I am always annoyed when citizens of Bombay attack the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for any reason. They make all sorts of wild claims about how it is poorly run, talk about corruption that is supposedly entrenched at every level, and badmouth what is, to my mind, one of the most efficiently-run organisations on our planet. I can’t understand where these complaints come from because they obviously aren’t based on facts.

The BMC has been managed by the same political party for as long as I can remember. Bombay has also flooded during every monsoon for as long as I can remember, but that is because the BMC needs more time to come up with a solution. It is staffed by human beings, after all, and how is it reasonable for anyone to find a solution to anything in just 30 years? There are committees that need to be put together, and more committees to evaluate the findings of previous committees. We also need experts to vet the findings of these earlier committees, and politicians to vet the comments of experts to figure out issues of feasibility. By the time this happens, a decade or two has passed and different solutions need to be found to address new economic realities and changes in infrastructure. So, naturally, 30 years is not going to be enough.