With the onset of the monsoon, the annual ritual of making corruption allegations against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) starts, a rite that’s been observed for over two decades. Every political party and its leaders want to clean up the BMC, but not when the broom is in their hands.
Earlier, it was the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) making allegations against the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance that ruled the BMC for nearly 25 years. Now, it is the Shiv Sena (UBT) levelling similar allegations against the BJP and its alliance partner the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
This simply means that corruption is a given when it comes to Asia’s richest civic body – the BMC (Badly Managed Corporation), and the issue is not merely one of governance, but a deeper moral crisis among politicians ruling the city.
Take the Mithi river cleanup, for example. After the devastating 2005 floods, which exposed flaws in the urban infrastructure, a committee appointed to find reasons for the crisis suggested cleaning the natural flow of Mumbai’s rivers. Nearly two decades later, the results remain the same, and the Mithi river is yet to be 100 per cent cleaned and widened.
In fact, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has filed an FIR in connection with the Mithi desilting scam involving five contractors, three BMC officials and one or two companies. Other corruption allegedly involving the BMC pertain to road repairs, nullah cleaning and even malpractices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ideally, the 2005 flood should have been a case study, and the BMC should have worked on measures to avoid a repeat of the disaster. But, unfortunately, the delay only reflects failure, lack of will and accountability of the administration and political parties, leaving Mumbai as vulnerable today as it ever was.
The real worry for the city is that every political party knows that corruption exists. But the cycle is never-ending as no one wants to clean up a rotting system, as it is also a cash cow.
Politicians wax eloquent about corruption and issues of flooding, the inferior quality of roads and footpaths encroachment only when they are not in power. Otherwise, no party looks for solutions to these issues.
Take the latest example; immediately after the onset of the monsoon, as usual, several areas of Mumbai got flooded, and the annual political blame game and mudslinging began between Aaditya Thackeray of Shiv Sena (UBT) camp and Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar.
To highlight corruption in civic contracts like road work, drainage and waste management, Thackeray Jr even coined a term ‘ladka contractor’ (favourite contractor) in a dig at the Ladki Bahin scheme. But, the grandson of the late Balasaheb Thackeray has forgotten that the undivided Shiv Sena ran the BMC for over 25 years, during which time these problems had got worse. Similarly, Shelar, a BJP minister in the current Mahayuti ‘sarkar’, is asking for a white paper on Sena’s misrule and bad governance. But, Shelar seems to have forgotten that for the past three years, the civic administration has been overseen by an administrator chosen by his own government. If the system was so broken, why wasn’t it fixed after a change of guard?
Former Mumbai mayor and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Kishori Pednekar questioned the BJP, pointing out that both parties were allies until 2017. If Sena (UBT) is being targeted now, the BJP must also be held accountable for its role during the alliance. Since both political parties are right and both leaders are responsible, the real test for any political party or its leader is not what it says in the Opposition, but what he or she does to change the system when in power.
For the financial year 2024-25, the BMC has a budget of R59,954.75 crore. The civic body was scheduled to go to the polls in early 2022. But, for nearly three years, there have been no elections to the 227 corporator seats in the BMC, leaving the city administration to the commissioner and his team of bureaucrats.
Back in 2003, former municipal commissioner SS Tinaikar had filed a complaint before the Lokayukta. The veteran IAS officer, known for his integrity and administrative grip, in his complaint claimed that the standing committee would disapprove a proposal or tender submitted by the municipal commissioner on ‘insignificant or flimsy’ grounds. The same proposal would then be reopened by a member who was absent at the earlier meeting and this time, surprisingly, the proposal would get approved without any or with minor modifications by the committee, without any justification for the change of mind. All projects involving capital expenditure are approved by the standing committee. Corporators across parties are members of this crucial committee. The number of political representatives is decided based on the strength (number of elected corporators) of the respective party in the BMC.
No wonder then that the late Congress leader and the then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh in private conversation used to refer to the committee as the ‘understanding committee’. The ruling Congress-NCP (undivided) government used to blame the ruling Shiv Sena (undivided) and BJP alliance for the poor management of Mumbai, as the saffron alliance had a majority in the BMC. In 2011, the then Congress chief minister Prithviraj Chavan too talked of corruption in the BMC and had stated that the builder-politician-bureaucrat nexus needed to end.
Two decades after acknowledging the problem, in 2025, instead of seeing a dip in corruption, the situation has gone from bad to worse.
Mumbai’s janta doesn’t want dreams peddled by politicians of turning Mumbai into Shanghai or Singapore. Citizens are merely asking for politicians and bureaucrats to come together to provide basic civic amenities such as good roads, clean drains, reliable public transport and pedestrian-friendly and obstruction-free footpaths. Are these so hard for the Badly Managed Corporation to deliver?
Sanjeev Shivadekar is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @SanjeevScribe
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The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
