This blog captures my experience of dealing with Mumbai municipal authorities in the specific area of Covid related health management practice. My emotions varied from initial feeling hopelessness for a section of authorities to experiencing admiration for another section of Municipal authorities.
Background:
After nearly 10 months, destiny took me again the path of travel. For professional reasons I had to travel to Dubai for a short visit in mid January 2021 (just about 36 hours). Given the heightened state of anxiety on account of the new covid strain, international travel protocols were under flux. No two sources (public or government) seemed to be consistent in articulating exact expectations from citizen if they choose to travel. As I am from Mumbai (India), we are used to situations which could be very contrary to all other cities and states of India. As per consensus of various sources, I had COVID test done 48 hours before travel. Subsequently on arrival in Dubai, I was subjected to another test. I am back in India around 96 hours from the first test. Here starts this interesting segment!! I am today in the 7th day of my institutional quarantine and hopefully would be released for home quarantine in a short while.
A. Feeling of hopelessness due to Apathy of Airport operator:
The proponents of capitalism eulogies how private ownership improves quality. However quality is reflected when put to test and Covid times are surely testing times. An airport operator (in mumbai's case it is MIAL - 74% currently owned by Adani) earns by charging the airlines for various airport facilities including those pertaining to passenger facilities. Total Revenue of MIAL was more than INR 3000 crores for Year 2018-19 and profits were about INR 120 crores. Specifically the airport collect user development fee which is estimated at about INR 350 crores in the same year.
With such earning stream and also best airport tag, expectation of service orientation would not be misplaced. However apathy was visible in every passenger service count. I will enumerate a few:
a. updates on latest protocols applicable to travellers was not available in the airport or its website. This would have been the least that could have been done.
b. crowd handling in Immigration area could have been better. there were many counters unused. The counters in use could have been increased as well as spaced better. All social distancing protocols started to fail in the immigration area.
c. post immigration the baggage clearance also was in similar clutter. There were so many baggage conveyors, the operator could have used 2 of them instead of one to prevent clutter of baggage and people and allow some social distancing possibilty.
d. the worst part was the complete chaos in the area designated for organising people to register for institutional quarantine. The registration process itself was to be managed by Municipal corporation which I will share separately. However the space made available and logistics should have been managed by Airport operator. Any final semblance of maintaining safe bubble was completely burst here. There was no displays guiding people to counter designated for registration. Appropriate lanes to facilitate structured and orderly movement was not there. It would have been simpler to use the Immigration counters unused for such registration purpose. But alas apathy was staring right through.
e. the icing on the cake was the area designated for "herding" passenger into a municipal managed transport bus. It was such a large area however there was only one bay assigned for all passengers to converge. The airport could have provided bays separately for each zone within mumbai and passengers could have in an orderly fashion moved to respective zones from where they could board the bus. But this was not to be.
B. Feeling of hopelessness due to Apathy of Municipal corporation at the airport:
To put the matter in context - Municipal corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is one of the richest municipal corporation of India. Its annual recurring budget is around INR 30,000 crores. The handling of the registration and logistics of passenger immigrating into Mumbai had a lot to be desired to say the least. This issue is not about availability of resources - Personnel and Pursestring. It is third "P" which is completely missing - Passion.... Passion for Public Service. I would like to clearly say that this is about the people on ground who are working as best as they could. This is about the person in charge in various departments of public administration in MCGM. Their apathy is reflected in the chaos that rules what happens post baggage claim in Mumbai airport and the health risk that it puts everyone at ground level in. Key observations as below:
a. The new airport is reasonably large one with many bays and clearance areas. MCGM could not after more than 6 months of unlock process couldn't work out a better lay out of the airport to handle passenger registration and facilitation. It was still interesting to observe that rather than obtaining Printed list from flight operators about passengers, the registration desk was manned by couple of personnel making manual list. In this background, to expect that a small app for such purpose would be asking for moon. MCGM has information of number of flights and passengers that would alight making appropriate number of personnel available for registrations would have been the least that could be expected. Further registrations were done in different counters for within mumbai and those outside of mumbai. Board / signage / indicators could have been put in place to guide passengers rather than relying on passenger criss crossing and asking multiple people and thus increasing exposure risk.
b. Organising transport was a completely different level of apathy. There was one more registration counter where passengers again were to state their intended destination. This was manual process too. so all passengers are again herding in this area along with their baggage. Just a few meters away was the transport authority personnel vending tickets for destination that passenger intended to go to. To put this in perspective about 300 to 400 people walking out with their bags from one exit. Each one could be heading towards their own location of choice within a large city like Mumbai. But only one bay was active where passengers were bunched and herded into the bus. Mumbai airport basement has at least 10 large bays for bus to park, I am at loss why these were not put to use basis pre-identified circular routes for bus. Any final semblance of social distance was torn to tatters here. there were instances where a passenger was waiting for more than 90 minutes before he / she was assigned a transport facility.
c. It was amusing to observe that one more list was being made manually along with issue of the tickets. this list was handed over to the bus driver for subsequent reference to drop the passengers. A country like India which prides itself in its technology capability and such elementary process could not be first efficiently designed and secondly automated.
C. Feeling of admiration on account of Responsiveness of Municipal corporation at the Municipal ward level:
After all the chaos and hopelessness experienced in Airport, I checked in to an approved hotel close to home. The protocol was 7 days of hotel quarantine. The process was largely simple to declare yourself as quarantine customer at hotel. A room is assigned and one has to stay put. All essentials are to be delivered in the room. On the 7th day a swab sample collector comes to the hotel room collects samples and leaves. Another wait for 24 hours before the report comes (I am in this phase now) and then if negative report then release from hotel to house quarantine. The admiration comes from the following experience:
a. the process is largely set and simple;
b. access to local municipal in-charge is available in hotel. The municipal in-charge is courteous and responsive. They patiently heard me and explained the process and how despite ambiguity in MCGM protocol it would be in my interest to stay put for one more day until the report is available. Despite my insistent prodding, two of the ward in-charge engaged with me and didn't throw the proverbial rule book to stall me. I genuinely felt like I was treated with respect any law abiding citizen deserves.
The first two experiences made me feel that my dignity was taken away for no fault of mine. Its global pandemic in which neither do I have control and neither as of this moment have I contributed. In such a background any administrative process could treat me with dignity and offer basic courtesy and protect me too by ensuring appropriate process (social distancing a case in point) could actually be maintained. The experience in hotel and with local ward in charge leaves me with a good taste. feels like my dignity was restored. Dignity or lack of it is a personal perception. So request each on of you to take this blog with a pinch of salt.
In closing, I hope that public administrators inculcate passion towards service. Else all the personnel and pursestrings would be of no avail. A leading professional recently told me - As citizens, we should also empower ourselves to know our civil rights and demand it.
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