Activities //
2004 - 2005
Erstwhile constituents of NAGAR now amalgamated:
Clean Air (CA); CitiSpace (CS); Clean Sweep Forum (CSF)
CA: A member of the Co-ordination Committee constituted by the High Court, August 2002
High Court Appointed Co-ordination Committee Court Case: The Committee asked for hoardings to be placed on the highways and petrol pumps to alert vehicles entering Mumbai. The High Court has also fixed a punitive fine for vehicles caught.
Bombay First Taxi Report
Bombay First Taxi Report: This was envisaged in the wake of the Vision Mumbai Plan to make Mumbai a world class city. Inputs given by CA were valuable as Ms. Meher Rafaat (its founder) was the only member who had any experience of working with the taxi unions in her capacity as a member of the V.M. Lal Committee and the High Court Co-ordination Committee. She was also conversant with the working of the R.T.O. – the main official agency to deal with the taxi trade. The Report of the committee centers on upgrading and enhancing this form of intermediary transport as part of a holistic solution to Mumbai’s transport needs.
Networking
- CA participated in the Mumbai Transformation Support Unit (MTSU) Project as a member of the Governance sub-group to source a major initiative and effect a quantum leap forward in the city’s development and ability to handle unforeseen circumstances and disasters as the 2005 Mumbai floods.
- CA was a part of Concerned Citizens commission (CCC) networked by Conservation Action Trust (CAT) which held a series of Public Hearings regarding the 2005 Mumbai floods at various venues in Mumbai for a fact finding exercise.
- NAGAR was a member of the Bombay First sub-committee on the upgrading of Mumbai’s taxi fleet.
- NAGAR was on another sub-committee of Bombay First - the Mumbai Transformation Project support unit as a member of the Governance sub-group.
- Loksatta’s Mumbai branch began an initiative on persuading the State Government and the Municipal Corporation toward implementing the 74th Amendment of the Constitution by forming Ward Committees with citizen participation. NAGAR actively interacted with them on this subject. The Concerned Citizen’s Committee (CCC) was formed by well-respected citizens to conduct public hearings on the reasons why the deluge of 26.07.05 brought the city to a standstill. NAGAR was one of the participants at the planning stage to put together a format for the hearings.
Institutionalization of the ALM concept:
- US-AEP funded the AIILSG to undertake this study with CSF as the major partner; preparation of a comprehensive handbook/ Manual to introduce newcomers to the ALM Scheme and be of use to existing ones too
- 3 original members of CSF with two additional entrants undertook this survey over 19 man-days between the 15th February, 2005 and 2 May 2005. 67 ALMs were surveyed, of which 45 efficiently functioning ALMs became the basic of the study – 22 in M Ward, and 23 in the rest of the city. 3 market waste projects and 2 Ecotels were also surveyed. Tabulation of data, as received, was done simultaneously.
- Findings of the survey: a) per capita generation of waste is approximately between 100 - 250 grams per person which is far below the accepted MCGM norm of 500 grams per person
- Opposed the idea of installing 5 incinerator facilities for medical waste management in the city by Maharashtra State Pollution Control Board (MPCB) as incineration technology is not only obsolete and expensive but also most harmful to human health.
- CSF participated in a Seminar on the ‘Role of NGOs in Urban Service Delivery and Urban Governance’ at the AIILSG on the 1st and 2nd September, 2005; Ramnath Punja, Co-Convenor of CSF made a presentation and spoke of separate and efficient management of the three aspects of waste, and how NGO’s like CSF can play a role in this; also introduced the idea of corporation of SWM on the lines of BEST.
- Concerned Citizen’s Committee (CCC) formed by citizens to conduct public hearings on the reasons why the deluge of 26.07.05 brought the city to a standstill. On 27.09.05, Mr. Rajkumar Sharma of CSF spoke at such a meeting on the role of mismanagement of SWM by MCGM as a cause compounding the deluge.
