A day before the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation was to debate a critical policy on Mumbai’s open space management on Wednesday, Ashish Shelar of the Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded that it be returned to the Improvements Committee for debate. The policy will determine the terms by which organisations apart from the corporation will manage the 1,068 gardens, parks and grounds it owns.
The Mumbai municipal corporation, which is the richest in the country, has said that it will do away with a controversial caretaker policy by which outside organisations could utilise up to one third of an open space as private enclaves in return for maintaining the rest for the public – who must pay a nominal charge to enter.
The policy does retain the system of adoption, under which outsiders can maintain a garden, but not privatise any part of it. However, instead of cancelling the leases of the nine spaces currently leased under the caretaker policy, the BMC has chosen to maintain the status quo. It has also left a backdoor entry for 11 more plots to convert their leases from adoption terms to caretaker ones.
Shelar's objection comes after a round table meeting organised by the Observer Research Foundation that he and other stakeholders attended yesterday. Activists have been critiquing this policy, introduced by BJP corporator Prakash Gangadhare, since the corporation’s Improvements Committee approved it on November 9.
“The BMC says that the caretaker policy has been repealed and that the new adoption policy will be different, but just using these terms does not change the nature of the policy,” said Meher Rafaat, a trustee of Nagar, a city-based advocacy group. “The caretaker policy was abused by politicians. Our objection is that when Bombay has an abysmal ration of open spaces, we need to augment permeable spaces, not reduce them.”
There is a lot at stake here. Mumbai has an terrible record of maintaining its open spaces. Activists say that the corporation has the budget to maintain all these spaces – it has allotted Rs 400 crores for this to its Garden Department. So it ought not to rely on outside agencies, whether they are residents' associations or large corporate or political entities.
Usurped spaces
Under the caretaker policy, which the BMC says it has now abolished, a caretaker could build and charge for membership to a clubhouse on 33% of the ground. The rest was to have remained open and accessible to the public. There are nine such spaces in the city. But in practice, many of these spaces have been usurped by the caretakers.
Among them, for instance, is the Matoshree Club in Jogeshwari. The BMC leased five acres of land to Shiv Sena member Ravindra Waikar in 1996 for a period of five years. Later that year, the terms of the lease were altered to permit construction on up to 50% of that land.
Today, the Matoshree Club is open – but only to all its members. The club charges a lifetime membership fee of Rs 3.45 lakh per couple. Its complex is pristine. It has a swimming pool, playground and eight rooms for members and guests to stay.
Cross a small gate from Matoshree Club into the municipal garden adjoining it and it is a different world altogether. The club has posted guards at the gate to keep away visitors, ostensibly because there are snakes. This is no surprise because the entire stretch is overgrown with grass. While a set of slides and monkey bars occupy a small corner of the garden and there are a few benches placed sporadically through the rest, most of the garden does not seem maintained, or indeed developed.
The club manager claims Matoshree Club spends around Rs 4 lakh annually on the upkeep of this garden. Despite management claims to the contrary, locals say they are not allowed inside.
Other spaces leased under the caretaker policy, such as the MIG Cricket Club in Bandra or the Vihar Sports Complex in Borivali have similarly been privatised, activists say.
Yet the BMC in its new policy says that the status quo will be maintained for these sites. Organisations that have leased open spaces under the adoption policy will be able to convert their plots to the terms of the former caretaker policy if they have applied for this conversion by the end of December 2014 and have spent a minimum of Rs 3 crore on the plot.
Government gardens
A large gap in the open spaces policy, says Gautam Kirtane of the Observer Research Foundation is that it does not have a broader vision.
“The policy needs a preamble,” he said. “It should tell us the history of the policy – that it was started in 1991, what it has achieved and not achieved should be shared and also what it plans for the future.”
The policy does not, for instance, speak of how the corporation itself will maintain open spaces even as it outlines the terms for outsiders.
Most gardens at present are maintained by the BMC. How do they function? With a mix of officiousness and inefficiency, activists claim.
One such municipal garden is in the compound of Marathon NextGen, a thriving office complex in Lower Parel. The complex was built on the site of what was once the Piramal Spinning and Weaving Mill. When the mill shut down, the government reserved a portion of its land for a public municipal garden.
In reality, this garden has become something of an enclave. Its only entrance is through the gates to Marathon NextGen – and private security gardens discourage casual visitors from entering the garden apart from a few hours in the morning and evening.
Gulab Tiwari, a security guard hired by the municipal corporation to watch the empty garden, says he understands why the guards outside are so particular about who they let in.“They also have to see that nothing happens here,” he said. “Times are so bad, what if someone comes in and leaves a bomb?”
That, at any rate, is unlikely to happen. Hemant Naik, supervisor of Marathon’s guards, says his job is to keep troublemakers out of the garden. Who are these? Anyone who drinks alcohol, comes at the wrong time, or is not a local.
“Couples are a problem,” Naik said. “We have so many guards only for problems like this. They keep telling us ‘Let us stay for ten minutes more, then we will leave’, but how can we let them stay? We keep a female guard only for this reason in case they protest when we throw them out.”
If the guards don’t follow these rules, their salaries get docked.
The rules at the Marathon NextGen garden are particularly prohibitive. Not only are pets and food items prohibited, as is common in other gardens, children under 12 are non grata and physical activities such as football, cricket and cycling are also forbidden. Children in the neighbourhood frequent another garden on the other side of the wall instead.
Rajesh Valmiki maintains both the Marathon garden and the Mahaveer Tabela Garden on the other side of the wall. Like Tiwari, he is employed by the municipal corporation, but via a contractor and a sub-contractor. The Mahaveer Tabela garden is smaller and has less grass, but has swings, slides and monkey bars. Valmiki often brings his three-year-old daughter to work.
“There are no gardens in Elphinstone where I stay,” he said. “Since she has so much energy, I think it is better to bring her here so she can at least play.”
As Tiwari asked, “What are BMC gardens for if they are not for the public?”
The Mumbai municipal corporation, which is the richest in the country, has said that it will do away with a controversial caretaker policy by which outside organisations could utilise up to one third of an open space as private enclaves in return for maintaining the rest for the public – who must pay a nominal charge to enter.
The policy does retain the system of adoption, under which outsiders can maintain a garden, but not privatise any part of it. However, instead of cancelling the leases of the nine spaces currently leased under the caretaker policy, the BMC has chosen to maintain the status quo. It has also left a backdoor entry for 11 more plots to convert their leases from adoption terms to caretaker ones.
Shelar's objection comes after a round table meeting organised by the Observer Research Foundation that he and other stakeholders attended yesterday. Activists have been critiquing this policy, introduced by BJP corporator Prakash Gangadhare, since the corporation’s Improvements Committee approved it on November 9.
“The BMC says that the caretaker policy has been repealed and that the new adoption policy will be different, but just using these terms does not change the nature of the policy,” said Meher Rafaat, a trustee of Nagar, a city-based advocacy group. “The caretaker policy was abused by politicians. Our objection is that when Bombay has an abysmal ration of open spaces, we need to augment permeable spaces, not reduce them.”
There is a lot at stake here. Mumbai has an terrible record of maintaining its open spaces. Activists say that the corporation has the budget to maintain all these spaces – it has allotted Rs 400 crores for this to its Garden Department. So it ought not to rely on outside agencies, whether they are residents' associations or large corporate or political entities.
Usurped spaces
Under the caretaker policy, which the BMC says it has now abolished, a caretaker could build and charge for membership to a clubhouse on 33% of the ground. The rest was to have remained open and accessible to the public. There are nine such spaces in the city. But in practice, many of these spaces have been usurped by the caretakers.
Among them, for instance, is the Matoshree Club in Jogeshwari. The BMC leased five acres of land to Shiv Sena member Ravindra Waikar in 1996 for a period of five years. Later that year, the terms of the lease were altered to permit construction on up to 50% of that land.
Today, the Matoshree Club is open – but only to all its members. The club charges a lifetime membership fee of Rs 3.45 lakh per couple. Its complex is pristine. It has a swimming pool, playground and eight rooms for members and guests to stay.
Cross a small gate from Matoshree Club into the municipal garden adjoining it and it is a different world altogether. The club has posted guards at the gate to keep away visitors, ostensibly because there are snakes. This is no surprise because the entire stretch is overgrown with grass. While a set of slides and monkey bars occupy a small corner of the garden and there are a few benches placed sporadically through the rest, most of the garden does not seem maintained, or indeed developed.
The municipal garden maintained by the Matoshree Club.
The club manager claims Matoshree Club spends around Rs 4 lakh annually on the upkeep of this garden. Despite management claims to the contrary, locals say they are not allowed inside.
Other spaces leased under the caretaker policy, such as the MIG Cricket Club in Bandra or the Vihar Sports Complex in Borivali have similarly been privatised, activists say.
Yet the BMC in its new policy says that the status quo will be maintained for these sites. Organisations that have leased open spaces under the adoption policy will be able to convert their plots to the terms of the former caretaker policy if they have applied for this conversion by the end of December 2014 and have spent a minimum of Rs 3 crore on the plot.
Government gardens
A large gap in the open spaces policy, says Gautam Kirtane of the Observer Research Foundation is that it does not have a broader vision.
“The policy needs a preamble,” he said. “It should tell us the history of the policy – that it was started in 1991, what it has achieved and not achieved should be shared and also what it plans for the future.”
The policy does not, for instance, speak of how the corporation itself will maintain open spaces even as it outlines the terms for outsiders.
Most gardens at present are maintained by the BMC. How do they function? With a mix of officiousness and inefficiency, activists claim.
One such municipal garden is in the compound of Marathon NextGen, a thriving office complex in Lower Parel. The complex was built on the site of what was once the Piramal Spinning and Weaving Mill. When the mill shut down, the government reserved a portion of its land for a public municipal garden.
In reality, this garden has become something of an enclave. Its only entrance is through the gates to Marathon NextGen – and private security gardens discourage casual visitors from entering the garden apart from a few hours in the morning and evening.
Gulab Tiwari, a security guard hired by the municipal corporation to watch the empty garden, says he understands why the guards outside are so particular about who they let in.“They also have to see that nothing happens here,” he said. “Times are so bad, what if someone comes in and leaves a bomb?”
That, at any rate, is unlikely to happen. Hemant Naik, supervisor of Marathon’s guards, says his job is to keep troublemakers out of the garden. Who are these? Anyone who drinks alcohol, comes at the wrong time, or is not a local.
“Couples are a problem,” Naik said. “We have so many guards only for problems like this. They keep telling us ‘Let us stay for ten minutes more, then we will leave’, but how can we let them stay? We keep a female guard only for this reason in case they protest when we throw them out.”
If the guards don’t follow these rules, their salaries get docked.
Gulab Tiwari and a worker from Marathon NextGen.
The rules at the Marathon NextGen garden are particularly prohibitive. Not only are pets and food items prohibited, as is common in other gardens, children under 12 are non grata and physical activities such as football, cricket and cycling are also forbidden. Children in the neighbourhood frequent another garden on the other side of the wall instead.
Rajesh Valmiki maintains both the Marathon garden and the Mahaveer Tabela Garden on the other side of the wall. Like Tiwari, he is employed by the municipal corporation, but via a contractor and a sub-contractor. The Mahaveer Tabela garden is smaller and has less grass, but has swings, slides and monkey bars. Valmiki often brings his three-year-old daughter to work.
“There are no gardens in Elphinstone where I stay,” he said. “Since she has so much energy, I think it is better to bring her here so she can at least play.”
As Tiwari asked, “What are BMC gardens for if they are not for the public?”
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