Mumbai: Citizens' group makes mobile phone app with corporators' performance report cards

A citizens' group in Mumbai has prepared report cards of corporators that can be assessed as a mobile phone app in the run-up to the upcoming civic polls in the metropolis.

It has the performance report of 56 corporators of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and efforts are on to get the assessment of more elected representatives included with public participation, Anand Bhandare, coordinator of 'Nagarikayan Research Centre' told PTI on Thursday.

''We have launched the 'My Corporator' (Majha Nagarsevek) app. The report cards were prepared under the 'My Ward, My Corporator' project that began in 2016. I have been working on this app for six years,'' he said.

The app is available in Marathi and English on the Android platform and citizens can download it from Google Playstore, while efforts are on to make it compatible with the iOS platform as well, he added.

''We are looking at increasing public participation in the project by conducting workshops in various civic wards, reaching out through Facebook and other social media platforms,'' Bhandare, a mechanical engineer by qualification, ''Prepared a report card of corporators of my area using Right to Information Act. I then prepared an RTI form for others to make reports. I guide those who want to prepare such reports of corporators to enlighten people,'' he added.

Information obtained through RTI, like attendance in civic and committee meetings, questions asked, motions filed, fund utilization details, etc, are converted into tabular form, observations are added and a report card is prepared, which is uploaded on the app so that people can make informed choices, Bhandare said.

''RTI forms to gather such details, and videos for better understanding of civic information have been made available. The app also has a link to request a report card of a corporation, while another link is for public surveys,'' he said.

Information obtained through RTI is verified by site visits, photographs, etc by a network of volunteers, he said, adding the work of elected and nominated corporators, as well as independent experts on various civic committees, is evaluated.

''Corporators with 70 percent attendance will have a green color code in their performance report. It will be blue for those in the 40 percent to 70 percent bracket and grey for those with less than 40 percent attendance,'' Bhandare said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)