As polls near, resident groups help voters make informed choices

Similarly, residents of Charkop Sector 8 Vikas Samiti, intend to coordinate a Meet Your Candidates event physically

MUMBAI: With the BMC election campaign less than a month away, the role of the resident welfare associations is assuming a more critical role in reaching out to voters.

As polls near, resident groups help voters make informed choices

“We are the link between citizens and candidates,” said Dhaval Shah, co-founder of the Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizens Association (LOCA). “Active citizens like us are not just aware of the issues in the locality but also know how to pursue them with the right authorities and ensure that promises are delivered long after candidates forget us post-elections.”

Shah said that LOCA asked four major parties to list their most probable candidates and then took an online poll to list the one residents favoured the most. “About 2,700 persons responded, a sizable number considering that only 12,000 persons voted in our ward in the last election,” he said.

LOCA is also planning a series of citizen-centric initiatives to ensure that residents make an informed choice. “We intend to put out information such as the educational qualifications of candidates and cases against them,” said Shah. “We also plan to host interviews with candidates. The process of drafting ward-wise citizen manifestos is also on.”

Similarly, residents of Charkop Sector 8 Vikas Samiti, intend to coordinate a Meet Your Candidates event physically. “Were the candidate to directly call residents for a meeting, they might simply not turn up,” said Mili Shetty, chief co-ordinator of the Samiti. “But programmes hosted by us ensure better citizen participation.”

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Mili added that political candidates try to lure voters with freebies, but emphasised that they were not interested. “We are more keen on resolving local civic issues that impact us directly such as better lighting in public parks, regular watering of plants on dividers, and more benches and garbage bins,” she said.

The We All Connect (WAC), the residents group at Kandivli’s Lokhandwala township, has already listed out the concerns that need immediate attention from elected representatives. Residents have been asked to put forth or raise these issues when their candidates visit their housing societies during election campaigning. Their list of demands includes a local police beat post, action against illegal hawkers, illegal parking, and opening the 120-ft DP Road.

Not all resident associations have positive experiences, said a core member of the Prabhadevi Area Welfare Association (PAWA) set up by residents of swanky new buildings a decade ago to resolve concerns such as the congested New Prabhadevi Road during an annual fair and their access road being blocked by hawkers. “Our concerns get overlooked compared to those of the old chawl residents though we pay much higher taxes,” he said. “Our complaints to the civic authorities also tend to get the pass-the-buck treatment. Left with no recourse, we just tweet away our woes.”

Seniors demand elder-friendly polls from CEC

Senior citizens from about eight organisations led a delegation to Maharashtra’s Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Waghmare, seeking steps to make the electoral process more elder-friendly. They listed eight demands in a memorandum such as ground-floor polling booths accessible by ramps, wheelchairs or lifts.

Led by Prakash Borgaonkar, co-ordinator of the joint action committee of senior citizens organisations, Mumbai, the seniors also sought a separate queue and the right to take vehicles till the polling station gate. They also sought scrutiny by digital electoral rolls at polling booths (to reduce delays caused by manual searches), special registration and voting support for seniors in old age homes, and proper ventilation, fans, bright lighting, drinking water and toilet facilities at the polling stations.

“The provision of home voting for 85+ age group seniors, bedridden or medically fragile individuals, which was available during the recent Lok Sabha and assembly elections, will not be available during the local self-government elections. This is owing to shortage of staffers as also due to lack of legal provisions,” said coordinator Sailesh Mishra.