The state, residents rue, can be attributed to one of the cardinal elements called slums, as Colin's 50-year-old son Deep Pal would vouch. Not only is this menace here to stay, it is increasing by the day. While the Ward Officer (P/North), K. S. Mehta, maintains that most of them are procuring stay orders from the court, president of the Maharashtra unit of National Anti-Corruption and Crime Preventive Council and a Malad resident Mohan Krishnan chooses to differ. "This is the usual account the BMC gives. It is not difficult to vacate the stay order," quips Krishnan.

As the argument continues,today 60 per cent of Malad is slums with the exception of Raheja township in Malad (E). Nav-jala pada is sprawling slum of 450 tenements, claims Krishnan who has been been consistently taking on the municipality against slums and other unauthorised structures since 1995.Garbage is another cause of alarm for the residents. "At any given point of time, you will see garbage heaps lying indiscriminately on roadsides," informs Deep. However, Mehta refuses to take the blame. "It is not the BMC's fault. Residents need to have more civic sense. For instance, once my men clean up an area, people litter the place yet again. What's worse, they do not bother to throw the garbage in the bin. They just throw," he argues.While lack of civic responsibility among Mumbaikars cannot be ruled out, the corporation needs to straighten up its staff, too. President of Swami Vivekanand Seva Manch, Mathurdas Kuckian, had to persistently follow-up with the civic body regarding garbage being dumped by slum-dwellers near ChincholiPhatak, Govindnagar and lower Dhobighat that ultimately ensured total clean-up of the area.

The hawkers' issue is yet another perennial problem. While the Bombay High Court is yet to decide on the non-hawking zones and the stay order procured by hawkers has been some handicap for the BMC, some action has been taken in this regard, explains Mehta. "Recently we evicted hawkers from Anant Road, Sainath Road , Rani-Sati Marg and Daftari Road," he claims. But, constant patrolling to ensure that they do not come back can either be done with the help of police or the residents. In the absence of police help, citizens can take over which they do not, he debates.

While the BMC calculation maintains that there are 2,987 hawkers in Malad, a Tata Institute of Social Studies and YUVA (an NGO) study claims there are 5,320 hawkers in the suburb. "These evictions are just an eyewash. The regular hawkers in the area are not affected as they indulge in bribing the officials. In fact, when the BMC vans come to pick up theirgoods, they are least bothered. It is only the small-time vendors who do not frequent any road regularly are picked up.

Then there's the problem of the dirty nullahs. As compared to eastern suburbs, cleaning up is not satisfactory in western suburbs. Overflowing nullahs, specially during the rainy season, are another eyesore residents had to put up with, thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities. The Deputy Mayor and a Malad corporator, Dr Ram Barot maintains: "We were not happy with the task along the western suburbs and have taken the officials concerned to task."