Work with govt, Mumbai Inc told

Finance Minister P Chidambaram today made an impassioned plea to Mumbai's corporate citizens to come out of their "fortresses" and "work with elected governments" if they wanted to see Mumbai emerge as the regional financial services centre.

Speaking at the 169th annual general body meeting of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chidambaram chided corporate Mumbai for receding into their well-appointed "shells while the city crumbled outside".

"It is a shame that 50 per cent of Mumbai is slums and most houses are crumbling. There is a complete break between those who run the city's government and those who have the capital and the wisdom to make a difference," he said.

The finance minister was responding to the outgoing chamber's President Ashwini Kakar's plea for a higher revenue share for the city.

"Mumbai deserves better""better roads, water supply, electricity, housing, control of crime and a better understanding of the problems of a growing city where 50 per cent people are the 'underclass'," the finance minister said.

According to him, "The city's problems are not unsolvable, if the entrepreneurial class is willing to come out of its fortress and work with the elected city governments."

The finance minister also warned the city's corporate denizens that other cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata may soon leave Mumbai behind in attracting investments.

Later, speaking at the convocation ceremony of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Gandhi Institute of Computer Education and Information Technology, Chidambaram emphasised the need to send children to school for at least eight years.

He said the government's Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and mid-day meal schemes were aimed at arresting the school drop-out rates. He pointed out that India had the largest population, of 500 million people, in the working age.