'Make mayor CEO of Mumbai, let people elect him directly'

MUMBAI: A group of NGOs have demanded a change in civic governance for Mumbai. Spearheading a campaign christened ‘Vote Mumbai’ more than 35 NGOs from the city are asking for a direct election of the Mayor for Mumbai in the upcoming civic elections.

Anant Shende, the campaign co-ordinator for Lok Satta — a participating NGO, said the proposal suggests transferring power from the Municipal Commissioner and state ministries, to the Mayor. At present the Mayor has little power, and his prime responsibility is chairing the corporation meeting.

Those supporting the system say that since the Municipal Commissioner, who has real power in the BMC, is a state appointee, the person is not directly accountable to the voters of Mumbai, but only to the Mantralaya.

“What we are proposing is to make the mayor, the CEO of the city with his empowered municipal council, in addition to instituting ward committees with absolute participation of the registered voters and voluntary organisations”, said Jayaprakash Narayan, the national co-ordinator of Lok Satta.

What happens in Delhi does not often percolate to the city, and hence the need arises for a direct authority, he added. A similar proposal is still pending with the state government under the Mumbai Makeover Plan submitted by McKinsey & Company.

The plan to empower the Mayor has been bitterly opposed ever since it was mooted in ‘99. Political observers also point out that since the CEO system would end up making MPs and MLAs redundant it could cause an uproar. The Shiv Sena in particular has been opposing such plans, fearing that the island city would be alienated from the state.

Critics also point out that Mumbai has experimented with a Mayoral Council before. In 1998-99, the Shiv Sena, which was, and still is, in power in the BMC, gave Mayor Nandu Satam and his Mayoral Council substantial powers.

The system was scrapped after the state government — of the Sena-BJP combine — felt that the Mayor was getting too powerful. Some say that the disgruntled municipal bureaucracy had a hand in the end of the Mayoral system. However, the current proposal is unlike the system experimented with.

Mr Satam was not directly elected as mayor by Mumbaikars, but appointed by the Shiv Sena from amongst its corporators. Moreover, Mumbaikars had no power to suggest how municipal funds for their locality ought to be spent.

The proposed system involves Mumbaikars in the administration of the BMC, said Mr Narayan, “The ‘Mayor-in-Council’ model failed because it was not a participative model.

It did not take into account grassroot level participation and had absolutely no local say in addition to being imposed upon by bureaucratic will.” What the Vote Mumbai campaign proposes is that there be absolute people’s participation, especially from the registered voters of the city, he added.