Indian Cities Eye New Delhi's Quiet 'Citizen

NEW DELHI -- Seven neighborhood activists sat across
from a
bureaucrat last week with a long list of complaints
about damaged
streetlights, uncollected trash and what is known here
as the monkey
menace -- hordes of monkeys straying into homes
through windows and
balconies. The bureaucrat offered tea and biscuits,
took copious
notes and ordered immediate action to resolve the
problems.

"We also have a complaint against your accounts
officer," thundered
Satya Paul Gupta, 78, who heads his neighborhood
association. "He
sleeps on our files and keeps telling us, 'Next week,
next week.' "

Satya Paul Gupta, 78, at the park being renovated by
his neighborhood
residents' association in New Delhi. Such groups have
proliferated in
the capital under a citizen-government partnership
program called
Bhagidari. (By Rama Lakshmi -- The Washington Post)
Enlarge Photo
The bureaucrat called the accounts officer. "There are
complaints
against you. Come to my office fast," he said. "You
are answerable."

Gupta leaned back in his chair and smiled. Eight years
ago, this
would have been unimaginable; highhanded and
inaccessible city
officials would have shooed residents away. But under
a popular
government initiative called Bhagidari, which is Hindi
for
partnership, citizens' groups across New Delhi have
been empowered to
walk into any office and demand answers.

Since 2000, neighborhood groups participating in the
program have
collaborated with the government to solve everyday
problems with
sewage, trash collection, roads and community parks.
And that is no
small feat in a country infamous for its bureaucracy
and red tape.

"Bhagidari is a silent citizen revolution that fixes
the problem of
corrupt officials and indifferent politicians, " said
Gupta, who
represents about 35,000 people as the head of what is
known here as a
Residents' Welfare Association, or RWA.

Before Bhagidari, there were only about 20 RWAs across
the city. Now,
there are more than 2,000 such groups, and they are
enjoying expanded
political clout. Many are run by retirees like Gupta.

"My RWA business card has the most powerful logo in
the city, the
Bhagidari logo," he said. "It opens doors, makes
officials sit up and
listen."

With its economy booming, India is grappling with how
to manage
growing cities, many of them populated by an
increasingly assertive
middle class. Analysts say Bhagidari might be part of
the answer. At
least six Indian states besides Delhi are studying the
idea for
possible implementation in their capitals.

"These neighborhood groups have now become a very
potent platform of
people's power," said Arvind Kejriwal, head of a group
called
Parivartan, which campaigns for participatory and
transparent
government across India. "They now have a say in how
the money is
spent in their areas and how to hold the officials
accountable. The
middle class in the city has moved from complete
cynicism toward
their rulers to active participation in governance."

Bhagidari is the brainchild of Shiela Dixit, chief
minister of the
Delhi regional government, whose Congress party was
returned to power
in 1998. Back then, Dixit was worried that citizens'
complaints
weren't reaching elected politicians.

"We needed a different model of governance in a
mega-city of more
than 14 million," said Keshav Chandra, an aide to
Dixit who oversees
the Bhagidari program. "Bhagidari gives us a direct
understanding of
the pulse of the people."

Dixit opened her doors to the numerous RWAs, ordered
local officials
to meet with them every month and created a separate
fund for their
needs. Two years ago, she strengthened them by
ordering that
contractors be paid only after the residents' groups
had expressed
satisfaction with the quality of work done. Last
month, the Delhi
government decided that no developmental work would be
undertaken in
the city without RWA input.

In the campaign for state elections in November,
Bhagidari is being
showcased as Dixit's biggest achievement.

Despite the best of intentions, however, Bhagidari's
power-to-the-
people mantra has not been easy to implement in a
system rife with
corruption. The notion of being accountable to
residents met with
bitter resistance in the first few years, and members
of Dixit's own
party opposed the program on the grounds that she was
circumventing
them to listen to the people directly.

As the elections draw closer, residents' associations
worry about
their future. The Bhagidari program lacks statutory
authority and
could be eliminated by the next government.

"The officers do not like the daily nagging and
ordering by the
residents," said Mool Chand Chawla, 66, a local
politician from the
opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. "Bhagidari is not
good for
democracy because it bypasses elected representatives
like me. I am
here to serve the people. We do not need a parallel
power structure."

Gupta, the head of his neighborhood RWA, said
Bhagidari has done a
lot of good. His group, for instance, recently
procured money to
renovate a community park that had been full of trash
and stray
animals. A new gate, a wall and a walking track have
been built, and
the park is being cleaned up and replanted.

Still, Gupta said, he understands why some politicians
don't like the
program.

"Their under-the-table earnings have gone down," he
said. "Their
power has eroded because they are now answerable to
ordinary citizens
like me."