Its hollow promises in ward 176

CHENNAI: For the councilor candidates in ward 176 in Chennai corporation, the presentation of civic report card by the Transparent Chennai’s Ward Accountability  experiment on Sunday evening was like taking  a mock acid test, before they take the real one in the next six months.Transparent Chennai,  IFMR-Centre for Development Finance, had developed a ward accountability tool kit by which  citizens can gather data on various civic issues like garbage, public sanitation, walkability and pedestrian infrastructure. The data gathered can be used by the public to hold the local body representatives accountable. On Sunday, Transparent Chennai  presented the pilot  ward accountability experiment findings which were gathered by volunteers made up of college students and a dozen civil societies to an audience of  made up of ward 176 residents and the councilor candidates. In this all women constituency, the candidates not surprisingly made generic promises or responses, which totally lacked depth and or any specificity. Most of it sounded like, “ If elected to power I will  do everything within my capacity, to   keep my promises.” Or “ Will work with people, to solve the issues in this area” and the rest too hollow to repeat. Many residents of ward 176 raised their concerns on accountability to  the councilor candidates. Kamatchi Subramanian, a resident said, “ Now you give your phone numbers.  But once you were elected to power, you people hardly pick up your calls.” Nityanand Jayaraman, environmental activist and a resident, said, “It is important to find eco-friendly ways of dealing with garbage within the ward itself.” The findings of the study pointed out  that out of the 87 streets surveyed, there were 111 dumpsters, of which 40 were broken, overturned or overflowing while 46 roads do not have any dumpsters at all. In 688 spots, trash was piled up on the streets.