The Times of India; Mumbai; Sunday, May 01, 2011,
MUMBAI: Hundreds gathered at St Xavier's College on Saturday evening to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the NGO Agni, a network of citizen groups whose membership now totals nearly two lakh.
Police commissioner Arup Patnaik and civic chief Subodh Kumar, who were present at the event, were bombarded with questions about the various issues that plague the city. "We invited Patnaik and Kumar as they work with agencies whose services affect citizens directly. All of us are concerned about the effectiveness of both the police and the BMC," said Agni member and ex-civic commissioner, D M Sukhtankar.
Also present at the function were MLA Annie Shekhar and corporators Vinod Shekhar, Ashish Shelar and Adolf D'Souza.
In the course of the evening, various achievements by Agni members in their respective wards were highlighted. The NGO has a presence in 16 of the city's 24 municipal administrative wards. While the F/North ward members helped get footpaths cleared, those in the G/South ward took up the issue of unauthorized parking in the area. The H/West ward members of Agni held several workshops and protests underlining several issues, while K/East ward members organized training sessions and disaster management programmes in their ward.
Former cabinet secretary B G Deshmukh, chairman of Agni, said that as the NGO turns 12, it enters its 'adolescence'. "We all know the difficulties of adolescence.
We have now left our childhood behind and are entering a crucial stage. We have always participated and will continue to participate in governance and aim towards its improvement," he said.
Where do you file a Right To Information (RTI) Act query about police atrocities? What will be the method to select wards for women corporators in the upcoming civic elections? What are the standard replies given by the BMC's building proposals department when an RTI query is made?
Tens of similar questions highlighting the issues that plague the city were asked to the audience but were actually directed towards two of the city's chief administrators- police commissioner Arup Patnaik and civic chief Subodh Kumar- who came face of face with people on Saturday evening. Hundreds of citizens under the banner of AGNI gathered at St Xavier's College to mark the 12{+t}{+h} anniversary of the NGO. Also present at the function were MLA Annie Shekhar, corporators Vinod Shekhar, Ashish Shelar, Adolf D'Souza and others.
AGNI is a network of citizen groups whose memberships now total nearly two lakh persons ready to do their duty as responsible citizens. AGNI has a presence in 16 of the city's 24 municipal administrative wards.
"We invited Patnaik and Kumar as they are in agencies whose services affect the citizens directly. All the citizens are concerned about the effectiveness of both the police and the BMC," said AGNI member and ex-civic commissioner DM Sukhtankar.
Former cabinet secretary BG Deshmukh, chairman of AGNI said that even as AGNI had turned 12, it had entered its "adolescence". "We all know the difficulties of adolescence. We have now left our childhood behind and are entering into a crucial stage. We have always participated and will continue to participate in governance and aim towards its improvement," he said.
In the course of the evening, various achievements by AGNI members in their respective wards were highlighted. While the F/North members helped get footpaths cleared, those in the G/South ward got rid of the traffic jams caused by unauthorized parking in the area. H/West members of AGNI held several workshops and protests underlining several issues, while K/East members organized training sessions and disaster management programmes for the people of the ward.
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