BMC women corporators outperform male counterparts: report

Women corporators of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation have performed slightly better than their male counterparts in 2015-16 period, an annual report card brought out by a city-based NGO said today.
Praja Foundation also found that currently 53 corporators, out of the total 223, have criminal cases filed against them. Of these, criminal cases were filed against 28 after they became corporators (in the bygone polls). The NGO also claimed that charge sheet was filed against 39 corporators till December 2015.
"An analysis of performance on the basis of gender has found that women corporators outperformed their male counterparts. In BMC, which has an equal number of male and female corporators, the latter scored 62.80 per cent in the 2015-16, while their male corporators could secure 61.11 per cent marks," the report said.

The corporators were judged on several parameters, including their attendance, number of questions asked in the House, importance of questions, quality of questions, criminal record and perceived performance.
The organisation, which works on civic issues, came out with its report card today. The BMC is scheduled to go to polls next year.
In terms of partywise performance in the last four years (2012-13 to 2015-16), corporators of BJP topped the score card by securing 63.1 per cent marks, followed by NCP corporators (60.86%) and Shiv Sena members (60.51%).

The NGO also released individual score card of the corporators, in which Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's Santosh Dhuri stood first by securing 83.47 per cent marks, followed by two Shiv Sena members -- Hemangi Chemburkar (81.27 per cent) and Prajakta Vishwasrao (81.17 per cent).

Shiv Sena's Rahul Shewale, who was elected as an MP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but also continues to be a corporator, got the lowest rank of 223rd in the report.
The NGO alleged "complete disengagement" between corporators and citizens over civic issues.
Managing Trustee of Praja Foundation, Nitai Mehta said, "In the last four years 25,060 people died due to TB, dengue cases have gone up by 213 per cent and in these deteriorating circumstances, the elected representatives asked only 39 questions on TB."
"In 2010-11, there were 4,37,863 children studying in the civic schools, and this number has reduced to 3,97,085 in 2014-15, which shows the dismal enrolment in the civic schools. Moreover, there has been a rise in the dropout rates also, even as the budget for education has gone up from Rs 1,761 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 2,630 crore in 2015-16," she said.