As per a study carried out by the NGO Praja Foundation, the naming or renaming of roads was on top of the corporators’ list in 14 of Mumbai’s 24 wards.
While Mumbaikars are concerned about drainage, water supply, licences and other such civic issues, corporators spend most of their time discussing either naming or renaming roads.
As per a study carried out by the NGO Praja Foundation, the naming or renaming of roads was on top of the corporators’ list in 14 of the city’s 24 wards.
Nita Mehta, managing trustee of Praja, said the figures were obtained through an RTI query seeking details on what citizens complained about the most for the period April 2008 to March 2011.
The study result, which was released on Wednesday, revealed that in 11 wards, the maximum number of complaints from citizens was about drainage system — or the lack of it — while in another 10 wards, it was the second most-complained about issue.
Irregular water supply was the biggest problem in 11 wards and the second most complained-about issue in another six wards. The issue of licences had the third highest number of complaints in 10 wards.
According to the survey carried out with a sample of 28,707 people, the most important issue for Mumbaikars is the problem of waterlogging, followed by pollution and corruption. There is also concern over traffic jams in many wards.
Nowhere do citizens care about the names of roads, but are the corporators listening?
Mehta admitted that the voice of NGOs may not carry much weight with political parties.
For instance, Praja had recently ranked corporators and Meena Desai from Mahim had topped the list. But, she has not been re-nominated by Congress for the civic polls. “She is contesting as an Independent and it is for the citizens to vote for her and show that her work does matter.”
Mehta added that the corporator who was rated the worst was so upset that he came with lawyers to protest against the ranking.
“The fact is that our surveys and rankings do strike a chord, otherwise why would people even bother to protest.”
Mehta said only by consistently harping on issues that matter could the citizens get their voices heard. “This study is a long process. We see our study as a guidebook for the new corporators who will come in than as a rating card for those going out.”
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