5,000 citizens submit proposals to PMC

The Pune Municipal Corporation's idea to invite suggestions from citizens to be included in the 2010-11 participatory budget has been well received. As many as 5,000 citizens submitted their proposals to improve civic amenities in their locality or solve a problem as against 1,000 suggestions received last year.

While the concept was first coined by the PMC three years ago, lately the scheme has become more organized with application forms being made available on PMC's website with details about how citizens can fill them.

Janwani, an arm of Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA), is assisting the civic body in compiling the suggestions and analyzing them.

While filling the forms, citizens were given options about the kind of work they want to get done, which includes road, cycle-tracks, footpaths, street-lights, bus stands, public parking, public toilets, water, drainage, waste management, gardens, parks and public buildings.

People's suggestions included increase in bus frequency, build public library, creating hawkers' zones, vegetable markets, underground cabling, cement concrete roads, pedestrian crossings, cultural halls, etc. November 9 was the last day to submit suggestions.

"It is a step towards better governance. We are currently in the process of analysing the suggestions so as to find out what kind of works have people proposed and from which area. The ward officers have also been very co-operative in accepting people's proposals," said Kishori Gadre of Janwani.

Gadre pointed out that the ward officers have also kept their budget meetings open for citizens and often explain to citizens why a proposal has been rejected, if it has been.

"Citizens are allowed to give suggestions for works costing up to Rs 5 lakh. However it has been noted that most citizens cannot exactly guage how much their proposal will cost. The ward officers explain if there is shortage of funds. From this year's experience, we are going to make changes in the process so that people get a fair idea of project costs. For instance, we will put up a menu on the form showing that a footpath of so and so length and width costs this much amount," Gadre said.

The Times of India

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Civic budget: PCMC invites suggestions from citizens

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Civic budget: PCMC invites suggestions from citizens

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has invited suggestions from citizens about projects to be included in the municipal budget early next year.

Municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma has appealed to citizens to send their suggestions regarding projects that needed to be taken up in their respective areas to the zonal offices concerned till November 13.

Preparations for the PCMC annual budget for 2010-11 is in progress. Sharma stressed on the importance of public participation during the planning of the budget and said that a decision has been taken by all zonal committees that projects suggested by the citizens will be considered for inclusion in the budget.

Citizens are requested to suggest developmental projects they want to be implemented in their wards or zones. The zonal officer and the executive engineer will verify the suggestions and the projects and if it is found reasonable, it will be included in the municipal budget.

The PCMC has made available suggestion forms at all zonal offices free of cost. The forms will be accepted at the zonal offices till 5 pm on November 13.

For the civic budget for 2007-08, 18 citizens had sent their suggestions.

In 2008-09, there were 34 citizen suggestions.

In 2009-10, 66 citizens voiced their suggestions.

For the coming budget, the zonal offices have so far received 139 suggestions.

The Times of India

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Pune Municipal Corporation's participatory budget activity goes online

The participatory budget activity of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has gone online from this year. The process involves participation of citizens in allocation of ward-wise budget.

While the activity was accessible in hard copy as well as downloadable form till last year, the online submission for 2010-11 is expected to increase citizens’ response.

OnLine Submission:

“The participatory budget activity, now in its fifth year, has been receiving satisfactory response from the citizens. However, the earlier versions needed physical submission of the form. While that method is still on, the online form on our website, www.punecorporation.org has been made available to increase citizens’ participation,” said Ulka Kalaskar, PMC chief accountant.

Click here to view the online form

Suggest the developmental work in your ward:

With a budget of Rs 25 lakh per ward allotted for the participatory budget, citizens can suggest the developmental works in their wards.

With 144 wards in the city, the budget will be worth Rs 36 crore for the city and every citizen can suggest work costing up to Rs 5 lakh.

Suggestions such as construction of public urinals in the ward, provision of lamp posts, repair of pavements and so on can be included and submitted online till November 9.

Applications will then be sent to Prabhag Samitee for approvals after which works will be included by the PMC in the yearly budget scheduled in February next year.

The initiative also involves participation of NGOs like Centre for Environment Education (CEE), Janwani, National Society for Clean City (NSCC) and Pariwartan.

“To help citizens assess the feasibility of their suggestions, our website www.janwani.org has links that gives suggestions put forth in previous participatory budget activities,” said Kishori Gadre, director, Janwani.

While the citizens’ involvement in the suggestion stage has been satisfactory over the past few years, mutual participation in the process, after scrutinizing the suggestion has not found many takers, primarily because of the lack of knowledge amongst common people about accessing civic administration data. “We are working towards ensuring that the citizens get to view the status of their suggestion and the reasons behind acceptance or rejection of their suggestions online,” said Sanskriti Menon, CEE programme director.

With over 270 PMC schools in the city, special meetings are being held with the education department to encourage teachers and principals participate in the budget activity. “Work such as construction of toilets, repair work of classrooms can be suggested by school staff. We are working towards propagating the idea that the staff members can fix meetings with corporators in their area to get such work done,” said Avinash Madhale, programme officer, CEE.
IndianExpress

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