Every year, after the rains cause widespread disruption, the BMC claims that it is at work and things would be very different the next year. But that rarely happens

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) should be one of the top contenders in any contest for the title of being India's most inefficient, slothful and corrupt civic body. Many residents of the Maximum City have described it as such and two developments in recent days show that their claims are by no means unfounded. The first is the heavy rains on June 24 and 25 that paralysed many parts of the city. The second is the death of a 24-year-old man Dinesh Jatoliya, who fell into an open drain at Kurla on June 22.

The rains were responsible for three deaths on June 24 and 25. Besides, these led to water logging in many parts which, in turn, caused traffic to crawl, more than 50 BEST buses to be diverted and more than 140 trains on Central and Western Railways cancelled. On June 25, as many as 68 flights were delayed at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport until the afternoon. A wall-collapse causing a road cave-in the Wadala East area damaged at least 15 cars, some of them buried under the debris. A road cave-in was reported at Gol Masjid at Marine lines, leading to the traffic department closing the lane to motorists.

Neither the paralysis nor the deaths should have happened. The havoc played by rains is an annual feature. last year, torrential rains hit Mumbai on August 29 and disrupted rail, road and air traffic besides causing five deaths. The Reuters put the number at 14. Two toddlers were among the victims, as was Dr Deepak Amarapurkar, a leading gastroenterologist, who fell into an open manhole.

After the tragic deaths of Dr Amarapurkar and others, one would have thought that the BMC would redouble its efforts to ensure that all manholes and open drains were covered. Dinesh Jatholiya's case indicates that nothing of the sort had happened. A BMC official has doubtless blamed local residents saying that some of them might have removed the cover for the rainwater to recede. local residents, on the other hand, have slammed the BMC for failing to provide warning signs and covers for manholes and open drains before the monsoon. That there is basis to their allegation is clear from the fact that a three-year-old child, Aadiyan Pervez Tamboli, had failed to see an open gutter in the Cheetah camp area in Chembur (East) during the heavy rains on June 7, 2018. He would have lived if the gutter had been covered.

Every year, after the rains had caused loss of life and widespread disruption and damage, the BMC claims that it is at work and things would be very different the next year. Thus, on June 25, 2015, it claimed that it had found a long-term method of ending water logging, the implementation of which would begin after the rains were over and be completed by the next monsoon. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort has happened and the deaths, disruptions, and destruction continue.

lack of funds could not have been the cause. The BMC is the richest municipal body in India and one of the richest in Asia. Its annual budget estimate for 2018-19 is Rs 27,258.07 crore. In fact, there is massive under-utilisation of funds caused by red-tape and lack of planning. There is gross inefficiency and delay. For example, BMC authorities told a standing committee meeting in May, 2018, that there would be waterlogging this monsoon. Referring to the Hindmata junction, an area well-known for water logging every year, they said that the work of replacing the British era box drain by a bigger one had yet to be

completed. This would not have happened if implementation, which reportedly began as late as February this year, had started well in time.

And there is corruption for which the BMC, like many of its counterparts elsewhere, is notorious. Figures speak. According to a report, which cites the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau, 45 cases had been registered against 55 BMC officials between 2015 and July 2017. Of them, eight were not suspended and two, despite being convicted, had yet to be dismissed at the time of the report's publication on July 29. Not just that, the Maharashtra Government has written to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, directing it to probe 2,001 civic staff and officers accused of corruption.

Any surprise that Mumbai drowns at least once every monsoonIJ

(The writer is Consultant Editor, The Pioneer, and an author)