Navi Mumbai: Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) seeking citizens suggestions for the soon to be presented City’s budget is found to be having technical glitches prompting activists to claim the call for citizens participation a mere formality.
Sajag Nagarik Manch, a citizen rights organization observed that the online link provided on the corporations website was not functional.
“Under the ‘Our Navi Mumbai – Our Budget’ initiative, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) Commissioner and Administrator Dr. Kailas Shinde introduced a citizen-centric concept, encouraging residents to submit their suggestions regarding the city’s budget. However when members of the Sajag Nagarik Manch attempted to submit their feedback, they discovered that the link provided in the announcement on the municipality’s website was incorrect and did not open upon clicking,” said a member of the organisation Sudhir Dani
The issue was brought to the attention of the administration at the municipal headquarters. “the IT department reviewed the complaint and acknowledged that the provided link was incorrect. Consequently, on January 17 at 4:38 PM, the necessary corrections were made, and the announcement was reposted but the deadline for the submission too ended on January 17, ideally nmmc must extend the deadline,” said Dani.
Additionally, the forum when attempted to submit feedback through the “Feedback” section on the official website, it was found that the system only allowed users to type their suggestions directly.
“Many citizens, are unfamiliar with Marathi typing, and use Google to type in English and then translate their text into Marathi. However, the feedback system does not support the ‘copy-paste’ function, making it impossible for these users to submit their suggestions,” said Dani.
The IT department stated that the “copy-paste” function was restricted for security reasons, preventing citizens from using this feature. However, after Sajag Nagarik Manch objected to this restriction, the administration assured that necessary improvements would be made. ” As on date, the issue remains unresolved ,” said the member.
