VADODARA, DEC 2: One a jeans-clad chain-smoker, the other a high-profile corporate-style disciplinarian; both poles apart, but amazingly similar. As Municipal commissioner, S R Rao and Keshav Varma handled two pathologically diverse cities -- Surat and Ahmedabad -- but displayed how similar were the diseases affecting the two cities and how they were to be treated.

Verma left first, leaving everyone anxious. Rao went on Monday, leaving his admirers bewildered. Typical of them, in their exit, too, they left a legacy much different from what they inherited. The situation now is that the new Commissioners would have to attune themselves to the legacy left by Rao and Varma, unlike in the past when the municipal corporations would adjust to the man at the helm.

The biggest challenge for the new municipal commissioners is not only to keep the legacy going, but also to simultaneously chart out a course that sets them apart from their predecessors, when expectations are high.

The task for S Jagadeesan in Surat and B K Sinha in Ahmedabad is indeed Herculean since they would also have to focus on some of the grey areas left by their predecessors. Surat would have to promptly undertake financial planning to fill the coffers to the brim, because despite Rao, more than half of the city still awaits a full-fledged drainage and water supply system. Similarly, Ahmedabad requires to concentrate on its 40 per cent slum population.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has one advantage over Surat. Compared to the diamond city, Ahmedabad has the money to stand it in good stead.The AMC would have to look at its eastern suburbs, while continuing to maintain the CG Road and the western parts of the city. At the same time, AMC would need to protect its formidable financial position.

So in retrospect, the strenuous efforts of Rao and Verma were not an end in themselves. Jagadeesan and Sinha will have to fashion a course that follows the one their predecessors set, but leads beyond what they have done.

Surat today has brought alive memories of Rajkot. When Jagadeesan was shuffled out of Rajkot as the municipal commissioner in late-80's amid a wave of protest, the man taking over from him was none other than S.R. Rao. When Rao exits, amidst a similar furore, his replacement is the selfsame Jagadeesan. So Rao has experienced what Jagadeesan has not. Rao did what Verma did not, and vice-a-versa. Rao concentrated on the slums and the labour areas first before coming on to the better localities, but fell short of revolutionising financial management. Verma created the resources first by unprecedented corporate-like financial planning and prioritised the elitist areas, leaving little for the amenities-starved eastern suburbs. To be fair, however, towards the fag end of their eventful stint in the Surat and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporations, both had directed their energies towards the lesser attended aspects.

Both of them but played a very significant role in pepping up the morale of the staff though in different ways. Rao got the officers their pride back by delegating powers, keeping for himself equal control and responsibility.

Verma dealt with the staff with firmness and recruited a new breed of qualified officials, a step which instilled healthy competition between the old-timers and the new recruits. Rao, however, could take a holistic view of balanced and simultaneous urban planning for the rich and the poor areas.

If roads were widened and smoothened in localities which make and form opinions, the dirtiest industrial suburbs were cleansed and maintained too. However, the coffers were being scraped.

Verma, being in a larger city, had just begun to do this when he was transferred.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.