The findings of the study
reveal that though some services like waterworks and traffic have
had been rated high by citizens there still remain services like environment
and sewerage operations that have tremendous scope of improvement.
Departments rated high had been most commonly contacted by citizens
regarding complaints/ problems on services. However only one third
of those who complained were satisfied with the action taken by the
BMC.
Apart
from quality of service provisioning, a change seems to be necessary
in the attitude and behaviour of the staff to be more responsive
to clients needs.
When comparisons
are made across wards it was found that wards A, K/ W and C were
the worst rated with regard to most public services. One of the
reasons for this could have been that citizens belonging to this
area have higher expectations. Wards L, G/S and F/S have been rated
as the best.
Citizens
have been found to be less vocal in bringing their problems to the
notice of concerned agencies and demanding redress. Besides this
the survey has indicated the low levels of awareness amongst citizens,
regarding their elected representatives. There seems to be a growing
apathy towards political representatives, which may be a cause of
concern in a health democracy. This increases the need to educate
citizens on their rights and the need for them to be more active
in interactions with the administrative and political units of the
city government.
Finally,
when their opinion was solicited on what needs to be done to improve
the services and performance of the BMC, nearly a half of the citizens
interviewed felt that strict performance standards should be imposed
on the BMC. One in four were of the opinion that a monitoring body
would be necessary, while one in five favoured privatising the BMC.
This survey
was entirely based on citizens’ perception of the BMC and is the
first in a series designed to assess the BMCs performance based
on standards set by them. We hope that active participation of citizens
coupled with tools like this survey will go a long way in improving
the quality of services that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation
renders through its political and administrative units.
|
