6 months ago
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Praja Foundation connected Tuesday (December 2, 2025) unveiled the Citizens’ Manifesto for Maharashtra’s Municipal Elections 2025, outlining a roadmap to alteration municipality governance done transparency, accountability, and national participation.
The motorboat comes arsenic Maharashtra heads for municipal polls aft a three-year delay, during which section bodies functioned without elected representatives, weakening accountability astatine the level closest to citizens.
“Three years of hold successful holding section elections person meant that important decisions affecting people’s regular lives were taken without their participation. This Citizens’ Manifesto is our reminder that governance indispensable beryllium rooted successful nationalist voice. Restoring antiauthoritarian processes is indispensable to rebuilding spot and ensuring that citizens are not near retired of decisions that signifier their neighbourhoods and their futures,” said Nitai Mehta, laminitis and managing trustee of the organisation.
The manifesto stresses the request to fortify municipal capacity, noting that Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has 31% of aesculapian posts and 42% of paramedical posts vacant. It recommends filling captious vacancies, hiring lateral experts successful planning, climate, finance and information analytics, reviewing cadre strength, appointing Chief Data Officers and Chartered Accountants, and introducing performance-linked incentives.
“We impulse each governmental enactment and campaigner to undertake this manifesto arsenic it calls for unfastened and escaped entree to data, improved work transportation done time-bound and tech-enabled systems, stronger municipal capableness with amended grooming and resources, and deeper national information successful decision-making,” said Milind Mhaske, CEO of Praja Foundation.
The manifesto calls for an Open Data Portal with real-time ward-level accusation connected projects, tenders, budgets, h2o supply, discarded collection, road works and wellness indicators. It proposes AI-powered chatbots and dashboards for data visualisation, and regular work of situation and aerial prime reports. “Data indispensable go a shared nationalist asset,” the manifesto states.
Asif Khan, manager of probe and investigation at Praja, said: “Municipal corporations successful Maharashtra already clasp important but underutilised powers that straight power municipality prime of life. The Citizens’ Manifesto outlines mandatory disclosure of Service Level Benchmarks and quarterly ward reports, real-time dashboards for aerial and h2o quality, decentralised waste-processing systems, and ward-level monsoon vulnerability mapping. When implemented together, these interventions volition make a predictable, measurable governance architecture that improves work transportation and strengthens nationalist accountability.”
The manifesto besides proposes a unified integer level for citizens to entree ward-level data, submit needs and feedback, and way whether their inputs are reflected successful budgets. It calls for digitising Ward Committees to livestream meetings, people agendas and minutes, and alteration real-time monitoring of works progress.
The organisation will instrumentality the manifesto to each governmental enactment and impulse them to see them on with their respective enactment manifestoes.
