India, Jan. 10 -- Aspiring corporators, presumably model citizens, have dropped all pretence of being guardians of civic order. In a move worthy of seasoned encroachers, they are colonising footpaths and streets to erect temporary campaign offices in the run-up to the civic elections.

Edging pedestrians off pavements and blithely ignoring traffic snarls on arterial roads, candidates have, willy-nilly, put up pandals wherever they fancy. Civic indiscipline, it appears, is a prerogative shared by all political parties.

In Dharavi, for instance, four campaign offices sit plum near the intersection of 90 Feet Road and 60 Feet Road, both choked traffic arteries. Flaunting their civic immunity are the Congress, BJP, NCP (SP) and an independen...