ELECTIONS

It has never been easier for political parties to know what their cities need. On December 22nd, the NGOs Praja Foundation and Mumbai First released the ‘Ideal Public Health Manifesto’. Handpicking 10 areas of priority within the BMC’s public health department, the manifesto is making a case for reforms that could mean better healthcare for all. Elections for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are expected to be held in February 2022, and the city awaits an influx of manifestos where health will compete with concerns of road, water, and environment, among others. Instead of the freebies political parties usually offer,…

The term for Mumbai's corporators closes in March 2022, and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai's civic body, has started preparations for the upcoming civic elections. 227 elected corporators from across 24 administrative wards are accountable to represent citizens and their local issues in the city council. This makes it important for Mumbaikars to elect the right candidate in their wards. The BMC, also known as Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), is one of the richest municipal corporations in the world. It is sitting on fixed deposits of over Rs 80,000 crore and has an annual budget of over…

Public anger over potholes in Mumbai, especially during monsoons, saw most local political parties promise smooth and smart solutions along with other grand promises for Mumbaikars in the 2017 urban local body elections. But despite the umpteen electoral promises made by almost all political parties, most sections of the 2000 kms of roads under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) continue to be plagued by potholes, before, during and after the monsoons. Now it is time for another round of promises as the February 2022 Mumbai municipal elections nears. Which party made what promises regarding roads in their 2017 manifesto?  The…

Over the past 15 years, not a single corporator has lost their seat or been disqualified because they indulged in corrupt practices during the elections. 23 corporators have lost their seats in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), mostly due to submission of false caste certification. But, the BMC has failed to lodge criminal proceedings against them, and has restricted itself to just replacing them with the election runners-up.  This is not to suggest that electoral malpractices do not take place during Mumbai’s civic elections. But according to the nominated corporator on the BEST panel, Sunil Ganacharya, most charges of electoral…

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is on a mission to recover arrears of property taxes worth about Rs 20,000 crore. The BMC is auctioning articles like helicopters, cars and air conditioners, seized from a private company in 2020, to recover Rs 4.1 crores. They've sent notices and acted against 11,661 defaulters. Though the BMC always had the power to disconnect water and/or electricity connections, seal lifts and entrances of properties, they’ve rarely executed this authority. Now, owing to COVID-19, the richest municipal corporation in the country is feeling the pinch.  However, the focus has been on wealthy defaulters, and the common…

Citizens from Marol are going door-to-door with a signature campaign against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for its failure to retrieve gardens from three hotels on the Marol-Juhu belt near Mumbai airport. The hotels were supposed to hand over the garden plots to BMC for public use. “That these three garden plots, with a cumulative measure of approximately 1.3 lakh sq ft of area, are yet to be accessible for public use, should give us a clue about how public open spaces occupied by private groups, star hotels in this case, are inaccessible in Mumbai’s highly urbanised and congested landscape,”…

The general rule for contesting in a local civic body election is that the person should be more than 21 years of age and should be a resident of Mumbai. Section 14 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888 stipulates that the contesting candidate in the BMC elections must be enrolled as a voter in the jurisdiction of Mumbai. Since 1995, when the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations and Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships (Second Amendment) Act, 1995 came into force, a corporator cannot have more than two children. Gulshan Chouhan, a corporator from South Mumbai, was disqualified in 2011…

At Citizen Matters, we review the promises made in the respective electoral manifestos by all four leading electoral parties, namely, the Shiv Sena (SS), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ahead of the BMC elections in February 2022.  We review whether these promises made by them have been delivered, and where Mumbai currently stands on these issues. To kick start the series, we look at the promises made on the issue of providing clean and safe water supply.   Water requirement in Mumbai  Mumbai currently provides 188 litres per capita per…

Translated by Sandhya Raju from the original Tamil Press Release by GCC Chennai District Election Officer and Chennai Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi jointly released the draft electoral poll list for Chennai, in the presence of the party representatives, earlier this week. The electoral list includes eligible voters from the 16 constituencies, as of January 1st, 2022. This list is available at 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13 zonal offices for public view. The public has been requested to check the draft list for addition, modification or deletion. First-time voters whose names have still not been included or who…

இந்திய தேர்தல் ஆணையத்தின் உத்தரவின்படி, சென்னை மாவட்டத்தில் உள்ளடக்கிய 16 சட்டமன்ற தொகுதிகளுக்கான வரைவு வாக்காளர் பட்டியலை மாவட்ட தேர்தல் அலுவலர் / அரசு முதன்மை செயலாளர் / பெருநகர சென்னை மாநகராட்சி ஆணையாளர் திரு. ககன்தீப் சிங் பேடி, இ.ஆ.ப., அவர்கள் இன்று (01.11.2021) ரிப்பன் மாளிகை கூட்டரங்கில் அனைத்து கட்சி பிரமுகர்கள் முன்னிலையில் வெளியிட்டார். இந்திய தேர்தல் ஆணையத்தின் உத்தரவின்படி சென்னை மாவட்டத்தில் உள்ளடக்கிய 16 சட்டமன்றத் தொகுதிகளுக்கான வாக்காளர் பட்டியல் 01.01.2022- ஆம் தேதியினை தகுதி ஏற்படுத்தும் நாளாகக் கொண்டு 2022-ஆம் ஆண்டின் சிறப்பு சுருக்க முறை திருத்தம் மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டு வருகிறது. இச்சுருக்க முறை திருத்தம் தொடர்பாக வரைவு வாக்காளர் பட்டியல் இன்று 01.11.2021 வெளியிடப்படுகிறது. மேற்படி வரைவு வாக்காளர் பட்டியல் பெருநகர சென்னை மாநகராட்சி மண்டல அலுவலகங்கள் 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13 மற்றும் வாக்குச்சாவடி மையங்களிலும் பொதுமக்களின் பார்வைக்கு வைக்கப்படும்.…