The ALM had been formed in the year 1999. It covers 75 buildings and a few slum communities. Initially, there used to be monthly ward meetings but now meetings take place fortnightly only among the coordinators and a few members of the ALM.  

Working:

• Protected and beautified open spaces by planting trees under the BMC scheme ‘Saaf Aangan’.
• Reduction in infiltration by hawkers.
• Repair work related to drainage system and cleaning of gutters.
• Segregation of waste at its source and composting of the wet waste generated by the households in the area.

The ALM had adopted a unique way to carry out its composting activity. Compost pits had been built in all the resident societies as well as in the parks. There were three parks in the area. In each of them, compost pits had been built at the periphery of the parks (almost 700 feet long and two and a half feet deep).  Even the storm water drains were utilized for composting of waste during the non-rainy season (almost six months in a year). Almost half of the total number of resident households segregated their waste into dry and wet waste. The rest of the waste was segregated by the sweepers. The manure made out of the composting activity was utilized for internal usage only.

Good Practices:

• The ALM has six coordinators each responsible for one of the six roads. This way, work and responsibilities get shared equally and burden of work does not lie with a single person.
• The ALM has its own office, which is also used for holding its meetings. It also has its own cleaning material and equipment (including mosquito repellant sprayer). The ALM has also employed private sweepers for each road. These sweepers work towards keeping the area clean and garbage free. They take up their work once the work of sweepers employed by corporation gets over. The ALM has employed a gardener, who looks after the gardens and also devotes time and effort towards composting activity.

Future plans:

• To work in coordination with ‘Dattak Vastis’ i.e. with representatives from the slum communities.

• To start free computer classes (five computer systems had been donated by British Telecom to the ALM) for the children of the nearby slum community.

Problems faced:

• Lack of cooperation and support from the government. The junior engineers and other government officials, with whom the ALM members are supposed to meet and discus their area problems do not have possess enough decision-making powers. Due to this, meetings did not bring any results and soon they were scrapped.
• Though the ALM is able to manage its affairs with its internally generated funds, but at times it had to restrict itself from getting into new initiatives.
• Non-cooperation from the shopkeepers in the vicinity.
• The concept of nuisance detectors is non-functional and impracticable. The nuisance detectors work only during office hours (a very limited and short period of time). Few shop owners bribe them and do not follow the rules and regulations laid down with respect to keeping the area clean and green.   

Suggestions:

• Residents of the area should get involved more actively in the ALM activities. Issues like increased level of noise pollution can be solved through combined efforts on part of all the ALM members. The working of ALM can be extended beyond taking care of civic issues and problems alone.
• Regularity of meetings plays a very important role and has a greater bearing on the functioning of the ALM.

Impression about the ALM

The ALM appeared to be working on a sustainable and self-reliant basis and had the potential to expand its area of activities.
   

Before	After

done by Snigdha Jain, TISS Student, interning with www.karmayog.org