BJP Ropes in NGOs for Poll Manifesto

Various NGOs on Thursday, voiced their grievance before the panel set up by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in collaboration with an NGO karmayog. The initiative helped to incorporate the suggestion and objections raised by the citizens representatives in the party manifesto. For the first time in the party's history, it has taken the common man's views into consideration for drafting its manifesto in the wake of the forthcoming civic polls.Voicing their grievances, various NGOs demanded -total transparency in the functioning of ,not only the Corporation but also the corporators.

Shama Kulkarrti of Citizen Trust said, "All -the candidates eager to become corporator must take an oath to serve the citizens. They should be, available for the public. Most impartanty, these corporators need to sub, mit a balance sheet wherein they should mention how did they spend Rs 20 lakh allotted to them for development projects every year. "Gerson D'cunha of Agni said that Mumbai needs candidates of high caliber and clean record and not those who would run the city on muscle and money power. " the corporators also need th address to the basic issues like water, sanitation, illegal constructions and rehabilitation of slum dwellers' said D'Cunha

Most of the NGOs raised concern over diminishing number of open spaces and playgrounds for children ! M sanjay from Magic Buzz said, "Only one percent of the open space is with the BMC while the rest is either swallowed by the private builders or handed over to trusts under the ,caretaker policy of the BMC or is encroached. This leaves very little space for children to play."

Responding to their grievances, BJP Maharashtra general secretary Vinod Tawde said, "We politicians believe in number games but in our first and sincere effort, we 'would definitely try to keep in mind, the needs of the common ,man expressed by the NGOs. We -may not be able to fulfill all our promises but there would be no printing mistakes our manifesto that will be finalized in a few days. " in all 45, NGO's had come down to make a presentation before the panel. Also the party had received more than 300 e-mails mentioning suggestions and objections from various local bodies