Indian Express 15.12.2010
Sena corporators to start own website
Stuti Shukla Tags : Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, 2012 civic elections, Shiv Sena Posted: Wed Dec 15 2010, 04:30 hrs
Mumbai: A year after the civic body gifted swanky Sony Vaio laptops to each of its 227 corporators on Diwali, Shiv Sena corporators now want their presence on the world wide web. In a run-up to the 2012 civic elections , Shiv Sena corporators in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation have decided to go tech-savvy and start a website of their own. The task of creating 79 URLs for Sena corporators in the BMC will be handed over to IT professionals, according to Sena corporator and standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale.Besides publishing a booklet about each corporator’s performance during the five-year term, each will now have a web page of his or her own. The page will show the corporator’s bio-data and details of work done in his area, issues raised by him in BMC meetings, his attendance in meetings, his spending of corporators’ funds etc.
“The website will help the tech-savvy young generation and the educated but busy middle class to asses the performance of the corporator online,” said Shewale.
However, the decision has raised eye-brows within the BMC as many corporators have still not started using the laptop that was given to them in October 2009 with an aim to reduce the use of paper. The idea was first mooted by former municipal commissioner Johny Joseph who suggested that use of heaps of agenda papers for general body meetings, standing and improvements committee meetings and various other such meetings, can be eliminated if these can be emailed to corporators in a PDF format.
More than a year on, corporators continue to use hard copies and only a few have even opened an email account of their own. Former standing committee chairman and current MLA Ravindra Waikar said that in most cases the laptops are being used by the children of the corporators. “Most corporators are unable to use the laptops effectively. But their children are definitely making good use of the laptop,” said Waikar, who already has his website.
Shewale said that each corporator will appoint an IT expert who will regularly keep updating the website. “We are aware that not many corporators are using the laptops given to them by the BMC using a fund of Rs 1.2 crore. Each laptop was purchased at a cost of Rs 52, 000. But in case of the website, an IT person will keep updating it so the corporator will not have to do anything except provide him with details that have to be updated,” said Shewale.
