mumbai

Updated: Apr 20, 2018 10:01 IST

Planning to lodge a complaint with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)? If NGO Praja Foundation’s report for March- December 2017 is anything to go by, you can expect a solution only 48 days later – the average time taken by BMC to look into a complaint.

The report, released on Thursday, states 92,329 complaints were filed last year, of which more than 75,000 were closed. The complaints were related to roads, buildings, drains, water supply, solid waste management, licence, gardens, colony officer, storm water drainage, health and pollution.

The report was compiled based on data obtained through Right to Information Act, 2005 for all 24 wards.

According to the BMC’s citizen charter 1999 (a joint charter by BMC and Praja), the civic body should fix complaints related to drainage, water supply, solid waste management (SWM) or any other civic complaints within three days. However, the BMC takes at least more than 15 days to do so, the report revealed. “Citizens are unhappy with the BMC. Time-bound service delivery has also been severely impacted,” the report said.

Three wards – Colaba (86 days), Borivli (89 days) and Bhandup (93 days) -- have been rated worst wards for their delay in closing complaints. Nitai Mehta, founder and managing trustee of Praja Foundation, said, “Good quality service and effective response to complaints matters most to citizens. The data show total lack of concern for citizens and their issues.”

The findings showed 38 of 227 councillors did not ask questions in ward committees related to issues or unresolved problems during the study period. Of these, 11 were re-elected, which means they had served a term between March 2012 and December 2016. Forty-five councillors did not ask a single question in 2012.

The report said last year councillors asked 125 questions related to naming and renaming of roads and chowks, whereas 10-42 questions were related to education, drainage, health, community development, toilets and stormwater drainage. The report showed the disparity in number of toilets for men and women.