|
|
Report Cards of Municipal Councillors of Delhi
Councillors are elected members of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The MCD is responsible for providing basic infrastructure and services like development of roads, drains, sanitation, primary education, primary health etc. to the residents of Delhi. MCD Councillors’ elections were held in April 2007 and 272 councillors were elected.
In SNS community meetings, people expressed a keen interest in having information on the performance of their elected representatives through mid-term report cards as these would help them engage with their elected representatives for the remainder of their term. Therefore, in 2010, for the first time, SNS prepared and disseminated mid-term report cards on the performance of Municipal Councillors between 2007 and 2009.
SNS used the Right to Information Act to access information on the performance of MCD Councillors. Report Cards of 120 of the 272 Councillors were prepared. The 120 councillors were randomly selected and the party-wise break up of the sample was the same as in the MCD. These mid-term Report Cards assessed the performance of individual Councillors on the basis of the following three objective parameters linked to their primary roles and responsibilities:
- Performance in the meetings of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD): As members of the MCD, Councillors are responsible for - formulating policies and bye-laws; monitoring the functioning of various departments of the MCD; approving the MCD budget and raising questions and issues of public importance. In the Report Cards the performance of Councillors in the MCD was assessed on the basis of the number of meetings that they attended and the number of questions they raised from the time of their election in April 2007 till March 31, 2009. The report cards also included information on the issues on which the Councillors raised questions in the MCD.
- Performance in the Committees of the MCD- Councillors are members of various committees of the MCD. These committees have the power to recommend and advise the Corporation and monitor its functioning in various areas like- sanitation, education, health etc. For the purpose of the Report Cards, the attendance of councillors in the committee meetings was compiled from April 2007 to March 2009.
- Performance in allocation of discretionary Councillor fund- Under the discretionary councillor fund scheme of the MCD, each councillor was provided Rs. 71 Lakh in 2007-08 and Rs. 2 crore in 2008-09, to carry out development works in their ward. An analysis of all the projects recommended by the Councillor from the discretionary funds between April 2007 and March 2009 was provided in the report card.
In addition to information on the performance of Councillors, the Report Cards provided background information on-
- Educational qualification of Councillor and
- Criminal charges pending against the Councillor
This information was compiled from the affidavit filed by the Councillor prior to their election in 2007.
SNS partnered with the national daily Hindustan (Hindi daily of the Hindustan Times group) to disseminate Councillor Report Cards. SNS & Hindustan ran a 2 month campaign titled, ‘Parshadji ka Report Card” in which Report Cards of 120 councillors were published between May 2010 and July 2010.
Click below to view some of the report cards that appeared in the SNS-Hindustan campaign.
May 27- Report Cards of Aarti Mehra, Jai Shree Panwar & O.P. Sharda
June 23- Report
Cards of Divy Jaiswal, Manoj Tyagi & Satya Sharma
July 13- Report Cards of Veena Saini, Raghuvinder Shokeen & Satwanti
SNS also partnered with 14 NGOs working in Delhi and conducted training workshops, focus group discussions and door to door campaigns in various wards across Delhi to discuss the roles and performance of Councillors. Door to door mobilization campaigns were organised in 33 slums. In each of these slums pamphlets on the responsibilities of councillors were distributed and report cards of their area Councillors were also given to people. People were encouraged to identify the development problems of their slums and engage with their councillors to address these problems.
|
