Ward work to be done?

Contact your corporator. He or she has two weeks to take your suggestion up with the BMC

Ward work to be done?

Contact your corporator if you want to beautify your area, like Joggers Park in Bandra u00a0Pic/Rane Ashish

Contact your corporator. He or she has two weeks to take your suggestion up with the BMC

The deadline is to ensure that civic works get enough time for completion and to avoid under-utilisation of allotted money. These projects include suggesting projects such as roadwork, streamlining hawkers area, medical service centres, beautification of areas under flyovers, jogging track, benches, dustbins, street lighting, library, proper signage, children's play equipment, night school, community centre etc.

"People aren't aware of their rights. This 2008-09 financial year, corporators in Mulund have hardly utilised their funds. There are roads to be repaired, hardly any dustbins around, and unhygienic conditions near the dumping ground in Mulund east. We should keep a yearly tab on how much of the fund is utilized and where," says Prakash Padikkal, a Mulund-based activist.

A corporator gets around Rs 1.4 crore but a recent BMC report records only the discretionary fund an annual grant of Rs 35 lakh which a corporator is suppose to spend on civic works.

Agni activist from Chembur, Rajkumar Sharma said, "Ideally, corporators should discuss it with residents before suggesting projects for the area. This was decided before the last corporation election but nothing of that sort is happening. There is no monthly meeting with corporators. Our area requires immediate attention towards pollution caused by the dumping ground, towards drinking water and storm water drains. The mosquito menace has increased too."

Mohammed Shaikh, the corporator from Cheetah Camp who, according to the BMC's report, has just used two per cent of his funds, said, "I wanted to use the money for overhead water tanks to solve the water problem in this area. Since there was a delay in sanctioning, I went ahead with the alternative plan of laying footpaths, which was approved just two days before the BMC report. My entire fund has been utilised for road and drain work."

However Rajkumar doesn't agree with his corporator. He said, "You can hardly see the work done in the area."

Another Agni activist from King's Circle, Nikhil Desai, said, "Corporators aren't aware where their funds are utilised. When we recently approached them with a request of garden beautification in our area, we were told that the fund for the year had been utilized. Ours is a garden area and for the past 10 years, the gardens are in bad shape. Every year we hear that it will be taken care of in the next financial year and we have 10 corporators. Apart from the gardens, we have roads to attend to and the dividers are in mess. Funds are utilised only in areas that are the corporator's vote banks. People have to wake up and question their corporators before the term ends and corporation elections approaches."u00a0

A recent fund utilisation report by the BMC revealed that work orders for 88% of the total fund allotted to the 232 city corporators u2014 amounting to around Rs 80 crore had been issued so far. Of this, payments to contractors were made for 44% of the projects. Contractors are paid only after their work is over.

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels