The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is responsible for providing key civic services to Mumbaikars, Which is equivalent to a local government. Whose budget is more than the annual budget of any small state of the Country. In today’s technological era, the role of BMC is important in providing all the facilities to its citizens. In such a situation, it is also important to know that when, how and in how many days does the country’s richest municipal corporation solve the problems of its citizens.

NGO Praja Foundation has been studying for many years about the status of civic issues in Mumbai and on 5t h of May 2022, Praja foundation have made a report on this issue. Which mentions the duration of BMC in resolving the issues of Mumbaikars and the average time taken to solve the problem and the total number of complaints received at the ward level. The foundation claims that the report analyzes the trend of complaints from citizens registered on the Centralized Grievance Registration System (CCSR) and also provides effective solutions to strengthen the Public Grievance Redressal Management System of BMC.

According to the reports, BMC has received maximum complaints regarding drainage problem and BMC has taken an average time of 48 days to solve a problem from 2017 to 2021. Where as in total, the ward itself took the highest average time of 68 days to solve a civic problem from 2017 to 2021. Let’s have a look on some important points of this foundation’s report on the status of civic issues in Mumbai 2022.

Since 10 years (2012 to 2021) CCSR have disclosed that first three years (2012 to 2014) had some ups and downs in terms of complaints, later that 2015 (67,835) and 2019 (1,28,145) showed drastic rise in complaints.
The average time taken to resolve each citizen’s complaint was 48 days in 2017 and up to 48 days in 2021. The L-ward (Kurla) took the maximum number of days (68 days) to resolve each civil complaint from 2017 to 2021. L – Kurla (74,078), K. West Andheri (W) (73,562) and K. East – Andheri (E) (66,660) wards had the maximum number of consolidated citizen’s complaints from 2012 to 2021. Similarly, out of the overall complaints from 2012 to 2021, the maximum numbers of complaints filed on basic service delivery are as follows:

1 – 16% (1,50,831) complaints were registered regarding issues related to drainage,West Ward – Andheri (W) (14,687) had maximum complaints of drainage.
2- 10% (96,360) complaints registered for SWM related issues. Of West Ward – Andheri (W) (7,195) had maximum SWM complaints.
3- 10% (92,858) complaints were registered on water related issues. M. East Ward – Govandi/Mankhurd (9,541) had maximum number of SWM complaints..
3- 10% (92,858) complaints were registered on water related issues. M. East Ward – Govandi/Mankhurd (9,541) had maximum number of SWM complaints.
5- 1 out of 6 questions asked in ward committee meetings were on naming and renaming of roads and squares from 2012 to 2021.
Deliberations in ward committees by major political parties from 2012 to 2021 showed that of the total 9,382 questions asked, BJP councilors asked 25%, Congress 20% and Shiv Sena 37%.
Praja Foundation CEO, Milind Mhaske said it is important for a democratically empowered city government to improve the efficiency of service delivery through a feedback mechanism that Mumbai currently does not have. They further expressed their hope that with these major reforms, BMC would be able to meet the growing aspirations of its citizens.