Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, May 17: Residents of Juhu have come together to create a community-driven civic monitoring platform aimed at documenting and reporting local infrastructure and sanitation issues in a more organised manner.

The initiative, designed as a real-time “issue collector,” enables volunteers and local residents to upload complaints related to garbage accumulation, poor sanitation, illegal encroachments on pavements, unauthorised political banners, water leakages, tree cutting, and pollution caused by construction activity.

To submit a complaint, users are required to choose the relevant issue category, geo-tag the exact location through an automatic latitude-longitude detection system, upload supporting photographs, and provide a short description of the problem. By registering a complaint, users also permit the use of submitted images and location details for the “Keep Juhu Clean” campaign and for follow-up coordination with civic officials and volunteers.

Architect and Juhu resident Samarth Das said the platform has been operational for nearly six months. He noted that although the response rate from authorities remains below 10 percent, the initiative has succeeded in building a centralised repository of civic complaints and presenting them to officials in a systematic format.

According to Das, complaints submitted through the portal are first verified and later compiled into detailed bi-weekly reports that are forwarded to the relevant civic departments. These reports also identify the assistant engineers or heads of departments responsible for addressing specific issues, helping residents monitor accountability within the municipal system.

The reports reportedly include a wide range of civic concerns such as illegal political hoardings mounted on streetlight poles, garbage dumped along road dividers, unauthorised fruit stalls, damaged footpaths, uneven roads, and uncovered drains.

Rajat Mittal Shah, who helped develop the platform, said the idea emerged from increasing frustration over unresolved civic problems across the locality.

She explained that no single individual could effectively document every issue affecting the neighbourhood, which led residents to create a collaborative system for photographing, recording, and collectively escalating complaints to the civic body.

Another volunteer, Vikrant Chedda, stressed that regular follow-up with authorities would be essential to ensure that complaints are acted upon promptly.

He added that while residents are taking responsibility for identifying and documenting local problems, it remains the duty of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to resolve them efficiently.

The volunteer group is now exploring a more structured mechanism in which individual complaints would be assigned to specific volunteers responsible for tracking the issue until it is fully resolved.