Mumbai: As the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation invited suggestions from citizens for the upcoming civic budget, Chandivali residents have marked their opposition against the distribution of freebies by the corporation. Among other suggestions, it has urged the civic body to stop political encroachments of public property.

BMC had called for suggestions from the citizens ahead of the civic budget scheduled to be announced next month. The citizens were asked to send their suggestions by January 17 through e-mail or written letters.

On Thursday, the Chandivali Citizens Welfare Association (CCWA) wrote its suggestions to the municipal commissioner through a letter and email. Among other suggestions, the residents’ association urged the civic body to stop misusing BMC funds in the free distribution of cookers, sarees and other freebies.

CCWA had earlier opposed the distribution of cookers, sarees and other freebies, by the local MLA, procured through BMC funds before the Vidhan Sabha elections. It has demanded that the funds should be instead allocated to build new fully functional fire stations and make the existing fire stations functional.

Additionally, the residents’ association has urged the civic body to start the online RTI facility on its website to bring more transparency and provide convenience to citizens who seek information from the corporation. The citizens have also demanded BMC to stop political encroachment of public spaces under the guise of public libraries.

The citizens have came out strongly against encroachment in their suggestions, as they demanded recruitment of additional ward-wise staff for the encroachment removal department to strictly enforce a pedestrian first policy. It has also urged or a dedicated helpline for reporting complaints of encroachments and to clamp down on air pollution by shutting the ready-mix concrete plants in the city.

Apart from new municipal hospitals and schools, the suggestions also included strict policy to stop the use of gas cylinders on the footpaths and roads and an actionable policy to combat the nuisance of illegal hoardings. The suggestions also included maintenance and addition of new public parks, public parking spaces and automatic road sweeping and sewer cleaning machines to ensure cleanliness.

“In the state elections we saw a few sitting MLAs misusing BMC funds for their political benefits. This not only kills democracy but also puts extra financial burden on citizens by imposing extra taxes. Even after the online RTI user acceptance test was successful in 2021, still BMC has failed to launch the facility for public. Encroachment of public places is a major issue but they don't encourage vigilant citizens to report the same by making it mandatory for vigilant informers to provide their personal aadhar card and other personal details,” said Mandeep Singh Makkar, founder of CCWA.