Most civic complaints from Mumbai’s highly-congested areas

The Mumbai civic body received the highest number of complaints Govandi, Mankhurd, Kurla and Deonar in the past 15 months

The Brihanmumbai Municipa l Corporation (BMC) received the most number of complaints from among city’s most congested wards that include areas such as Chembur, Mankhurd, Govandi, Deonar and Kurla in the past 15 months.

Residents have complained about the poor condition of roads in their areas. (Hindustan Times)

According to data from the civic body, between January 1,2015, and April 1, 2016, most complaints it received pertain to poor roads, drainage and health care services, encroachments and solid waste management. Experts say the reason behind these wards facing so many civic issues is their demography - these wards are congested and have a large number of slums.

The BMC has received 23,682 complaints from M East (Govani, Mankhurd), 18,300 complaints from the M West ward (parts of Chembur) and 10,940 complaints from the L ward (Kurla). It has received more than 1,000 complaints related to drainage from the M West ward alone.

These numbers are four to six times more than the rest of the wards in the city that have registered 3,000-4,000 complaints on an average during the same period. For example, T ward, which includes Mulund, has registered only 1,628 civic complaints in the same period.

A civic official from the M East ward, however, said that the high numbers also reflect the administrative works undertaken by the ward. “The numbers are actually lower as most the administration works were also included as complaints for quick redressal in the ward,” the official said.

The least number of complaints, at 1,590 have been registered from the B ward, which comprises Marine Drive, IR Road, Abdul Rehman Street among others.

Aravind Unni, architect and planner from YUVA said, “These are areas largely occupied by the marginalised communities, where the civic problems are huge. The BMC must learn from these local complaints to look at larger issues of housing, dumping waste and adding recreational spaces in these congested wards to improve the quality of life of the residents.”