Contaminated municipal water in Indore’s Bhagirathpura area has claimed at least seven lives, as over 2,000 residents were affected by severe vomiting and diarrhoea. The crisis, linked to a leakage in the main Narmada water supply pipeline – exacerbated by a toilet constructed overhead – has exposed serious administrative lapses in India’s repeatedly awarded “cleanest city”. This is despite the fact that Madhya Pradesh Urban Development Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya is the local MLA. In response the state government has dismissed one official, suspended two and formed a three-member probe panel.
According to the state government there was a lack of coordination between the Mayor and municipal officials. Two senior IMC officials have been suspended, while a senior Public Health Engineering (PHE) official has been removed from service with immediate effect.
That ‘lack of coordination’ can lead to such devastating consequences is a lesson for municipal bodies across the country. India is a hugely populated country and, while such a shortcoming would cause much less damage in other nations at a similar level of development, the impact here is always greater. As such, India must focus on improving the administrative structure of municipalities so that it can remain democratic and, yet, function as a modern day entity. The structures inherited from the British require to be totally overhauled to ensure such dangerous events are prevented from happening. The same applies to other agencies related to infrastructure development.
One needs only to go around Dehradun to see how one agency tasked with a certain project, such as laying gas pipelines or undergrounding electricity cables, calmly demolishes infrastructure installed by some other, such as water pipelines or sewer lines. Since much of the work is given to private contractors and sub-contractors, there is little attention paid to coordination, ground level planning and other technicalities. The result is there for the people to see.
Till such time the processes and procedures are not aligned to present day needs, there can be no certainty that such incidents do not recur with tragic frequency. Claims are made that modern digital technology is being utilised to ensure real time information is available to all, including high officials and elected representatives, but this is not visible on the ground. Almost every day one gets to see video clips of ward members having heated arguments with municipal officials over matters that should have been agreed to before a work contract was even approved. There is no doubt that urgent reform is needed in this regard.
