Of doggie poop & city governance

Good sometimes comes from bad and this encounter with municipal authority was beneficial because it made me realise yet again the urgent need for our cities to have elected governments accountable to the citizens and not some chief minister or prime minister.

Until this happens India’s towns and cities will continue to be polluted, festering slums. No amount of glittering new malls and five star hotels changes this ugly reality and no amount of well-meaning Central Government urban renewal missions will make a difference unless cities like Mumbai and Delhi have powerful elected mayors of the kind London and New York have.

What does dog shit have to do with municipal governance? Read on.

When I am in Mumbai, I live on Marine Drive, and my dog, Julie, is accustomed to taking her daily constitutional and performing her morning ablutions on this promenade. Of late this has become a problem because the Municipal Commissioner, Johnny Joseph, whimsically ordained that dog owners must clean up after their dogs or pay a penalty of Rs 500.

I told him that had the street been spotlessly clean I may have obliged but as it was a mess of paan spit, urine, pariah dog shit and rotting garbage I saw no need to.

I told him of a conversation I had with the Municipal Commissioner early on in the dog shit campaign, in which I had pointed out that in cities where dog-shit bans were in place the municipality distributed special bags and bins for this purpose. Assuming I agreed to clean up after Julie, where should I put it? As organic material it would shortly disintegrate but in Marine Drive’s prissy, little plastic bins, it would fester and stink.

The official looked puzzled and called his superior officer on his mobile phone. I persisted with my civil disobedience so he reported me to the police, who registered a case against me for violating dog-shit laws.

Thousands of rupees of taxpayers money will presumably now be spent on a court case and the city of Mumbai will continue to be filthy because, as usual, city officials are wasting their time and our money climbing the wrong hill.

... contd.