Raising Hell

Well done, Ulhasnagar! The way to break the nexus of corrupt politicians and unscrupulous property developers which is destroying all our ...

Well done, Ulhasnagar! The way to break the nexus of corrupt politicians and unscrupulous property developers which is destroying all our cities is for local citizens to get together and yell blue murder. That is precisely what Ulhasnagar did when the government decided to replace T S Chandrashekhar, municipal commissioner, who has done some good work restoring order to its chaotic streets. If a change had come about it would have given the city its 14th municipal commissioner since 1997.

Chandrashekhar has been at the job only since last July. The statistical chances of a new man lasting beyond January are nil. Does any city in the world get a new chief executive every 50 days? With that sort of turnover it would be tough to run a bhel-puri stall, leave alone a city of eight-and-a-half lakh people. No wonder people saw a conspiracy and went out on the streets to protest and rickshaws stopped and shops closed. That amounted to universal condemnation of the government8217;s decision to pull Chandrashekhar out.

Fortunately, the government has seen the light and quickly cancelled its orders. No one benefits from a headless municipal corporation except unscrupulous property developers and politicians who are in league with them. In city after city it has been seen how the politician-builder combine conspires to get rid of municipal commissioners who refuse to be pliable tools. In Pune Arun Bhatia and in Thane the same T S Chandrashekhar managed to alienate the rich and powerful when they implemented the law and demolished illegal buildings. In both cities the public rose to the defence of the bureaucrats when the government tried to remove them from their jobs.

That Pune lost Bhatia in the end despite popular protests only shows how powerful property lobbies are and how far up their tentacles reach. But Pune may not have suffered a real defeat in the long run. Once people are aroused and organised they are likely to vote out corrupt politicians and to be extra vigilant about illegal attempts by builders to swallow public spaces. And they know they can do something about it, go to court, protest on the streets, lobby the government. Mumbai, Pune, Ulhasnagar and Thane can save themselves from the land sharks if people get together and raise hell about their activities.