Articles by Shruti Gokarn

Even as summer heat sets new records in Mumbai, the city is gearing for elections on May 20 amidst chaotic political developments. As leaders jump the political parties, citizens are focussing on the official manifestos released by major political parties. An election manifesto is a statement put out by a political party or a candidate defining their goals. It reflects the social issues that they promise to tackle should they be elected. As such this document becomes a compass for voters who can decide in which direction they would like to see the country go.  Urban civic groups, having the…

Mumbai goes to the polls on 20th May. With the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections underway, are you wondering which constituency you belong to? Knowing your Parliamentary constituency will help you find the candidates for whom you can cast your vote. Here is a list of the constituencies in Mumbai. Mumbai is divided into two districts: Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban. In both the districts together, there are six constituencies. Each of these parliamentary constituencies is further divided into the following assembly segments. Use this link to look at an enlarged map of your constituency. Mumbai North Mumbai North parliamentary constituency…

Name: Manoj Kotak Constituency: Mumbai North East Manoj Kotak started working for the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1989. Before being elected as an MP from the Mumbai North East constituency in the 17th Lok Sabha elections (2019), he served as a Municipal Corporator from Mulund from 2007 to 2019. In the 2019 elections, Manoj Kotak got 56.61 percent of the total of 9,09,181 votes cast, getting 5,14,599 votes. He defeated his nearest rival, Sanjay Dina Patil of the NCP by 2,26,486 votes. Kotak was chosen to contest the elections instead of popular leader Kirit Somaiya, who was reportedly gearing…

The Lok Sabha elections 2024 are scheduled to be held in seven phases between April 19th and June 1st. For the first time, senior citizens aged above 85 and persons with 40% and above disabilities will be able to vote from home. The voters in these two categories must file Form 12 D with the Election Commission. Those who opt for vote-from-home will not be allowed to vote from the polling booth on voting day.  Eligibility for postal ballots Rule 27A of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 has been amended to provide the optional postal ballot facility to ‘Absentee…

Name: Poonam Vajendla Rao alias Poonam Mahajan Constituency: Mumbai North Central Poonam Mahajan is a two-time Lok Sabha MP who has represented the Mumbai-North-Central constituency in the 16th (2014) and 17th (2019) Lok Sabha sessions. In the 2019 general elections, 53.97% of the votes were cast in Poonam's favour as opposed to her closest rival, Priya Dutt of the Indian National Congress, who got 39.55% of the votes cast by the 8.95 lakh voters. Poonam defeated Priya by 1,30,005 votes, a margin lesser compared to 2014 when she won by a margin of 1.86 lakh votes. Poonam is the daughter of…

A month after the BMC announced its budget for the fiscal year 2024-25, experts called for greater citizen participation in the planning and implementation of the budget. Not only is the BMC the richest civic body in the country, but also this year they have announced the highest budget ever at nearly Rs. 60,000 crore. Secondly, elections have not taken place after the term of the previous elected officials ended in March 2022. The Municipal Commissioner, appointed as the administrator, has been at the helm of the civic body's functioning for two years now. The corporation was put under an administrator…

Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra recently launched the Mumbai Metropolis  Metaverse, an immersive virtual representation of the way Mumbai will look by the year 2025. This metaverse includes twelve infrastructure projects, which is said will transform Mumbai. One of these projects is the Mumbai Metro. Citizen Matters looks at existing Metro Lines, their connections with Central and Western suburban railways and the prominent areas/stations they connect. Which are the three lines currently operational in Mumbai? Blue Line or Line 1 On 8th June, 2014 the first metro line was started in Mumbai. It was dubbed the Blue…

Fransisca Dantas, a visually challenged teacher, has a unique accessibility challenge while boarding the Mumbai local trains. She travels five days of the week from Andheri to Dadar by the local train for work. At Andheri, announcements about the arrival of trains, whether they are 12 or 15 coach, are erratic. This means passengers don't know where the women's compartment will be. Like other women commuters, she cannot run to get into the women’s compartment once the train arrives. “If it is a 15 coach, people start running helter skelter. With a first class season ticket I can get into…

The highest ever budget for the richest civic body in the country, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), was presented on 2nd February by the Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal. This was his fourth time presenting the budget and the second time presenting it in lieu of an elected body. The BMC is slated to spend Rs 59,954.75 crore for the city of Mumbai. The focus of the budget is the completion of massive infrastructure projects such as the Mumbai Coastal Road project and the Goregaon Mulund Link Road. The Municipal Commissioner has drawn particular attention to the focus of the…

On 22nd January at around 9.00 pm, three employees of Western Railway, Vasu Mitra, Somnath Lambture, and Sachin Wankhede were mowed down by a train as they were attending to a point failure on the railway track between Vasai and Nalasopara. The repair work was almost completed, when a fourth employee, who was deputed to signal the arrival of a train was sent to Vasai station to bring some tools, thus leaving them oblivious to the train approaching them, says one Vasai Road Railway Police official. This accident comes close on the heels of a report released by the GRP…