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One of the most appreciated initiatives by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation was the formation of Advanced Locality Management, commonly known as ALMs, to act as a bridge between the corporation and the citizens. However, these groups now feel that the corporation has destroyed the concept of ALMs as there is a lack of communication from the corporation and they have lost their say in ward-level decisions.
ALMs were initiated in Mumbai in 1998 to build a partnership between the BMC and the citizens with the main focus of work on participation in waste management. ALMs across the 24 wards of the city state organising waste picker services, collection and processing of dry waste. This initiative was an instant hit and was replicated in Delhi, Bangalore and Sri Lanka. These ALMs also played a major role in resolving public issues by conducting monthly meetings at the ward level.
With time, the range of work carried out by these ALMs became wide and it also got involved in active policy-making at the ward level by participating with the BMC as well as the police. It worked towards resolving issues of roads, footpaths, water, illegal hawking and many more. It also played a very crucial role in communicating the public grievances with the BMC and assisting them in resolving it.
However these ALMs now think that the concept of ALMs is not working anymore since there is no communication from the BMC while there are no corporators to listen to citizen’s demands as the municipal elections have been withheld for over two years. Since the lockdown was implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic, the ward level meetings of the ALMs with their respective ward officers have stopped.
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Voice of Kalina, one of the most active ALMs in the city, has successfully resolved issues of illegal construction, dumping of debris and waste as well as illegal banners. Recently, it had successfully unearthed the corruption in the gardens department of the BMC with the help of Right To Information. Such an active citizenry also feels that the concept of ALM is not working as there are no meetings happening with the BMC.AL
Clarence Pinto, a member of the Voice of Kalina ALM, said, “Today, not a single ALM in this city is functioning only because the important weekly and monthly meetings have stopped. We are the eyes and ears of the BMC as we help them with citizens grievances but they don’t want to be answerable to us. ALMs have started losing momentum as these officials are running away from accountability. We had to protest outside the ward office only to resume the public grievances system.”
With time, the number of ALMs in the city have increased rapidly but many of them are inactive and function for the namesake. Bandra (W), one of the most affluent areas of the suburbs, has almost 20 ALMs and only a few of them are actively engaging in solving citizens’ issues. The ALMs of Bandra allege lack of interest shown by the BMC officials to engage with the ALMs which has resulted into the fall of ALMs.
Marya D’Souza of ALM 33, which covers the Mount Mary Rd. in Bandra (W), said, “We have noticed that the current assistant municipal commissioner of our ward does not seem to be interested in meeting people and doesn’t even respond to our calls. He is not even calling any meetings with the ALM but we continue our work with the help of other efficient officers. Our area is managing without these meetings but the parts of Bandra which have gaothans, need these meetings the most.”
Even though the ward-level meetings with the ALMs were stopped during Covid, these citizens groups played an active role during the pandemic. Their work was not limited to the BMC and the police, but they also engaged with the health department by carrying out surveys about the senior citizens in the area, potential victims of the infection as well as helped in executing vaccination. Today, these ALMs are requesting a meeting with the AMC but receive no reply.
Mario Fishery, a member of ALM 10 that comprises of Chapel Rd, Church Street, Waroda Rd and Veronica Rd of Bandra (W), said, “Started from waste management, our ALM used to hold monthly meetings with the ward officer, which was even joined by the local and traffic police. We used to have a full house in these meetings but now we even have to request a meeting as only one meeting has been held after Covid. There are a lot of complaints from the citizens and we are asking for a meeting to resolve the issues but do not receive any reply from the BMC.”
