The Kalyan-Dombivli municipal corporation has ironically bagged a national award for the best road development by any civic body in the country. The region has some of the worst roads in the city, a fact admitted by its mayor Vaijayanti Gujar. "Right now, the roads of my city are definitely not in an award-winning condition," she said sheepishly after president Pratibha Patil conferred the All India Institute of Local Self-Government's Nagar Ratna award at a ceremony in Mumbai on Friday.
Though the mayor expressed surprise at the honour, the corporation's municipal commissioner said the roads were in good condition when the nominations for the award were filed earlier this year. "The award has motivated us to do better. By this year-end, the roads of Kalyan-Dombivli will again be befitting the honour,"he said.
Two other civic bodies from Maharashtra were also awarded. The Pune Municipal Corporation bagged the third spot in the overall performance while the Nashik Municipal Corporation received an award for its public health initiatives. The BMC returned empty-handed.
"A city depends as much upon its planners and administrators as on the people dwelling in it who essentially determine its character," Patil said. The president expressed her joy at the fact that six of the nine mayors who won awards were women.
The first spot for the best local self-governance in the country went to Ahmedabad. It was followed by Mysore. The Faridabad civic body was awarded for its recreational facilities; Vadodara for basic amenities for urban poor; Bangalore for financial management, Visakhapatnam for use of information technology in governance; Agartala for transparency and accountability; Rajkot for complaints redressal and Surat for innovation in local self-governance.
