BMC performance satisfaction index falling: Praja Foundation

Mumbai: A survey shows a sharp fall in the satisfaction index over the civic body’s performance.

A report that a NGO released on Thursday shows the number of complaints from citizens to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) shot up in 2017 by nearly 50 per cent since 2015 while the average number of days the civic body takes to resolve a complaint more than tripled.

The Praja Foundation said in the report, ‘Civic issues registered by citizens and deliberations done by municipal councillors in Mumbai,’ that the number of complaints to the civic body rose to 92,329 in 2017 from 61,910 in 2015. The average number of days the civic authorities took to resolve complaints went up to 48 days in 2017 from 15 days in 2015.

“According to citizens’ charter, the average number of days to resolve a complaint should be three days...  It means that the response mechanism is on the decline every year,” said Milind Mhaske, project director, Praja Foundation.

The NGO has also suggested a few measures to improve the response to citizens’ complaints. “There is a need to create an open dashboard on the BMC website to monitor complaints. The corporation must strictly adhere to the filling of the ‘Councillor Code,’ as it will help address the lack of accountability in the working of the civic body. In addition to this, a citizen feedback mechanism for gauging citizens’ satisfaction with the solution to their problems must be created,” said Nitai Mehta,  founder/ managing trustee of Praja Foundation.

On the brighter side, the BMC closed 83 per cent of the complaints it received in 2017, up from a meagre 58 per cent in 2016, said the report. “The BMC has announced the NGO as a persona non-grata,” said a senior civic official.