Walking the Line

"Society has always seemed to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice." ~ George Orwell

The story that made headlines in today's Times was the inaction by the UP government to take serious action against a superintending engineer of UP Jal Nigam. This is ostensibly because it was recommended by Rahul Gandhi, a Congressman and political rival to the incumbent Mayawati Government. The people of Sultanpur district of the state had various complaints against the engineer about his shoddy and below satisfactory work in installing hand pumps for drawing water. It is shameful that the government has made this an image issue. The grapevine has it that the engineer was not given the marching orders because a political rival recommending an action against a government official did not go down well with the government. What was lost on the 'leaders' was that the substandard work affected people's access to the most basic of all living necessities, water. These are the kind of politicians we have in place to run our lives and the society we live in as if it is their own fiefdom. And it is not just a one-off incidence. It happens all over the country. The material used for civic infrastructure is often of a lower grade than the norms and the money funded is pocketed by contractors and suppliers and the conniving officials. One can see a lot of this in Bombay itself.

A city that is trying to be a 'world class city' and the 'financial centre of South Asia' has roads with potholes that can match the craters on the moon. Every year the roads are repaired and every year the potholes resurface. Contractors thus get to fill roads every year using nothing more than sand and tar, without even being accountable to the people who are going to use it. This forms a sort of a regular stream of income for them.

The solution? I have one...

Bombay has, in my opinion, one of the best public transport utility in the world in BEST. Other public transport are autorickshaws and cabs that use the roads. They have their own unions. Instead of having them serve no apparent purpose, other than and calling strikes holding the city for ransom, why not make them participants in the road infrastructure development? These associations can have their own cells that will monitor the roads for vehicular traffic. The bus drivers that ply on the roads can be asked to give their feedback on the conditions of the roads. Ditto for cabs and the ricks. The contractors should not be paid or paid only half if all the three cells do not issue a certification for the quality of the roads. Surely all the three associations cannot be bought together for bribes. And involve people that stay along the road in the process too, like having a website that monitors complaints and tracks the work on such civic infrastructure projects.

The idea can work only on paper. Many fine tunings are needed before it can be practically implemented. But I believe it can be done. I have always been a vociferous advocate of civil society participation in government programmes. It is only then when we can have a leaner and cleaner administration that walks the line.
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