Thiruvananthapuram Corporation to hear citizens

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the first time ever, the city corporation is gearing up to invite suggestions and inputs from its citizen for launching the first of its kind Participatory Budget 2019-20 in the state. From Monday onwards the citizens can come up with their suggestions and officially submit it via Smart Trivandrum app or the official webpage of the city corporation (www.corporationoftrivandrum.in).  The corporation will receive suggestions and inputs from the citizen till February 5, a top official said.

The civic body has drafted a suggestion form to facilitate the public to come up with development prospects of their respective areas. “We have drawn up a form to make it easy for the public. Any suggestion relating to street lights, dilapidated roads, bus shelters, drinking water, sewage, waste management etc which comes under our jurisdiction can be raised. Also, the ward-level meeting is on from today and we are discussing this at every sabha and we are also planning to launch a mass campaign using media platforms to popularise the initiative to ensure public participation,” said the official.

Currently, all hundred councilors are actively involved in drafting the budget. “Participatory budget will open a more healthy discussion and the civic body will be able to prioritize funds for such projects,” said the official.

However, the opposition parties allege this as a gimmick to cover up the unimplemented projects that were announced in the previous budget.  “The concept is good but nobody has a clue how the ruling front is going to draw up a participatory budget. They haven’t started collecting suggestions from the public yet and how is it possible to do such a thing in such a short timeframe,” said M.R. Gopan, BJP leader in the Corporation council.