The white paper placed into focus the multiplicity of authorities and recommended the creation of a centralised grievance redressal mechanism, which also has a complaint audit to gauge citizen satisfaction, as well as for various modes of lodging a complaint. While the Indian National Congress (INC) China ODM paper cutter factory has mentioned fire safety in its manifesto, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have not mentioned the topic at all. And yet, a dismal number of all issues i. Among major civic issues under the Corporations, Nuisance due to stray dogs, monkeys, etc. This, is in spite of a total of 3,060 complaints filed in 2015, 2016, and 2017 on fires in houses/buildings.4% (29 issues) raised by Councillors and 10% (59 issues) raised by MLAs were on the water related issues, in 2017.The data procured by Praja reveals that Civil Lines Zone under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) saw the highest number (51,553) of civic complaints in 2017. Councillors raised issues related to water only “29 times” from April-December 2017, it said. Similarly, just 1 issue has been raised by Councillors in 2015, 2016 and April-December of 2017.

This is not the kind of response one would expect to an official Right to Information (RTI) application seeking basic information such as the number of complaints registered in an official complaint mechanism of a State-run body in India.However, only “59 water-related issues” were raised by MLAs in the Delhi Assembly last year, claims the paper titled — Report on civic issues registered by citizens and deliberations by municipal councillors in ward committees and the MLAs in the Assembly sessions. Even where issue is being raised, the report said, they seem to be poorly prioritised. For instance, in 2017, civic complaints relating to Water such as No water, contamination of water, etc. The Government must show initiative to eradicate these problems for good and bring about policy changes., consisting of 43% (1,65,735) of all civic complaints in Delhi.“Complaints relating to major issues like sewerage, removal of dead animals, contamination of water are also major potential public health hazards.Other issues such as pollution, fire in houses and buildings, storm water drainage problems, nuisance from stray dogs and monkeys, were also raised by citizens but these did not get reflected in the quantum of issues raised by MLAs and municipal councillors, including in 2015 and 2016, the NGO alleged.“Data such as this indicates why elected representatives must constantly pay heed to citizens’ voices. registered the most number of complaints (22,574) in 2017.