The report cards, reflecting the perception of a cross-section of people in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad on the performance of the providers of civic utilities, were brought out recently by Bangalore-based Public Affairs Centre, dedicated to the improvement the quality of governance in the country.

Quite a few respondents admitted to have paid speedmoney to various service providers to avail the services. Samuel Paul, founder of PAC, says the main undoing of the public service providers was found to be their monopolistic nature.

``Monopolistic public services treat the customers as `given' and seem hardly bothered for quality. Through public feedbacks in the form of the report cards, we are trying to create a surrogate for competition,'' hesays while making a case for privatisation in the same breath.

Suresh Balakrishnan, who prepared the report card on Delhi, says that monopolistic services like power, sewage and garbage disposal evoke a much higher level of dissatisfaction than those where the citizens have options (such as banks and postal services). The report brings out that only 27 per cent of the respondents succeeded in getting response from the service providers and having their problems solved.

About ten per cent of the respondents paid speedmoney which was found more rampant in Delhi Vidyut Board (14 pc), telephones (17 pc) and police (19 pc).

He provides an interesting data on hidden costs of a whopping (more than) Rs 2,100 crore, incurred by the Capital's citizens to cope with the poor quality of service by investing in items like overhead tank, water pump, bore well, emergency lights, generators, water filter and Acqua Guard.

PAC report cards also get a separate feedback from the urban poor (slum dwellers) as of the 62million people living in 12 largest cities of India, nearly 20 million of which are found in areas classified as slums. Water, electricity and sanitation were identified as services of the highest priority by slum dwellers in the three cities of Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune.

The Delhi slum dwellers were most dissatisfied with these service. But the slum dwellers in Mumbai are relatively better off than their counterparts in the national capital. Though the broad pattern of dissatisfaction with regard to basic services is same, at an overall level, availability of services is better in the western metropolis.