Speak up Mumbai: City unhappy with civic body's handling of complaints

A non-government organization Praja foundation recently released a report regarding complaints filed by citizens regarding civic issues and the response time the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) takes in answering them.

According to the report, Complaints filed by residents on civic issues rose by 49 per cent between 2015 and 2017 and the average time BMC took to resolve these complaints were 48 days. Most of the complaints were related to roads, buildings, drains, water supply, solid waste management, licence, gardens, colony officer, storm water drainage, health and pollution. Three wards – Colaba (86 days), Borivli (89 days) and Bhandup (93 days) -- have been rated worst wards for their delay in closing complaints, said the report. It added that the citizens are unhappy with the BMC and the time-bound service delivery has also been severely impacted.

However, the BMC administration is completely mum on the data released by the NGO saying that the report is biased and BMC does answer the queries as early as possible. It also says that number of queries have rose due to the online system of registering complaints. BMC has been showing no interest to provide any counter data proving that BMC it resolves citizens complaints on time.

DNA spoke to some citizens if their queries on civic issues have been resolved by BMC and what their experience has been.

VOICES

The place where I stay has a public toilet, where the sewage is on the road every other day. However, there has been never any proper response. They come, clean and mend it, but it is temporary and then again it starts flowing. We complain again, and seek permanent solution but BMC isn’t bothered and we are tired, of complaining now, it’s been years they do not bother to solve the issue. 
—Vaibhav Bhatia, Chembur resident

I am an advocate knowing some nuances of procedures and the relevant laws applicable. But even then it is cumbersome to get information or make the Civic officials act on complaints that are made by me. Most of the times officers either give deceptive or evasive replies to the queries. Even if there is any action, it is delayed or diluted. 
—Rajendra Javanjal, Borivali resident 

BMC is working for some influential people. I had experienced that, when we lodged complaint of illegal construction or any illegal activities and requests for any action, but BMC never act on complaint raised by citizens. Sometimes they act upon direction from high court. I can give the list of my client, whose complaint has not been considered for a year.
—Adv Nitin Satpute, Special Public Prosecutor/ special Counsel At Supreme Court Resident of Shivaji Park, Dadar
 
BMC does respond to the complaints at times but there is a difference between mere responding to the complaint and solving it. It was last year that our society had complained about potholes but we were not heard, and the work of filling potholes has started just few days ago just because monsoon is few days away. So in my case we were heard but solving of problem took almost one year which is not a great experience
—Ankit Arora, Borivali resident. 

Mumbaikars face several issues from potholes, to bad roads, to flooding etc every year and all these issues are connected with BMC. I sincerely feel BMC fail to respond to all the issues concerning citizens. On the other hand if you’ll see, citizens feel lot more comfortable bringing civic issues to the notice of police than BMC. Mumbai Police s Twitter handle is flooded with complaints related to civic issues. 
—Suhail Ansari, 44, Pydhonie resident 

The BMC has been very helpful to us  We at Vidyanidhi High School and Junior College Juhu cannot forget the unexpected torrential rains of the 29th of August 2017, all classrooms on the ground floor had 2 feet of water. Our local Corporator Ms. Sudha Singh was informed and came personally to inspect. Though she could have deputed her staff to help but she went beyond her line of duty and personally supervised and also got the full building fumigated to ensure that none of the children are susceptible to infections.
—Priyanka Rajani, Vile Parle resident
 
Given the fact that we are active residents representing a forum and keep interacting with BMC officials regularly my complaints are taken very seriously and action is also swift. However, I wont be surprised to hear that it is a major task for several residents who are not in touch with BMC office. On the other hand I have also seen that BMC officials respond to the WhatsApp group of our area committee to smallest complaints raised by citizens
—Harish Pandey, Dahisar resident
 
Yes. Most of the times they respond to my complaints. I am quite active in the area so they listen to me. I had recently clicked a photograph of debirs and sent to the ward officer. It was acted upon promptly. They even sent me a photo of the removal of debris. I have numbers of most officers and since they know me, my complaints are resolved.
—Ashok Pai, Andheri resident

EXPERT SPEAK

BMC’s responsive mechanism towards citizens’ complaint is not for common man. You need to have a face to get your queries solved. There is a connivance between politicians, bureaucrats and contractors. Citizens raise queries for basic issues like road works, cleaning etc but many a times on the website it reflects that complaint cleared but the complainants keep waiting for the response. And if BMC feels that Praja ’s report is biased, the civic administration should allow social audit or release their own data.
—Bhaskar Prabhu, conveyer of Mahiti Adhikar Manch

It is tragic that an NGO has to bring out data of a public body’s response mechanism to citizens’ complaints. It is true that BMC’s response to citizens queries is slow. I have filed RTIs but the response is delayed. We have demanded BMC to put all RTI replies on its website, but it has shown no interest. If the BMC Chief feels that Praja’s report is false, then he should put on website the factual data with BMC.
 —Shailesh Gandhi, Former Central Information Commissioner