Citizen initiative

BS OPINION

India has the world's largest urban population, and among its worst managed cities. Civic administration has shown no reform so far, barring exceptions like Surat after the plague.

In other cases where some reform was tried (with good results), it was not persisted with""like the Kolkata municipal corporation.

Citizens in the metros seem to have realised this, but in at least one or two cases the result is not apathy but greater involvement, leading to a seizing of initiative.

Bangalore, for instance, has seen a unique experiment involving citizens in the city's development process.

Mumbai too might see some change, following the decision by Bombay First, a forum started in 1995 by some of Mumbai's leading citizens and bureaucrats, to commission McKinsey to prepare a blueprint that (it is hoped) will help transform Mumbai into a world class city.

Not all such experiments succeed; consulting organisations like McKinsey and Arthur D Little have done reports on not just cities but whole states, with little to show by way of change on the ground.

But the Bangalore experiment provides room for hope. Powered by the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF), comprising the city's corporate leaders and prominent citizens, it could mark the beginning of the city's renaissance.

BATF works with city agencies like the Bangalore Development Authority and Bangalore Municipal Corporation (BMP) to upgrade the city, in the belief that engagement by citizens holds the key to good governance, while the application of corporate best practices will increase municipal efficiency.

Changes show up in such core areas as budgeting. The BMP, for instance, moved from a cash system to a fund-based accounting system.

The latter keeps track of the municipality's assets and liabilities, overlooked by the cash system, while associated changes have reduced the information-flow cycle time from 48 days to 48 hours.

What's more, many of these assets can be securitised or monetised, facilitating easier access to capital markets for financing the creation of new municipal assets.

The change shows up in tangential ways as well: BMP has become the first (and still the only) municipal body to declare quarterly results.

Other changes include greater openness, in the form of micro-level civic planning so that neighbourhood budget allocations are public knowledge; programme effectiveness and costs can then be monitored by the potential beneficiaries.

Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna has been supportive of public participation in this manner, and if the movement grows, then citizen initiative will make a noticeable difference to the provision of public services in the city.