Corporators’ questions highlight their priorities; unearthing scams, fixing education and green issues rank bottom
Corruption seems low on the priority list for corporators of the Brihanmumbai Mumbai Corporation (BMC), if one is to go by the report card prepared by the Praja Foundation, an NGO that works towards increasing accountability among elected representatives in the city. Bad roads are the issue that gets most prominence, while naming and renaming roads, chowks and monuments is second.
Between March 2017 and March 2018, only 18 questions regarding scams or corruption in the BMC were raised, while as many as 320 questions were about the naming and renaming. In all, 2,609 questions were raised during 2017-18, up from 2,235 in 2013-14.
Nitai Mehta, managing trustee of the Praja Foundation, said annual flooding, potholes, epidemics, dropouts from civic schools, ward level corruption, etc. are all serious issues that need to be addressed urgently. "There needs to be an introspection of the performance of our elected representatives at all levels, and a serious debate regarding their role and ability to perform," Mehta said.
The NGO said its ranking analysed corporators' role on the basis of attendance, number and importance of questions asked, criminal records and perceived performance. Hansa Research quizzed 24,290 citizens to judge public perception.
Interestingly, the top three corporators are all women: Kishori Pednekar from Shiv Sena, Sweta Korgaonkar from Congress and Priti Satam from BJP. "The top three positions have been attained by women, and this is definitely an achievement and the way forward for the city," said Milind Mhaske, director, Praja Foundation.
The average score of the current crop of corporators is 59.60 per cent, almost identical to the previous batch (2013-16), which had secured 59.50 per cent.
Citizens Quizzed
Hansa Research surveyed 24,290 citizens to judge public perception, and asked them about perceived performance of their corporators.
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