Praja Foundation has unveiled the Citizens’ Manifesto for Maharashtra’s Municipal Elections 2025, presenting a comprehensive reform roadmap aimed at strengthening municipal governance, enhancing service delivery, and advancing transparency and citizen participation across urban local bodies.

The manifesto outlines five core priorities designed to transform municipalities into engines of equitable and resilient urban development. These include:

1.    Maximising existing powers of Municipal Corporations

2.    Setting clear and measurable service delivery standards

3.    Ensuring real-time transparency through open data systems

4.    Enabling citizen voice via a unified digital governance platform

5.    Strengthening municipal capacities through training, staffing, and modernised Ward Committees

Governance must reflect public voice
Speaking at the launch here on Tuesday, Nitai Mehta, founder and managing trustee, Praja Foundation, highlighted the democratic deficit caused by delays in municipal elections. “Three years of delay in holding local elections have meant that crucial decisions affecting people’s daily lives were taken without their participation. This Citizens’ Manifesto is our reminder that governance must be rooted in public voice. Restoring democratic processes is essential to rebuilding trust and ensuring that citizens are not left out of decisions that shape their neighbourhoods and their futures,” he said.

A pledge for transparent, people-centric governance
Milind Mhaske, CEO of Praja Foundation, emphasised the need for political commitment across parties and candidates.  “At the heart of this Citizens’ Manifesto is a pledge… It calls for open and free access to data, improved service delivery through time-bound and tech-enabled systems, stronger municipal capacity with better training and resources, and deeper citizen participation in decision-making,” said Mhaske.

Reforms for predictable, measurable urban governance
Asif Khan, manager, research and analysis, Praja Foundation, underscored the potential of underutilised municipal powers as he said, “The manifesto outlines system-level reforms from mandatory disclosure of service level benchmarks (SLBs) and quarterly ward reports  to real-time dashboards for air and water quality, decentralised waste-processing systems  and ward-level monsoon vulnerability mapping. Together, these interventions will improve service delivery and strengthen accountability.”

Key components of the Citizens’ Manifesto

1. Improved service delivery
    Strengthening core urban services: water, sanitation, waste management, public health, and education.
    Ensuring clean, functional public toilets and equitable water distribution.
    Maintaining pothole-free roads and obstruction-free footpaths with transparent quality standards.
    Mandatory disclosure of service level benchmarks and quarterly ward performance reports.

2. Increased municipal capacity and training
    Addressing critical staffing gaps: e.g., 31% medical and 42% paramedical vacancies in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
    Hiring experts in urban planning, climate finance, data analytics, and other critical domains.
    Introducing performance-linked promotions to strengthen municipal accountability.

3. Open and free access to civic data
    Establishing a state wide Open Data Portal with real-time ward-level information on projects, budgets, and service metrics.
    Integrating AI tools, chat bots, and interactive dashboards for improved data visualization and accessibility.
    Ensuring transparency in environmental status reports and quarterly municipal performance assessments.

4. Higher citizen participation
    Creating a unified digital civic platform for citizens to access data, submit needs, and register feedback.
    Facilitating hybrid (online and offline) public consultations and robust grievance redressal mechanisms.
    Institutionalising participatory budgeting and community-led monitoring processes.

Praja Foundation has been working towards enabling accountable governance. It conducts data driven research on civic issues and inform key stakeholders such as elected representatives (ERs), citizens, media  and  government administration. It works  with ERs to equip them  address inefficiencies in their work processes, bridging  information gaps and in mobilising them in taking corrective measures while advocating for change.