A flood of suggestions for Sena manifesto

“We have received more than 4,000 e-mails and over 5,000 phone calls so far, and they just keep on coming,” said Shailesh Patil, head of the Sena’s IT cell.

Give a rupee per day to every girl child who comes to school

Make the traffic police speak more politely, even if one has jumped a red light

Use empty classrooms for technical and management classes in the evenings

These are just some of the thousands of suggestions that have flooded the Shiv Sena e-mail id (mazamaharashtra@shivsena.org) and 24x7 call centre (24222222) ever since the party invited citizens to send in suggestions for its pre-poll manifesto.

“We have received more than 4,000 e-mails and over 5,000 phone calls so far, and they just keep on coming,” said Shailesh Patil, head of the Sena’s IT cell.

Patil heads a team of 30 party workers who are currently sorting through the suggestions and forwarding the most plausible ones to party executive president Uddhav Thackeray.

“We make a note of every suggestion we receive,” said Patil. “Uddhav Sir personally calls back some of the complainants to assure them that their voice is being heard.”

E-mails have even been pouring in not just from Maharashtra but also from Maharashtrians in Punjab and even Australia, where some sons of the soil have said they feel ‘unsafe’.

The most common suggestions: Fix the roads and create more low-cost housing.