Mumbaikars protest outside BMC on 192 unresolved complaints
Mumbai residents have been protesting outside the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) Bandra office every Monday and Friday since July 7 over 192 complaints that haven't been resolved in 18 months. The complaints were filed in BMC's public grievance registration system set up in 2015. The complaints include illegal encroachments, drainage issues, potholes, and tree cutting among others.
Residents of Khar, Santacruz and Bandra have been protesting since July 7 to demand that the  Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) solve complaints they have filed in the public grievance registration system over the past 18  months. The system was set up in 2015. Fed up with the BMC?s inaction, the residents have been holding silents protests outside H/West ward office in Bandra every Monday and Friday. Members of Khar Advanced Locality Management (ALM) and other residents participate in the protest. ALM president Aftab Siddique said 192 complaints by citizens about civic issues in the past 18 months have not been resolved. A few protesters sit outside the ward office and at Linking Road alternatively to avoid the BMC from taking action against them. Siddique said, ?We have been asking senior BMC officials to meet us since February 17, but they keep cancelling or postponing it.? The residents? complaints include illegal encroachments, drainage issues, potholes, tree cutting and other common problems faced by residents and shopkeepers of Shirley, Khar, Chuim, Santacruz and Bandra areas. Debbie Pereira, a resident of Rajan Shirley gaothan , said, ?The BMC has not acted on my complaints against encroachers around my house. Instead, they sent me a notice saying I have illegal construction inside my 100-year-old house.?The residents now plan to meet the civic chief. ?We have been using sarcastic remarks because the BMC tells us we are the only ones complaining. The BMC registers only 25 grievances per day. We will take this issue up with the civic chief Ajoy Mehta this week,? added Siddique.Assistant municipal commissioner Sharad Ughade told HT, ?A limited number of public grievances are registered on Mondays and Fridays for quality service. The protestors? complaints will be addressed on the said days.?