The Most Potent Tool to Strengthen Democracy and to fix accountability of the chosen representative

Mohalla Sabha

Mohalla Sabha

Introduction

The most important factor which makes a politician a leader is the ability to bridge the gap between the public and the elected one!

This was the thought process which helped Hon’ble MLA Shri Somnath Bharti to start an unique experiment of Mohalla Sabha.

What is Mohalla Sabha?

Mohalla Sabha is another flagship program of Bridging The Gap Foundation which is establishing a paradigm shift in how people look at politics and politicians.

This Mohalla experiment was started by Sri Somnath Bharti in Malviya Nagar Assembly Constituency  in 2014 as a tool to empower democracy by connecting all the households of Malviya Nagar Assembly directly to me i.e. their MLA.

For easy administration of the constituency Mr. Bharti divided the constituency in 35 Mohallas with each Mohalla having 2-5 Mohalla whatsapp groups which are run directly under the supervision of Mr. Bharti duly aided by Mohalla Coordinators. Members of these Mohalla whatsapp Groups constitute of one from each of the families staying in the Mohalla and this way  Mr. Bharti tries to be accountable, available and answerable to the residents of the constituency, whom Mr. Bharti addresses as “My People”,  all the time. The experiment succeeded to give families living in the Malviya Nagar assembly constituency direct access to MLA and his office right from a place of their convenience transcending the barriers of time and distance. Such transparency has also eliminated any possibility of anyone coming in between the MLA and the residents.

Prior to COVID, Mr. Bharti used to have at least once a month physical mohalla meeting in one of the colonies falling in the mohalla taking direct questions and giving histab-kitab of the requirements of the mohalla entrusted with Mr. Bharti in the previous Monthly Mohalla Meetings and also take new issues. During Covid, these mohalla meetings went virtual and became e-mohalla meetings which were appreciated by Sri .@ArvindKejriwal Ji as well as a potent tool to strengthen democracy.

and Business World ran a story on the same

Why Mohalla Sabha?

The objective of creating Mohalla Sabha is to create a self- sustainable system which ensures availablity, answerability and accountability to each of the residents without travelling any distance and without wasting time in commuting that distance.

Following are the key benefits of Mohalla Sabha:

1. Eliminated all middlemen who existed during previous governments because of non-accessibility of MLA. They used to make money and exploit the people for getting an appointment with MLA.

With Mohalla Sabha a resident of a mohalla can post his/her problem directly to the MLA and since it is an official channel of communication, every posting on the whatsapp group of the mohalla is deemed delivered to MLA officially.

2. These problems are pushed to related department in a quick span of time and hence time to resolve the problem has shorten considerably.

3. MLA Team including Mohalla coordinators keeps updating people of issues in its journey from the problem to solution.

4. I visit each mohalla every month to meet residents. It has strengthened social fabric and bring governance closer to its users i.e. “YOU”

How Mohalla Sabha is re-shaping?

People in constituency have whole heartedly supported this movement and several political parties across the country including Opposition and their leaders are now being forced to adopt the similar measures which is a big win for people of Malviya Nagar, Delhi and Country alike.

Now to take this journey to next level which I call Mohalla Sabha 2.0, it is important to lay out clear guidelines so that it continues to fulfill it’s objective of serving people of the area. I hope you all will cooperate and adhere to these guidelines.

1. No one is barred from posting problems but the it needs to be posted in the format i.e
New or old:
Name:
Address:
Mobile:
Dept:
Detail of the problem:

Unless the problem is not posted in above format, it becomes difficult for officials to respond and hence problem may be left unaddressed.

2. No member other than mohalla coordinators or MLA office or MLA is allowed to post anything other than problems/suggestions and that too in the format only.

Only MLA Team is allowed to post other things like MLA updates, Govt schemes, festival greetings, meetings info etc.

3. Unless authorized by MLA office, no one is allowed to be in the group who is not a resident of that mohalla. In case a non-resident is found in the mohalla s/he will be shifted to the correct mohalla as per his/her address.

4. In case a member is found postings stuffs other than problems of the mohalla then on first instance a warning will be issued, on second instance member will be suspended for 15 days and on third instance the membership will be terminated. Serious discipline is a must for proper and effective functioning of such official whatsapp groups.

5. From one family, only one member is allowed to be in the mohalla Whatsapp group.

6. Mohalla coordinators while shifting the problems posted on the mohalla whatsapp group to the coordinators’ group will inform the complainant the approximate deadline of fixing the problem after confirming of the same from respective department/officer.

8. Water, sewer, pwd roads, BSES, education/schools, healthcare/hospitals, Transport are primary responsibilities of MLA and hence problems concerning these will be prioritized over problems pertaining to police, traffic police, Land and MCD which are primary responsibilities of MP and Councillor. These problems will also be transferred to the concerned authorities but its difficult to give deadlines for works pertaining to these departments.

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