Mumbai: The residents of Chandivali and Powai expressed a determined approach to make the upcoming civic corporator accountable and pursue civic issues to the core at the Townhall organised jointly by the Chandivali Citizens’ Welfare Association and The Free Press Journal.
As Mumbai nears the date of polling for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the election heat has engulfed the citizens, who have raised their voices to portray the citizens’ demands from the upcoming elected body of the municipal corporation. With charters, manifestos and social media campaigns, citizens have put forth their expectations from the candidates and have given a very clear warning that the expectations are not just desires but the citizens’ mandates.
At the outset of the BMC elections, Chandivali Citizens’ Welfare Association (CCWA) and The Free Press Journal jointly held a Townhall to discuss civic issues at the Nahar Amrit Shakti complex in Chandivali. Residents and citizens activists, from Chandivali, Powai and neighbouring localities falling under the L ward, raised issues ranging from walkability to environment, garbage to public parks and distribution of freebies to lack of road connectivity.
SALMAN ANSARI
SALMAN ANSARI
Mandeep Singh Makkar, founder of CCWA, listed a series of civic issues, including failure to construct the 90ft road from Chandivali Farm road to JVLR which is approved under the development plan, distribution of freebies to the residents from the public funds and failure to expand the online RTI facility to all the wards in the city. He also highlighted that CCWA will appoint a shadow corporator to keep a track on the civic work and expenditure of public funds in the ward.
“While we succeeded in getting the ready-mix concrete plant shut down for causing pollution, we are actively pursuing the matters of 90ft DP road and a fully functional fire station. We are also pushing for the expansion of the online RTI facility to all the wards and the implementation of a BMC portal providing details about all the projects, as announced by the chief minister. We sincerely request all the citizens to become active in civic issues and use the power of social media to raise their voice,” he said.
SALMAN ANSARI
Illegal Parking, Dilapidated Roads And Broken Footpaths
SVR Murti, a resident of Raheja Vihar, highlighted the issue of abandoned vehicles parked illegally on the side of the roads and the bad condition of roads in the locality, raising concerns for people travelling on two-wheelers. “Most of the footpaths in the neighbourhood have been occupied by these abandoned cars, motorcycles and autorickshaws. The BMC should skip concretising a few roads since they will ultimately lie unused by the citizens due to encroachment by these abandoned vehicles,” he said.
Sameer Arora, a resident of Synchroniccity, said, “If one travels to around 100km from Mumbai and sees roads of villages, they are better than Chandivali. It is because the sapanch is accountable to those villagers and he knows that if he doesn't work, they will kick him out during the next election.”
SALMAN ANSARI
SALMAN ANSARI
Arun Kumar Shrivastav, a resident of Nahar Amrit Shakti, alleged that the footpaths in the locality are in a very bad shape which cannot be used by pedestrians or are encroached by hawkers. “The footpath from DMart to the BMC hospital is in such a bad condition that even hawkers are not encroaching it and sitting on the road,” he said, adding that the residents are planning to take the new corporator on a walk from that route.
Powai Lake And Increased Pollution
Pamela Cheema, chairperson of Powai's advanced locality management (ALM), raised the issue of increasing pollution in Powai Lake, which has led to the lake being covered by wild hyacinth. She also expressed concerns about the increasing development in the area, failure to maintain green spaces and destruction of nearby hills. “Any problem related to Powai lake will become a huge issue for the neighbouring localities. We have reached a saturation point for construction, which reflects in the rising pollution and therefore should stop more demolition work in the area,” she said.
Shrivastav also highlighted the pollution caused by smoke from illegal bhattis on Khairani Rd. He said that the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and the environment secretary have failed to act upon it even after multiple complaints. He also highlighted that the saplings planted by the BMC are not looked after, causing them to die and leading to a wastage of public resources.
“There are thousands of bhattis but the BMC will take action against any one of them, click pictures of the action taken and allow them to continue operations again. Even NGT took cognizance of the issue but there was no outcome to it. On the other hand, while the BMC has enough water to clean roads, it has failed to water the new saplings planted on the sides of the roads,” he added.
Increasing Garbage and Decreasing Open Spaces
Sita Prabhu, a resident of Chandivali, expressed disappointment against the growing heaps of garbage on the sides of public roads. “Chandivali's roads have become so filthy that it is impossible to even pass through these roads with vehicles. These heaps keep on getting bigger and don't get cleaned. This leads to many diseases so the least we can do is keep our surroundings clean,” she said.
Prabhu also highlighted a lack of public parks in the Nahar Shakti area. “The apartment prices and property taxes are so high here and we do not get any facilities in return. My brothers used to refuse our elderly mother to stay here since the traffic takes more than 45 minutes to reach the nearest hospital,” she added.
Political Hoardings Deface Chandivali
Cheema raised issues about illegal hoardings defacing the neighbourhood and alleged that the BMC does not act on it under political pressure even after regular complaints from the citizens. “The BMC will allow the politicians to keep the hoardings for as long as they want and later when their requirement is fulfilled, they will remove the banners and leave back the bamboo so that hoardings can be put up again,” she added.
Makkar said, “It is the hypocrisy of the politicians that they continue putting up illegal hoardings even after taking pledge to save the environment. They are shameless and keep repeating the act even after their party heads have publicly asked their workers to stop the practice.”
Direction and Accountability
Jamshed Modi, a resident of Synchronicity CHS, said that the issues are known to the citizens as well as the administration but there is a need for systematic resolving and a mechanism to approach the authority and make them accountable. Mahesh Gopaldas said, “Corporators receive their funding but citizens need to ensure that they are put to use in the right way.”
Multiple residents suggested collaboration between multiple citizens associations across Chandivali and Powai to help fulfill the objectives faster and better. Anil Sonkar, a resident of Synchronicity, said, “While issues are common across all the wards, the problem is about acceleration. It is a shame that even after working on issues like 90ft road for more than a year, it hasn't moved an inch.”
Jyoti Shiralee, a resident of Palatial Heights, said, “Chandivali is like the poor cousin of Hiranandanin Gardens. Every builder is acting in silos which has caused this situation where one part is very nicely maintained while the other has a different outlook. We need to lead and drive the movement collectively as citizens to bring the change.”
Sukummar Panikker suggested approaching the issues on a micro level while Mohammad Anwar suggested coming up with a monthly report card of the corporators. Another resident Amit Pathak suggested the residents’ associations to focus on fewer issues at a time and pursue them till they are resolved.
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