India, Feb. 4 -- How alert citizen groups have made a difference to their neighbourhoods by agitating against government plans that do not serve a purpose and speaking up for projects they believe in.

Mount Mary residents oppose concretisation

On January 22, members of ALM33 wrote to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)'s chief engineer of roads and commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, protesting a bid for concretisation. This was not the first time they were taking matters in their own hands.

Citizens often have little say when BMC sets out to concretise roads, "for the greater good of people". But in the past, when the civic body set its sight on their neighbourhoods, residents of Mount Mary and Kane roads decided to play an equal p...