Youth gear up to make councillors accountable

CHENNAI: Transparent Chennai, a movement by the center for development finance, consisting of close to a 100 youngsters, has embarked on a novel exercise to make councillors contesting in the forthcoming municipal elections accountable. The Ward Accountability Experiment launched by the movement will study the amount of money spent by councillors from their ward development funds towards improving civic amenities and environment in their respective wards.Ward – 152, which covers parts of Besant Nagar and Adyar, was chosen for the study. “Three aspects of urban development, availability of public sanitation facilities, garbage mapping and pedestrian space, will be conducted as a part of the experiment,” said Sidharth Hande, a consultant with Transparent Chennai, who is organising the initiative. Close to 100 core volunteers on Saturday participated in a mass survey programme covering 30 roads in the ward and analysing the three aspects. “Apart from this, we are also looking at the amount of money spent by a councillor from his ward development funds to improve the amenities. We will also look at the issues raised by the councillor in the Corporation Council meetings through RTI,” says Sidharth.The research methodology for conducting pedestrian audit was designed by the  Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, while the methodologies for the other two studies were designed by Transparent Chennai. The exercise will continue over the next three Saturdays, after which the final report on the conditions will be prepared.“Many local problems are easily experienced, but are difficult to quantify and monitor,” says Sudesh, a member of the core group, studying development studies at IIT-Madras. “Transparent Chennai plans to leverage low-cost, easy mapping and survey methods to create records of local needs and local problems in partnership with students and local citizens groups.” The movement is hunting for more volunteers of all age groups to make the project a bigger success. “We encourage more volunteers of any age groups to join us in the activity and help make the municipal elections more transparent. We also invite volunteers from other parts of Chennai to replicate this initiative. We have prepared an entire toolkit, available on Transparent Chennai website, which will help replicate this project in other areas,” says Sidharth. Any individuals interested in joining the movement can call: 9840295081 or visit www.transparentchennai.com.