The HC bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice A P Shah had, in the last hearing on March 29, asked Tinaikar and Sukhtankar to visit Ulhasnagar on its behalf and submit a report on their findings. As the citizen's plea requested judicial intervention to end the ``perpetual insanitation in Ulhasnagar,'' the bench had also asked the two former civic chiefs to make recommendations on ways to improve sanitary conditions. Following this, both Sukhtankar and Tinaikar visited the township and met all the seven petitioners at Ambernath on April 3 and 7, 1999.

Squarely blaming the state for its inaction, the former commissioners in their reporthave said: ``The government of Maharashtra has not been paying adequate attention to this corporation. It has not even bothered to put up any explanations or defence on issues raised by the petitioners.'' This, the report notes, despite the state government's special responsibility under the Provincial Municipal Act, ``not only in ensuring that proper officers are posted at key posts like commissioner, deputy commissioner, city engineer, etc., but that the civic administration is operated in conformity with provisions of the Act for the good of the city.''

The two former commissioners have said they were alarmed to discover that ``over a hundred civic employees drawing remuneration as sweepers carry out work as supervisors'' and that the state government has not heeded reminders from successive commissioners to sanction the scheduled number of sweepers and mukadams. ``The state should have intervened long before the local self-government turned into a mere tax collection authority,'' the report notes, atthe same time listing several recommendations to improve matters (see box).

Making equally severe observations about the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation's (UMC) functioning, the report states: ``It has no receptacles for collection of garbage once swept off the streets. It is certainly possible to provide containers of worn-out or rusted drums or discarded water mains pipes or walled garbage-holding structures at many places.''

The report highlights malpractices resorted to by private contractors entrusted with lifting garbage and dumping it on the dumping ground. ``Since they are paid on the basis of the number of trips they make, there is a tendency to take only half-empty trucks for which municipal clerks record that the truck was full,'' the former commissioners point out, expressing surprise that ``there was not even one instance of any errant contractor being pulled up on this account.''

No study of Ulhasnagar can be complete without a mention of illegal constructions. ``The problem of drainageand sewerage arises mainly on account of unauthorised buildings which we were told are not connected properly to underground sewage,'' the report notes, adding, ``the rate at which unauthorised multi-storeyed buildings come up is so high that it will take at least another five years before existing buildings are connected to the underground sewerage network. Till then, the city has to bear dirty water from buildings flowing on to the roads.''

Report's recommendations