Political parties have failed to keep the promises that were made in the election manifestos, pointed out a Praja Foundation report-- “Mumbai’s Party-Wise Manifesto (2017-22) Analysis & Targets to Set for 2022-2027”, which was released on Thursday.
The data shared in the report revealed that hardly any concern among the political parties on issues taken up and mentioned in their respective manifestos during elections.
A detailed analysis was carried out about the party manifestos and compared them with the parties' questions on the same issues in the last five years ( 2017-18 to 2020-2021).
With BMC polls coming up next year in February, political parties and their candidates will soon declare their commitments and promises for the coming tenure. Praja Foundation has released an analysis of manifesto promises of major political parties (Shiv Sena, BJP, INC and NCP) and compared them with deliberations, specific manifesto points and citizens’ complaints related to those manifesto points.
Based on this analysis, Praja also shared recommendations of targets to be set for upcoming BMC elections and provided a goal so that elected councillors can work towards achieving the same. Additionally, global and international targets have been recommended by Praja so that political parties can include them in the new manifesto they will be preparing for the upcoming civic polls.
“The political parties, before elections, develop their own manifestos which outline the objectives of the party candidates for the upcoming councillors’ term, based on which citizens elect their representatives. The manifesto, among other things, includes action plans and promises to provide civic wants and needs as well as solve various service delivery related issues that citizens face on a regular basis,” said Nitai Mehta, Trustee, Praja Foundation.
BJP promised 24 hours water supply, however, the average timing of water supply in 2020 was only 5.39 hours. Whereas NCP promised no more water leakages, however, 15,463 complaints related to water leakages in 2017-18 to 2020-21 were recorded. From 2017 to 2021, Congress councillors asked 12 questions on water supply each year, while NCP councillors asked only 1 question each year.
The report while tracking the complaints and deliberations, discovered that some of the highest areas of complaints have not been successfully deliberated upon. For example, the highest complaints registered was 75,915 for sewerage and drainage issues from 2017-18 to 2020-21. Despite that, the Praja report has revealed that only 4 per cent (136 out of 3,510) of total deliberations were on issues of drainage.
Praja report further stated that Some of the major political parties, in their manifesto for 2017 polls, promised improvement in solid waste management (SWM) and better garbage collection.
However, Praja's report has pointed out that 54,029 SWM complaints were registered between 2017 to 2021, of which only 40 per cent were for garbage not collected. Only 8 per cent (287) of total questions were asked on the same by the corporators of major political parties.
Addressing the Media, Milind Mhaske, Director, Praja Foundation said: “The report also highlights the need for councillors to refer to the promises made by them in the manifesto before the elections, while deliberating during their term. Despite promises being made to resolve issues related to potholes, water supply, drainages, SWM, hawkers and so on, deliberations on them have not been enough."
"The overall proportion of questions asked by major political parties on issues related to potholes was just 2 per cent . As another example, the percentage of questions raised by corporators on water supply issues was only 7 per cent of total questions from 2017-18 to 2020-21. Similarly, only 4 per cent of total questions were raised by major political parties despite BJP, NCP and INC promising a policy for hawkers and special zones for hawkers & other street vendors," Mhaske said.
“The disparity of complaints and questions asked by councillors go on to reaffirm the importance of deliberation of citizen specific issues. Political parties should ensure that the manifestos align to achieving these targets by creating programmes around the same,” added Mhaske.
Praja's report has suggested that at present there are 17 different agencies, and so there is the problem of overlapping of roles and coordination between these agencies. All agencies should also be under the direct control of the Mayor.
Some of the Findings
Only 39% of overall deliberations were related to the manifesto points of major political parties from 2017 to 18 to 2020-21.
Despite promises to resolve citizens issues, deliberations on them were not satisfactory, leading to greater complaints.
Manifesto and failure
Shiv Sena had promised pothole-free Mumbai with new technology and material, however, in 2017-18 to 2020-21, 17,908 complaints were related to potholes.
BJP had promised a 24/7 water supply, however, 204 out of 290 zones received only up to 4 hours of water supply in 2020.
Despite BJP, NCP and INC promising a policy for hawkers and special zones for hawkers & other street vendors, 34,129 hawker-related complaints were registered from F.Y. 2017-18 to 2020-21.
Recommendations
Efforts must be made to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and other government targets and manifestos should be made keeping these goals and targets in mind.
The Mayor should be empowered and their term should be made co-terminus with the term of the City Government.
The City Government should be the nodal agency for the delivery of all the 18 functions mentioned in the 12th schedule of the Constitution and functions of local importance.
Citizen Participation Forum, a platform that allows citizens to express their needs and wants, should be created to ensure the citizen-centric approach to planning for service delivery.
