“As the district is home to many famous business houses including those of Birla, Piramal, Modi, Singhania, Goenka, Poddar and Kanodia, the city is visibly prosperous, benefiting from the generosity of its millionaire residents. Jhunjhunu is also known for its large contribution to the armed forces, many of them martyred, and a tradition of Hindu-Muslim cooperation. But Jhunjhunu really stands out as an example of an engaged citizenry and a responsive civic administration,” opens the narrative (Sharma, 2009). What finds highlighted in the example are ‘mohalla samitis, set up in the town for garbage collection, a few years ago, and evolving into ‘door-to-door free collection of garbage in 12 wards. If that sounds unexciting, sample this: “Responding to the initiative of residents who created parks from garbage dumps, the municipality came out with a scheme where it contributes 70 per cent of the cost of converting empty plots into gardens. The local committees have also worked to create infrastructure such as a marriage hall.” Local initiatives Another instance of citizen engagement in Jhunjhunus needs is that of sewerage. “An elected woman representative, Sudha Panwar, works to keep her mohalla of around 2,000 houses clean and her ward also has a mohalla samiti. A special problem she faced is of families with their own cows and buffaloes generating a lot of animal waste which couldnt be collected by municipal sweeper and was blocking the main drains.” So, what did Sudha do? She worked out a system of cleaning the drains and hiring tractors to remove the waste before taking it to a garbage dump, as the book informs. In the authors view, Jhunjhunus experience shows that citizen engagement works best when free from political interference. With the institutionalising of the work by the local groups, though the municipal workers do not come in as regularly as required, the success of people mobilisation has made up for it, one learns. “The residents have seen the benefits of local initiatives and continue with them as well as monitor the work of the local bodies.”
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 08:55:07 +0000