Citing data collated using the Right to Information (RTI) Act, NGO Praja Foundation on Tuesday said that the sharp reduction in public grievances, as per BMC statistics, was because of faulty technology.
According to the data Praja obtained, complaints from Mumbai citizens on road deficiencies were 29,967 in 2012) and 42,287 in 2013, which then dropped to 21,847 in 2014), and plummeted to 13,601 in 2015 and 13,475 in 2016.
Milind Mhaske, project director of Praja Foundation, said that the BMC had launched a dedicated app in 2014, called the Voice of Citizens, for online complaints over road deficiencies. This resulted in a sharp increase in the number of public complaints in that year.
The BMC has subsequently upgrade the app to a new version, which was supposed to register complaints 24/7 across all departments of the civic body. But the new app, Mr. Mhaske says, is dysfunctional. “Our own volunteers have repeatedly tried registering their complaints over civic deficiencies and failed after repeated attempts. The new app has sharply undermined the online registration of complaints instead of enhancing the same.”
Citing the number of complaints about roads and potholes, which rose from 1,538 in 2011 to 38,279 in 2013, Mr. Mhaske said that it was clear that when citizens were given an opportunity to air their grievances, they did so in large numbers.
Statistics revealed that complaints regarding toilets rose by 96%, from 148 in 2012 to 290 in 2016. Grievances about medical health officers went from 498 in 2012 to 956 in 2016.
Complaints over about control has increase from 3,123 in 2012 to 6,078 in 2016. There was an 103% increase over four years in complaints related to the BMC, and 104% rise in complaints about the Estates department.
Private agendas
Mr. Mhaske said that Praja’s analysis of the data indicated that the elected representatives of the city have their own agendas to pursue, which were often at variance with the needs and demands of the citizens.
For instance, one out of every six questions raised before the statutory committees of the municipal corporation by councilors between March 2012 and December 2016 related to demands for naming or renaming roads; in 2016 alone, out of 351 questions raised under Agenda Raised Letter in the statutory body of the BMC, 263 were about road naming.
The data also revealed that between March 2012 and January 2017, only 88 of the 227 elected councillors raised five or more questions. Two corporators, Ujjwala Modak and Jyotsna Parmar, did not raise any questions in the ward committees they represent over the last five years.
Praja’s founder and managing trustee, Nitai Mehta, said, “It is reasonable to expect that political parties would keep a focus on issues mentioned in their election manifestos. However, while the issue of potholes on Mumbai roads figured majorly in the BJP election campaign, the party asked only 18 questions on the issue before the BMC statutory body. Similarly, the Shiv Sena has only asked three questions related to road tendering.”
The was only one statistic from the data Praja collated that Mr. Mehta called ‘heartening’: “In 61% of cases where complaints were actually filed and registered, the BMC responded by providing a service.”
