A Case Study on Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC)

A Case Study on Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Introduction: Dhaka South City Corporation is an embryo of change! Its birth is the consequence of a huge change and this has been growing opting several changes since its inception. At present Dhaka city bears a population of over ten millions covering an area of about 150 sq. kilometers. It is very difficult for one single Centre to provide quality services to the whole population of such a massive metropolitan city. As a result it was seen that the people were being deprived from getting sufficient services from the City Corporation. The Dhaka city was sectored into 92 wards under one city corporation, which contained 123 numbers of councilors, including 31 reserved seats for women councilors. To strengthen the services of the city corporation in order to best serve its citizens, it became inevitable to bring some change in administration. Hereafter, Dhaka city was divided under two separate city corporations- named as Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation. Thus, in the National Parliament the existing law regarding Dhaka City Corporation was amended naming “Local Government (City Corporation) (Amendment) Act, 2011”. It was drafted on 17th October 2011 and finally approved on 31st October 2011 and started to become applicable thereafter. Since then Dhaka South City Corporation commenced its way, fortified to serve its purpose after the City Corporation election in April 2015. Working as separate entity DSCC can now closely look into the problems regarding its demarcated zone in order to serve its people in the utmost way possible, making the delivery of its services quicker and easily accessible. It can also make appropriate plans that are necessary and execute them more efficiently and effectively, which can create more scopes for DSCC to incorporate subtle changes to trigger initiatives for further development in the city and in people’s lives. Organizational Profile: Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) is one of the two municipal corporations in Dhaka created when the former Dhaka City Corporation was divided into two. The Corporation was created by the Local Government (City Corporation) Amendment Bill 2011 on 29 November 2011, passed in the Parliament of Bangladesh, following the President's approval. Dhaka South City Corporation consists of 57 wards comprising the thanas of Maghbazar, Basabo, Azimpur, Motijheel, Malibagh, Jatrabari, Dhaka Kotwali, Sutrapur, Bangsal, Wari, Gendaria, Lalbagh, Hazaribagh, Dhanmondi, Shahbagh, New Market, Khilgaon, Kamrangirchar & some others. To be specific, the ward numbers which DSCC encompasses ranges from Ward No.24 to Ward No. 92. And those wards are divided into five zones. A look at the administration of DSCC provides the following details: The executive power of the Corporation is vested upon and exercised by the Mayor/Administrator as per the existing law. The Corporation constitutes Several Standing Committees and other Committees to monitor and guide the various activities of the organization. The Mayor is assisted by the Chief Executive Officer, who in turn, is assisted by the Secretary, the Heads of Departments and Zonal Executive Officers. According to the Local Government (City Corporation) (Amendment) Act, 2011, the functions of the DSCC are currently administered by the public officials in both the central and zonal offices. And the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009 broadly specifies the functions (Section 50), and stipulates that further rules and regulations will be made when necessity arises. DSCC’s official headquarter is situated at ‘Nagar Bhaban’. And the headquarter has following offices and departments to serve their diversified functions properly: Office of the Mayor, Office of the Chief Executive Officer, Office of the Secretary, Engineering Department, Health Department, Revenue Department, Waste Management Department, Urban Planning Department, Estate Department, Transport, Accounts Department, Store & Purchase Department, Information Technology, Law Department, Public Relation, Social Welfare, Internal Audit, Slum Improvement Development, Security Department, Electric Department, Office of the Zonal Executive Officer Zone-1, Office of the Zonal Executive Officer Zone-2, Office of the Zonal Executive Officer Zone-3, Office of the Zonal Executive Officer Zone-4, Office of the Zonal Executive Officer Zone-5. In addition, the Corporation constitutes several Standing Committees and other Committees to monitor and guide the various activities of the organization. The Corporation, in its first meeting of the year, is responsible for forming standing committees on the following areas: Finance and Establishment; Waste management; Education, Health, Family Planning and Healthcare facilities; Urban planning and development; Audit and accounting; Construction and maintenance of urban structures; Water and Electricity; Social welfare and community center; Environment Development Committee; Sports and Culture Committee; Birth and death registration committee; Communication; Market Monitoring and Controlling; Disaster Management. The committees are mandated to function for period of 2 years and 6 months, and after this period, new committees are required to be formed. Organizational Mandate: The principle rules and regulations by which DSCC attains its activities are depicted in the Local Government (City Corporation) Act 2009 and Local Government (City Corporation) (Amendment) Act 2011. Besides, there are some other documents which define rules and regulations regarding matters that are also concerns of DSCC. Such as, Taxation Rules 2009; The Municipal Corporation (Taxation) Rules 1986; Wheel Tax; Guidelines for Road, Building and Infrastructure Name 2004; Advertisement Guideline; Smoke Removal Guideline. The City Corporation is obliged to provide certain services to the citizens within the demarcated area as per the guidelines provided in the legal documents. The rules mentioned that the leading authority of the city corporation should have a Mayor, with each Wards headed by a Counsellor and by the reserved woman counsellor. The detailed guidelines are also provided by which these people will be elected by the citizens as they are the public representatives responsible for serving public. There are provisions mentioned where these representatives are said to hold meetings periodically to plan for continuous improvement in the society. There are some concerned areas on each of which the city corporation needs to form standing committees having two years and six months tenure. The city corporation executes all the development plans under the prime surveillance and administration by a Chief Executive Officer, assisted by a Secretary. The sources of funding for DSCC comprise internal revenue collection, central government grants, development grants, project development loans and other loans. To ensure accountability and transparency, the Corporation will prepare reports on its administrative and development activities in prescribed format of government, and will submit the same with the 30th September of next fiscal year (Section 43), and any citizen will have right to information regarding Corporation in the defined system. The Corporation will publish a document titled “Citizen Charter” with description on the services to citizens. The concerned sectors where the City Corporation is mandatorily ordained to provide services to its people are briefly mentioned below. 1. Public Health Sanitation Removal and disposal of refuse Unsanitary buildings Latrines and urinals Birth, death and marriage registration Infectious diseases Health and maternity centers Public health Hospital and dispensaries Medical aid and relief 2. Public Safety Civil defense Floods Famine Dangerous and offensive articles Burial and burning places 3. Social welfare 4. Building Control 5. Culture Library Fairs and shows 6. Development Development plans Community development project Commercial schemes Health development project Slum development 7. Education Education Compulsory education General Provision about education. 8. Streets Public streets Streets General provision about streets Encroachment Streets lighting Streets watering Traffic control Public vehicles 9. Trees, Parks, Gardens and Forests Arboriculture Gardens Open Spaces Forests Nuisances pertaining to tree Tank and low-lying areas 10. Urban Planning Master plan Ward Base GIS Base Map & Database Site development schemes Execution of site development scheme 11. Water Supply and Drainage Water Supply Private sources of water supply Drainage schemes Bathing and washing places Dhobi ghats & washer men Public water courses Public ferries Public fisheries 12. Management and control of animals Animals husbandry Stray animals Animal homes and farms Registration of sale of cattle Livestock improvement Dangerous animals Cattle show, zoos etc. Disposal of carcasses 13. Control of foods and drinks Bye laws Milk supply Public markets Private markets Slaughter house. Mapping Stakeholders of DCC: Stakeholders are those who may be affected by or have an effect on an effort. They may also include people who have a strong interest in the effort for academic, philosophical, or political reasons, even though they and their families, friends, and associates are not directly affected by it. Considering the above definition we can draw a diagram of stakeholders of a city corporation. Community: All the residents and the tax payers of 57 wards. The Elected Mayor and Councilors: The political head is the mayor Sayed Khokon and there are total 57 councilors from each wards including 19 reserved women councilors. CEO: Khan Mohammad Bilal is the chief executive officer. Staff: Staff of total 17 departments. Modern stake-holder perspective on city corporation Postmodern stakeholder perspective on city corporation Hypermodern stakeholder perspective on city corporation The city metaphorically Machine Network of autonomic individuals Infinite network of per-formed roles Stakeholder focus Centric: the authoritarian city Fragmented: the individual citizen Re-socialized: the expressive citizen Conceptualizing stake-holders as Obligated citizens Self-reflexive citizens Performing citizens Conceptualizing the relational bond as Contractual Emotional Performative Stakeholder value Living up to good citizenship Creating a coherent self identity Staging and performing an image Stakeholder vision Being good (duty) Feeling good (virtue) Looking good (aesthetic) Ethical legitimacy Authority ethic Self-righteous ethic Socially negotiated ethic Three conceptual stakeholder perspectives on living on City Corporation Current status of service: Current status of service in DSCC is unsatisfactory. There are many reasons behind it. Major problems are discussed here. Street lights in many areas do not work which is helpful for the criminally-inclined and doom for the helpless residents. Most roads are in disrepair, regardless of locality. Many major road development projects are stuck either in red-tapeism or not taking off due to a combined lack of finance and coordination between state agencies. Many vital link roads have become largely unusable due to lack of maintenance. The city almost invariably every year sees a lot of road digging during the monsoon and people's sufferings know no bounds. But the city corporation has nothing to do about this. For example, The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) spent Tk 72 crore to repair the dilapidated road under the Mayor Hanif flyover amid public outcry and sufferings during rainy season last year. The DSCC also put up another Tk 7-crore project for development of a drainage system to put an end to water logging on the road. Although the entire sum has already been paid to the contractors, the road remains in the same dreadful state. Many potholes along with mud and water logging at different points have made the road a hazardous one following days of rain. The road is in such a rickety condition that private cars cannot use it. In many cases, vehicles break down after falling in deep potholes. There is lack of work on upgrading city drainage system(despite expending millions on that need)has made water logging system a permanent fixture during rainy season. City’s 15 million or so residents produce a lot of garbage. Hence, when garbage cleaning become erratic because projects like ‘clean Dhaka’ no longer function, health hazards become the norm of the day. The entire city is plagued by mismanagement in waste collection system. The city corporation has to depend on Rajuk to get a garbage collection site and at present there is no space left for such a site. There is basically no recourse to solving these problems of the residents. A basic amenity like the large metal dustbins that is commonplace in many parts of the city is no longer visible in many parts. The end result is that mountains of garbage accumulate on roadsides that become the breeding ground for all varieties of mosquitoes and other disease carriers. The city footpaths are not free from illegal occupation. City footpaths can never be recovered for the pedestrians unless the political authority decides so and takes administrative actions. The only sidewalks that are free from illegal occupation are the ones in front of the Prime Minister's Office, exclusive government residential neighborhoods on Minto Road and Hare Road, the prime minister’s official residence Gono Bhaban and the president's residence Bangabhaban. Several thousand risky billboards and signposts set up legally and illegally across the capital pose a constant death threat to the city dwellers, in the absence of an effective oversight by the city authorities to ensure public safety. All over the city, hundreds of similar billboards present a high risk of collapse as their entire weight is supported by a single pole. The city corporation's planning and the engineering departments are officially tasked with the job. But again, in practice either the waste management, estate or the revenue department is at the helm of running the technical affairs, leaving the issue of public safety at the mercy of God. The City Corporation Policy on billboard installation and Bangladesh National Building Code clearly provide technical specification of setting up billboards. But there is no effort by the city authorities to ensure safety. Anti mosquito drives is very insufficient in DSCC. As a result, outbreak of “dengue” and other disease become common. Parks and playgrounds are not free from illegal occupation in Dhaka city. DSCC do not play effective role to free those for public. While water, electricity and gas supplies are some basic civic services, the city corporation has to depend on Wasa, Titas Gas, Desco and DPDC for these. So, there has to be a lead agency to coordinate among various government bodies to make the city corporation function effectively. Recent Initiatives: Any attempt to bring change through new initializing of new things would undoubtedly face resistance from various spheres. Nonetheless DSCC persists to provide services to its people with all the limitations. After the new mayor has been elected and came into power people’s concerns were focused on him to witness what positive changes he can contribute to. The most common phenomenon in Bangladesh national politics is that the elements offered in the election campaigns by the political parties either fade away after winning the election or fail to be reflected in the lives of citizens. However, interviewing the concerned personnel from the office of DSCC, some significant change initiatives were found to be implemented. The foremost to mention is the Digital attendance system which started from this September, 2015. It was seen that the door of the Mayor’s cell contain a system where the officials need to punch their Digital Attendance card when they enter the office, thus keeping record of their absenteeism. And this will eventually be connected to the pay roll to penalize in terms of cut off of payment. One of the prime mandates of the city corporation is to maintain cleanliness in the city. The most significant example is seen in this year’s Eid-Ul-Azha. There were strict surveillance from DSCC so that wastage after slaughtering cannot lead to odour pollution. Hence, there was active and prompt role seen to be played by the DSCC on this regard. On the point of maintaining cleanliness, it is to be mentioned that a large portion of it gets hampered by unlawful act of urination beside roadsides. To combat this problem DSCC has taken an initiative to establish 100 public toilets within the next two years in collaboration with WaterAid at several places within the zone of Dhaka South City Corporation. One of those new public toilets will be established in TSC within Dhaka University campus. Another prime concern of DSCC is to maintain roads to facilitate communication. This is easier said than done because this is not in the hands of DSCC solely as WASA or PWD also need to run their projects simultaneously. The responsibility of surface drainage is of City Corporation, but underneath drainage related works are the concerns of WASA. Lack of coordination between these two organizations is a common issue in Bangladesh and to tackle such problems DSCC has taken an initiative to adopt ideas given by civil society. DSCC has arranged meetings twice with renowned learned people from civil society who could prescribe solutions to this problem. Even the Prime Minister has given words that to solve this problem a committee should be formed with active participation of civil society, headed by the PM herself. Dealing with the hawkers is another major problem in Dhaka. Footpaths are mostly occupied by them hampering the passersby and also creating hazards for road accidents. As DSCC believes in Hawkers management than removal of hawkers, so they have taken an initiative to establish double-lane footpath. And the design of this is on and soon be executed. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded project is being implemented by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD).Authorities said the project, which has already been introduced at a number of wards in DCC south, would be completed in two to three years. DCC officials informed that under the project, a secondary transformation station (STS) would be built on a relatively high point at each ward. All the waste and garbage from the area would be kept in containers on the raised platforms, they said. The two city corporations have already selected and acquired suitable lands and the construction of the STSs have already started at several wards. They also said the STS would have separate resting place and toilets for the cleaners. In Bangladesh, street food is a major source of nourishment for most workers in urban areas. However, microbial risks associated with street food are high largely due to poor hygiene practices and non-potable water. Actions to strengthen safety of street food will therefore significantly improve public health. Project of hygienic street food carts to Dhaka South City Corporation is very important in that sense. The FAO Food Safety Programme is rolling out a comprehensive initiative in Dhaka City in partnership with the Dhaka South City Corporation. Through this enterprise 300 hygienic street food carts are being distributed to vendors chosen by the DSCC. The vendors are being trained in Good Hygiene Practices and the preparation and serving of street food in the cleanest possible way. DSCC has successfully taken steps to keep the roads and surroundings beautiful. They have removed almost 80% unauthorized billboards from the Dhaka city as per the updates received from the officials. They have also restored more than 90 street-lights to beautify the roads and make them safer at nights. Dhaka North and South City Corporations have launched a new initiative titled “Urban Public and Environmental Health Development Project” to relieve the city people of the toxic smell from roadside garbage. Therefore, there were execution of the planned initiatives by DSCC, although how much effective those were to bring positive changes remains a matter of question. Citizens’ Review of the Service: For a better look into the service quality of DSCC, citizen’s perception regarding this has been also taken into consideration. Though time and other constraints have shrunk the sample size, a view on the DSCC’s service quality (both on overall basis and area- based) has been possible to be captured. The respondents have shared their experiences and opinions about the various functions of DSCC. Here is a summary of the opinions of the interviewed citizens- One of the major functions of DSCC is keeping street clean and providing adequate street light. Almost all respondents have been agreed that the streets are cleaned regularly. But respondents from Khilgaon area also told that the cleaning service is only available for main roads, while the alleys remain unclean. Again there are street lights in every area, but those become inadequate as most goes dead for the lack of proper maintenance. Moreover in Khilgaon and Motijheel area, there are no street lights in the alleys, so the residents have to arrange street lights there on their own. Almost all respondents have complaint about their suffering for water-logging in the rainy season and they don’t think DSCC is taking adequate steps for improving the situation. The drainage system is also alleged to be narrower and not well- maintained. Though some are hopeful about the new mayor’s recent initiatives in this regard, they are also afraid that everything will go back to their past situation when the pressure goes down. Again regarding waste management, respondents from almost all area (except Khilgaon) have showed their satisfaction but also demanded more efficiency in this respect. And in some areas, the dustbins need to be transferred from current spots (for example, one in front of the new market no. 1 gate)- according to the respondents. But it should be also mentioned here, citizens have showed full satisfaction about the waste management service during the occasion of recently celebrated ‘Eid-ul-Azha’. The current mayor’s sincerity in this respect was evident to the respondents. DSCC’s another main function is providing and maintaining public toilets. In almost all area, according to the respondent’s opinion, the public toilet facility is rare. And even those which are available, are unhygienic for the lack of proper maintenance. Though DSCC is responsible for maintaining public water resources, it seems to be failed in performing this function. According to the respondents, most of the public water sources are illegally occupied by the influential people, and others are also in threat. And the water sources are, in no sense, pollution-free because of the garbage in thrown into them. Only a few resources, like Dhanmondi Lake, are being cleaned regularly – according to the citizen’s response. As DSCC is also responsible for registering all births, deaths and marriages within the limits of it; respondents have given their opinion in this regard too. According to them, the main problem regarding this service is corruption. To get things done in time, citizens feel bound to bribe the brokers there. But whoever holds some sort of influential personal identity, can avoid this procrastination. Some also alleged that lengthy documentation process in the city corporation causes inconvenience and gives a negative impact on the initiative of the entrepreneurs. Difficulties in gaining company registration certificates, trade license and other legal documents causes hassle for entrepreneurs. DSCC is also responsible for the seizure, detention and impounding of animals found straying in any street, public place or cultivated land. But as per respondents experience, stray dogs roam around free and prone to attack people or get attacked by people. They are only removed by the authority if dead. Residents need to submit complaints in such instances. Again, though Dhaka is very prone to natural disaster like earthquake, the citizens are given only little direction about that. Poster, TV news and some awareness-raising arrangements of civil defence make some citizens conscious. But most others remain ignorant. So DSCC’s responsibility in this regard is unquestionably unfulfilled. DSCC is responsible for providing and maintaining open spaces (i.e., govt. owned field, park, garden etc.) for the convenience of citizens too. But in most areas, govt. owned fields are rare because of illegal occupation by the influential people. Though the corporation sometimes evicts them but the fields get occupied again after a few days. Only the fields in govt. colonies can be said to be fully free from illegal occupation. Again, in respect of the maintenance of parks and gardens, citizens have showed their dissatisfaction. According to them, the drug addicts, the pick-pockets in the park area pose a threat to the citizen’s safety. According to them, DSCC should look into this problem too. One of the recent initiatives of the DSCC is to evict the illegal billboards. Though the corporation was always mandated to do this, only the current mayor seems to be sincere than the past govt. recruited administrators- according to the respondents. Despite this, some respondents also have raised question about political neutrality in this regard. According to them, the billboards hanged by the ruling party’s supporters seem to be out of the range of this recent eviction measures. And the function of DSCC, around which all the respondents have showed their most dissatisfaction, is the spraying of pesticides against mosquitoes. The corporation workers sprays the pesticides so irregularly that the mosquito menace is growing acute. Though the corporation takes measures like postering and miking to raise citizen’s awareness to keep their area clean; all these measures seem futile for the lacking of regular spray. Even in areas like Dhanmondi, the respondents have said that the spraying of pesticides have not been done recently at all. So, in those areas, people are suffering the most because of the corporation’s failure to do its job properly. And at last, it is important to note that all the respondents have showed their willingness to give tax and have admitted it as their duty. Though some have showed their concern about disparity in imposing taxes, this concern doesn’t undermine their sincerity in giving tax- according to them. They just want a better service from the corporation, which is currently unavailable to them in many respects. So, it can be said that citizens’ perceive the corporation’s service quality as not up to the mark and that’s why, they demand DSCC to work more efficiently. Challenges on implementing initiatives: Prior to elections, the mayor, sayeed khokon had promised his constituents that he would work hard to make his city corporation livable, modern and digital ones. Following the wins, he reiterated that advice would be sought from those involved with planning and running the metropolitans, in order to solve the cities’ problems. But with the poor track records by city corporations over the years, it is said the newly-elected mayor would face many challenges ahead. The supreme challenge of implementing any initiative with full swing is the lack of coordination between government bodies along with corrupt officials have hindered growth at all city corporations including the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC). Moreover, there are as many as 44 government bodies including ministries, various department, specialized bodies for instance WASA,BRTC etc are linked with DCC. There is a serious lack of coordination among them. This lessens the speed of any project or creates obstacles. This has been an ever present problem for DSCC. Another biggest challenge for DSCC is being overloaded with debt. This has become the prime obstacle for DSCC. Being unable to pay the suppliers and the contractors, taking new projects has come out as the severe most headache for the mayor. DSCC even has gone to its limit to give the salary and others allowance to its huge staff. DSCC has tried to increase the tax rate but it has faced strict resistance from the citizens. Political barrier is one of the ever present factors that slow down the activities of any public organization. Like every other public organization, DSCC is also going through this sort of problem. Sometimes local political tycoons create problems unless they gain their share. This problem is created due to lack of executive power. DSCC has to do dozens of works. But it possesses little executive power compare to their activities. For example, DMC is under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. DSCC is responsible to waste management of it but DSCC can’t take any legal action against it if they pollute the environment by throwing medical waste since Ministry of Forest and Environment has the legal power to do so. Thus lack of legitimate power has hilled its challenges. Corruption among the staff of any public organization is a curse. The DSCC head has promised to uproot this vice from this office. This is going to be a mammoth task that directly affects the implementation of any initiatives. Though it was one of the mandates of the DSCC boss to make the city a digital one it’s most of the staff are technically unsound. They are working with the very traditional way and they feel very comfortable with the way they are used to. So it seems digitalization is still far away. Moreover, adverse natural condition is a major factor for DSCC in implementing projects related to repair roads or sewerage system and waste management. Sometimes it takes months to start the projects or has to stop in middle of the projects. Lack of awareness among the citizens is another great challenge for DSCC to work smoothly. People are ready to break the laws especially on roads. That’s creates intolerable traffic jam. Thus any projects related to roads rarely see the success. Recommendations and Conclusion: Considering the reality, the DSCC unavoidably faces several obstacles while taking any new initiatives. The institutions which are service oriented tends to have more scopes for occurring corruption, thus the whole system gets plagued with malpractices. Economic and political limitations remains persistent barriers for effective implementations of proposed plans. Besides, local government institutions such as this city corporation is highly dependent on the central government. There remain very thin scopes for strengthening these local government institutions as their revenue generation is not sufficient to cut off dependency over the central government. Hence, DSCC needs to be financially independent to become a full-fledged effective organization in order to provide efficient services to its citizens. As DSCC executes different types of activities and initiatives it needs a huge amount of cash flow. Several development initiatives go in vain because of the lacking of proper finance. In reality, there are lots of flaws and limitations remain in the execution process of DSCC. It has to deal with those barriers. But the matter of hope is the institution is feeling the urgency of change. At present, it can realize that the way its working haven’t getting the satisfaction of the people fully. This is the most important thing and they are trying to get changed to provide efficient services to the citizens. The institution has already taken various steps to overcome such poor conditions. It is emphasizing on the eradication of corruption from the institute and trying to make the staffs technically sound and effective. As DSCC is ascribed with various functions and there are other institutions which are related to it. So it needs appropriate cooperation from those institutes like WASA, DESA, etc. The citizens are also need to be concerned and they have to perform rightly. Political influence on DSCC should be reduced. Suitable government support both financially and legally is the crying need to change the present condition of services and developments. Government is concerned about it and it pledges to give utmost support to improve the efficiency of DSCC. Expert citizens also have a lot to do. They need to give proper advice or guideline of working to advance present condition. They could help largely in planning. At present we have seen such initiatives like dialogues, feast, etc. with experts performed by DSCC to get different long and short term solutions of several problems. Accurate methodological support and training is needed to develop the knowledge of staffs. Most importantly, a vision or long term plan regarding all supporting agencies is needed. The vision will dictate what and how to do and all will work accordingly by completing several missions. Though there are lots of limitations and problems lying at present. But DSCC is trying to overcome it. It is getting changed by facing those troubles and restrictions. Proper support from all parts would help it to get changed to offer better service.