Dinesh Kamath's news item 'NMMC earns both bouquets and brickbats in recent times' that was published in Newsband

NMMC earns both bouquets and brickbats in recent times

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has come up with a right decision that only hawkers with licence from NMMC can do business. This issue of illegal hawkers in the satellite city had been nagging the NMMC authorities for a long time. Now NMMC has decided to treat this issue in a war footing.

It is high time for NMMC to find out the number of illegal hawkers pursuing their businesses on the roadside within its jurisdiction. These illegal hawkers prove to be a pest for both residents and vehicle drivers.

Even Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had intervened in this matter and had asked the municipal corporation to find out the actual number of illegal vendors prevalent in the city and issue licenses to them so that they are no more labeled as illegal hawkers.

The hawkers who have proper licences and have paid money to the civic body are not getting the facilities and there are around 20,000 hawkers in the satellite city. During the last survey it was found that the number of illegal hawkers had increased considerably. The question is what has happened to the plots meant for hawkers that City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) had handed to NMMC? Why can’t NMMC allot these plots to the hawkers?

NMMC should carry out raids every now and then and drive away the illegal hawkers and permit only those hawkers who have licence to pursue their businesses. The Supreme Court had issued an order that the hawkers should not be allowed to sit on the footpaths but NMMC authorities have not been obeying this order. This has encouraged the illegal hawkers to continue with their businesses in spite of the fact that they don’t possess any license. NMMC should at least respect Supreme Court’s orders and take appropriate action against the culprits.

It is high time for NMMC to come up with a proper hawkers scheme and do some systematic planning in order to tackle this sensitive issue. There is nothing wrong if NMMC authorities are partial towards the hawkers who are residents of the city. NMMC is right in preventing the hawkers from neighbouring areas to do business in Navi Mumbai. These outsiders occupy the whole space in the market and this prevents the hawkers from the city to conduct their business here. Only those hawkers staying in Navi Mumbai should be given licences while a special vigilance team should be constituted by the civic body to supervise them.

NMMC does enjoy the cooperation of the state government and so it should go ahead with the task of taking proper steps to ensure that only legal hawkers are pursuing their businesses in the city. In other words, NMMC should come up with a clear action plan to address the issue. The fact is NMMC has got 43 plots from CIDCO where these hawkers can be moved. So it should hurry up with the process of allotting spaces for hawkers with licenses.

Although NMMC has not been prompt in the matter of doing justice to hawkers, it has shown interest in providing justice to animals by coming up with a veterinary hospital for the benefit of sick stray animals. NMMC plans to build a four-storey hospital at plot number 5 and 6 in sector-24, Sanpada. For this, NMMC has allocated a budget of Rs 1 crore. But the actual cost could go up to Rs 7 crore. If this hospital is constructed, NMMC will be the first municipal corporation in the state to have come up with veterinary hospital.

At present the animal activists have to admit the sick stray animals in the veterinary hospital at Parel since there is no hospital for animals in Navi Mumbai. Hence all the animal activists of Navi Mumbai are pleased with the decision of NMMC to come up with a veterinary hospital in the city itself. This facility will cater to the Raigad, Thane and other neighbouring districts as well.

It is planned that this hospital will consist of a dog sterilization centre as well as a separate electric cemetery for animals.

Although NMMC has succeeded in making the animal activists happy it has not been able to please the industrialists of the city who are not at all satisfied with the development works NMMC has undertaken in the MIDC areas in several nodes.

The Small Scale Entrepreneurs Association (SSEA), Rabale, has expressed its unhappiness over the way in which the funds were allocated for civil works. Their argument is that while Nerul, Koparkhairane, Turbhe and Ghansoli have been allocated the major portion of funds, the industrial area in Rabale has been totally neglected in spite of the fact that many important roads in Rabale MIDC are in horrible condition and gutters are overflowing owing to them being choked up. The industrialists question as to what NMMC is doing with the property tax and cess that it collects from them.  

However, the NMMC authorities have assured that they will soon be starting the repair works of arterial roads in Rabale MIDC and that they have already started work of constructing concrete road from Digha to Turbhe and a service road parallel to Thane-Belapur road. NMMC has allocated Rs 144.37 crore for the works and expects the work to finish within a year. NMMC authorities boast that they have completed the work of constructing of culverts, asphalting of roads and concrete gutters in MIDC areas at Nerul, Turbhe, Koparkhairane and Ghansoli and that they are coming up with still more projects over here for which the tender procedure is in progress.

There seems to be a conflict between residents and industrialists of the city. The residents of the city are complaining that NMMC is paying more attention to industrial regions and ignoring the residential areas. These residents ask as to how could NMMC spend such huge amount of money for developing industrial areas when there are many roads, foot paths and gutters that need to be repaired in Ghansoli. But NMMC authorities have chosen to be diplomatic and have assured these residents that they will repair all the damaged roads of the city within a year.

NMMC is facing both praises and criticisms from residents of the city. NMMC finds it difficult to please all. Whenever it tries to please one section of the city residents the other section begin to express their displeasure for being ignored by the corporation. But Morbe Dam is a place which concerns all the residents of the city since it is from here that they get their regular supply of water. The residents are pleased over the fact that NMMC has decided to construct a compound wall around the Morbe Dam in Raigad district in a bid to restrict animals and people from entering its premises illegally. The residents are happy because this move by NMMC will enable them to get clean drinking water. In the past, NMMC had received complaints from the residents that animals defacate into the water of Morbe Dam thus causing health hazards. This fact made it necessary for NMMC to escalate security of the dam. A wall round the dam will prevent human beings, cattle, dogs and other animals from wandering in the dam premises and thus water can be prevented from getting polluted. The estimated cost for construction of the wall is around Rs 1.58 crore. The dam supplies nearly 450 mld of water to the satellite city. At present the dam has free access and hence any miscreant can cause damage to the water supply reservoirs thus causing untold miseries to the residents of the city. Morbe Dam is a very sensitive place from the point of view of city residents since their health is dependent on the water supplied by the dam and hence NMMC should not only construct a wall around the dam but also come up with high-tech security measures to protect the dam especially from terrorists who are always on the lookout for such places to launch their terror attack. 

NMMC is blamed for not using taxes they collected appropriately. But it is found that NMMC has also failed to collect enough taxes especially Local Body Tax (LBT). It has not been able to meet even half the LBT target so far. The question is whether it will succeed in meeting the target by the time the year ends. NMMC, however, blames the traders for not cooperating and for trying to evade paying the tax. The traders, however, blame the corporation and state government for the current situation. Traders, in fact, are hoping that the state government will reduce LBT and hence they are delaying paying of the tax. The traders are hopeful that the LBT will be reduced since the chief minister of the state himself had asked the NMMC to reduce LBT and thus give relief to the traders. Hence it remains to be seen whether both state government and NMMC will arrive at a final decision relating to LBT and whether that decision will be in favour of traders.

Thus NMMC, as usual, has to remain prepared to face both bouquets and brickbats from the residents of the city. While it is praised for some achievements it is also criticized severely for some of its shortcomings.