Monday, September 13, 2010

Civil Disobedience Movement aka Urban Panchayat Raj

Dear Administration

Since we are all Gandhi vadis and all that, and since you have steadfastly and consistently failed to provide any semblance of civic administration, we, the citizens of every colony, have decided to:

1. Collect all the taxes due to the administration from all residents. This includes but is not limited to Income Tax, Sales Tax, Property Tax, Professional Tax etc.
2. Spend it to first ensure that health and sanitation facilities are in order. This includes dispensaries, spray in water bodies, road repairs to avoid stagnation of water in rainy season, desilting of the sewerage system, garbage collection and any other activity vital to health and sanitation services.
3. Next, spend it on civic administration - repairing broken street lights, paying the salaries of  the local police station etc.
4. Next, we will adopt sarkari schools in our vicinity and ensure that the teachers get pay for being present and for teaching.
5. We will hand over to you the receipts for spending all these funds. The receipts should be accepted as payment of our taxes.

Gandhiji called it the "Panchayati Raj" - power at the lowest level of administration. About time we had urban Panchayats in small, meaningful numbers (say, 1000 - 2000 residents)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice idea and think about time. but still the question remains as to who will get the work done, take the responsibility, create consensus, maintain fair assessment of processes and people (as in who or which agency is allotted the work without favoritism, who certifies the work quality...) ? Even in a residential complex, I wonder how many residents take active part in "getting things done"? We are content instead with giving the money and letting someone else get the work done.

CYNOSURE said...

nice move by all of you.....someone has to take the step ahead.....you people stepped forward, dats gr8.....Hope you get proper support from everyone....all d bst.....

BK Chowla, said...

Perhaps,it is a bit of joke here.
But,let us accept one trend which is gradually taking over.People are disgusted and angry with the level of governance in the country.I wont be surprised when such actions actually take place