions, initiatives and management of the city is mostly going to fail. It is wrong in principle and it will have serious implications on the wellbeing of its people.
The fact that no political party is raising hell over this in their current political campaigns only shows their apathy towards the city.
Mumbai deserves better.
Mumbai must have municipal councillors and the ruling party much be fair to them. Take for instance we at bandra in ward 101 under ex-municipal councillor Mr Asif Zakaria did not get any waste bins because that was given to the BJP. Actually it was given by our money AND why did not the municipality provide them in any case – just giving them to the BJP MLAs is not done and it is not according to our constitution. NO FREEBIES WERE ALLOWED THAN WHY DID THE BJP MLA DISTRIBUTE THE BINS.
Allocation of 500 crore funds to bjp MLA FROM
CORPORATION fund , is loot .. why opposition MLA did not got the fund ..
Then 90000 crore reserve fund is reduced to 75000 crore .. imagine 15000 crore on top of actual fund been untilized by bjp and still we can’t see any process on ground ..
Then BMC officers holding no accountability for their action!! It simply shows people in state power are just having fun using BMC funds without accountability and this is the actual reason they don’t want elections to be conducted as well , otherwise their additional funds will go to accountable elected corporators !