Road Masters

Negotiating pot-holed city roads in monsoon has never been a pleasure. But the discomfort this year has been doubled by the knowledge that Mayor Nandu Satam and Roads Committee chairperson, Suhasini Parab, are sitting on Rs 12 crore earmaked for pre-monsoon road repairs. Satam and Parab have not yet been able to decide who, of the two, has the right to sanction the sum which was set aside through a budgetary sanction as early as March. And it8217;s not that they are not trying. They must be trying hard, for they have debated the issue for over two months now. Satam is clear: any proposal above Rs 2 crore must come before the mayor-in-council, he says. Parab too is firm 8212; since there are several contractors involved, the cost of each job works out to less than Rs 2 crore and hence, in her wisdom, the Roads Committee is the competent authority to pass the proposal. There is another point both are clear about, but would probably never pronounce in public. And that is their belief that roads, rains and repairsare all minor issues when placed before their egos. And that in a nut-shell is the mayor-in-council system 8212; total authority with little or no accountability. In the older system, the commissioner would have been able to use his discretion and use the amount. That8217;s how the budgetary allocation made under the urgent matter8217; head was used every year. With the press barred from meetings and bureaucrats reduced to pawns, the mayor-in-council system has failed to give Mumbai what it promised 8212; a people-oriented administration. Well, in a way it is people-oriented 8212; it caters to the whims and fancies of a few people like Satam and Parab, if that8217;s what they meant.