Civic body staff on survey duty face resistance

Staff conducting a survey to assess the backwardness of Marathas in Mumbai are facing resistance from housing societies, grinding work at the civic body to a halt.

Mumbai: The staff of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the state revenue department, who have been roped in to conduct the survey to assess backwardness of Marathas, are facing a lot of trouble, with many security guards not allowing them to enter housing societies in the city. Work at the civic body has also come to a grinding halt due to staff being diverted for survey work.

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In the Pantnagar neighbourhood of Ghatkopar east, security guards of a housing society threatened the survey staff and forced them to leave the premises. They were allowed to proceed with their work after some members of the Maratha community who reside in the society and wanted to be surveyed intervened.

Mahendra Khandade, health officer of the BMC’s K East (Andheri east) said, “Our staff had a tough time. Each staff member has interview 150 households, seeking details of Marathas and other communities. They are facing resistance from housing societies. We have issued appeals to all housing societies to allow survey staff to enter buildings.’’

In Andheri west, members of a housing society asked the survey staff what they would get in lieu of the survey and did not allow them to proceed even though the assistant commissioner of K-west ward had issued an appeal urging their cooperation. Most members of this society were non-Maharashtrians.

A deputy commissioner of the BMC said that work at the civic body had come to a grinding halt as the survey had taken away nearly 40,000 to 50,000 staffers.

Similarly, the Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) has assigned survey work over 700 officials. “The entire process is nothing but a hogwash because it is not possible to collect such extensive data in just 7 days. There are 154 questions and each question has sub-questions, which require officials to interact with extended relatives staying elsewhere,” said an alert citizen forum member, Sudhir Dhani.

They survey has to be completed by January 31.