Big dip in accessibility, awareness rates of corporators

Even though people in Mumbai expect their councillors to be accessible, especially during emergencies, the overall accessibility and awareness rates of elected representatives have dropped by 27.7%. Their overall perceived performance rate too has dropped, by 11.8%.

This was revealed in a performance audit conducted by Praja Foundation, a voluntary organisation.

As per the survey the results of which were made public on Thursday, corporators Ashwini Mate, Ritu Tawade and Manali Tulaskar were the most accessible, and Arun Kamble, Ajanta Yadav and Jyotsna Parmar were the worst in terms of accessibility and awareness. Sena corporator and standing committee chairman Yashodhar Phanase also figured in the worst list.

"The overall attendance of corporators dropped 6.7%. Ten 10 of them didn't ask even a single question in 2013-2014. Of this, three councillors—Anita Yadav, Jyotsna Parmar and Lalita Annamalai—didn't ask a single question in two years since they were elected," Praja Foundation founder trustee Nitai Mehta said.

Corporators who fared well in discretionary-fund-utilised category include Ramashish Gupta, Prajakta Vishwasrao and Sagar Thakur. The worst performers in this category are Shantilal Doshi, Subhada Patkar and Bhavna Mangela.

Sudhir Jadhav, Sneha Zagade and Ritu Tawade asked the maximum number of questions, while Bhomsingh Rathod, Changez Multani and Kesarben Patel asked the least.

The survey ranked newly elected mayor Snehal Ambekar the top councillor, followed by Shiv Sena's Hemangi Worlikar and BJP's Gyanmurti Sharma. MNS's Avinash Sawant, NCP's Harun Yusuf Khan and MNS's Mangal Kadam Corporators figured among those who scored the least marks.

Several prominent corporators like BJP's Ameet Satam, MNS's Sandeep Despande and Congress' Devendra Amberkar too scored poorly.

There is some good news too. Five corporators—Deepak Bhutkar, Anil Trimbakkar, Anuradha Pednekar, Hemangi Worlikar and Noshir Mehta—had 100% attendance (at their respective committee meetings). The total number of issues raised too had increased, to 27%.

A Congress leader who didn't want to be named, said: "We have nothing to say. The number of issues we raised and our attendance are known to all. The survey is biased, so we do not feel the need to justify ourselves."