MUMBAI: A group of residents in Juhu has launched its own civic platform that functions as an “issue collector”, allowing citizens to flag and document local problems in real time.Residents who are part of the volunteer network can upload complaints ranging from garbage and sanitation issues to illegal pavement encroachments, political hoardings, water leakages, tree hacking and air pollution caused by construction dust.To register a complaint, users must select the issue category, geo-tag their live location, which auto-detects latitude and longitude, upload photographs and briefly describe the problem. By submitting the complaint, residents consent to their photographs and location details being used for the “Keep Juhu Clean” campaign and shared with volunteers or civic authorities for follow-up action.Architect and local resident Samarth Das said that the portal has been operational for the past six months. “While the resolution rate by authorities currently stands at under 10%, the initiative has at least succeeded in creating a centralised database of civic issues affecting the locality and placing them before the authorities in a structured manner.Once complaints are logged and verified, they are compiled into bi-weekly reports and forwarded to the relevant civic departments. The reports specifically identify the concerned assistant engineer or HO of departments responsible for the issue, helping residents track accountability within the system,” said Das.TOI went through one of the bi-weekly reports and saw issues ranging from illegal political hoardings hung on light poles, garbage being accumulated on road dividers, illegal fruit stalls, broken sidewalks, broken and uneven roads, and open gutters.Rajat Mittal Shah, a JVPD resident who helped build the platform, said the idea emerged from the growing number of civic issues residents were noticing across the locality.“One person alone cannot document everything. There was a strong need to systematically photo-document multiple civic issues, and that is how we decided to create a platform through which we could collectively approach the civic body,” she said, adding that the next step is to make the initiative more sustainable and structured. Another resident, Vikrant Chedda, said sustained follow-up with authorities would be key to ensuring action on complaints. “While we are identifying and documenting the issues, it is ultimately up to the BMC to resolve them at the earliest,” he said. “We are now exploring a system where specific volunteers are assigned individual complaints and continue following up until the issue is fully resolved.”
