Times of India: Mumbai: Friday, 12 September 2014.
Shiv Sena's newly elected mayor Snehal Ambekar was
ranked first among the 227 municipal corporators in a report card, prepared by
an NGO, that revealed the average 6.7% drop in councillors' attendance. Ambekar
was ranked 44 last year.
The report, by Praja Foundation, said the corporators'
overall perceived performance declined in 2013-2014 by 11.8%, while the number
of questions they asked increased by 27%. As on December 31 last year, the NGO
noted, 50 corporators had a criminal record.
For the ranking of corporators, Praja considered
various measures, including educational qualification, attendance, number of
questions asked, importance of questions asked, usage of area development fund
and people's perception.
While these parameters were assigned positive marks,
negative scores were accorded to pending charge-sheets and FIRs. The
foundation, "sourcing data through RTI", prepared a report card of
councillors' performance for the Apr 2013-Mar 2014 period.
Among the top 10 councillors in the report were equal
numbers of men and women. Female councillors on average scored 59.41%, slightly
more than their male counterparts (59.4%).
Ambekar, who was ranked 44 in Praja's report last
year, expressed delight at her rise to the top spot. "Earlier, as a
first-time councillor, I was still learning. But over time my interaction with
people grew. Regular discussions helped me raise their issues in the House and
Prabhag committee meetings," she said. Sanjay Pawar, a corporator from
K-West ward, too was happy at rising to rank 5 from 19.
Their excitement at the appraisal was not shared by
Avinash Sawant of S ward. Ranked 225 in the list, Sawant said that instead of
asking questions in the BMC he was carrying out work in his ward. Harun Yusuf
Khan of N ward, rated among the worst 10 corporators, dismissed the survey as
inaccurate.
Nitai Mehta, managing trustee of Praja, said their
bringing out of report cards regularly could be a reason for the 27% increase
in the number of questions asked by councillors. "The survey of 22,000-odd
people for their perception of the councillors was conducted across economic
and social sections." He asserted that Ambekar's top rank had no relation
to her recent election as mayor since the "report card is for a period
much before the election."
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