Radio campaign to connect residents with MCD councillors

Seeking to connect residents directly to their ward councillors for raising civic issues, a radio channel will tomorrow launch a 20-day outreach programme wherein, people would be able to ask questions to them on air or face-to-face.
The campaign -- 'City ka Darbar' -- is aimed at bringing the city together by giving citizens an easy access to their elected representatives, to raise local issues, like solid waste management and waterlogging, and find solutions.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari will be part of the inaugural event of the programme, which will be hosted at the bustling Central Market in Lajpat Nagar area of south Delhi.

"The platform seeks to bridge any gap between citizens and councillors, making it easier for both the parties to interact with each other.
"Besides radio being a great medium for the listeners to be vocal about their problems, it has also given us a greater scope for introducing efficacy in governance," Tiwari was quoted as saying in a statement by Radio City.
According to organisers, "150 wards" are to be covered during the nearly three-week-long programme.

"Tomorrow's event at Lajpat Nagar would be a live show and people can either join as audience or as listeners on air and ask questions through a radio jockey. The areas' ward councillor would also be present.

"For other wards too, the jockey would be conversing with the citizens, either on-air or on-ground, to discuss the issues they are facing in their respective areas," an official of the private channel said.
Organisers said as part of a preliminary scouting through some of the wards, a good number of queries have been submitted by residents.
"During the campaign also, the radio jockey would collect queries of people in a log book, and convey it to the respective area councillor," the official said, adding, the idea is to cover all the three corporations and zones within them.
The high-stakes MCD polls were held on April 23 and the BJP had retained control of the three civic bodies by winning 181 wards. The AAP finished second with 49 wards and the Congress a poor third with a tally of 31.

The erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was trifurcated in 2012 into -- North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporations (NDMC, SDMC and EDMC).
Delhi has 272 civic wards under the municipal corporations -- NDMC (104), SDMC (104) and EDMC (64).
The BJP has been ruling the MCD for the last 10 years. After taking charge, the mayors of all the three corporations have asserted that "sanitation" was their "top priority".