This blog is for the people of Kochi. To encourage and motivate our community to actively participate and engage in civic issues and development of our city- Kochi.  Our mission is to encourage civic engagement amongst the people of Kochi to identify, recognize and call out issues pertaining to all areas of civic development.

What motivated us to act now? The recent flooding of roads of Kochi from the heavy downpour clearly showed us how unprepared we are as a city and it clearly showed that the government authorities do not have long term planning and are not well coordinated to handle such crises. Even though we are a coastal city we clearly do not have any contingencies in place despite where we are headed in terms of climate change, rising pollution and growth of urban population. Simple ideas and changes can go onto have  a big impact. The last time Kochi Corporation laid concrete slabs on drains (roadside gutters) in my locality ,they did not think about making outlets in the concrete slab for water to drain from the road into the gutters. A simple change in the design of the concrete slab could have prevented flooding in some areas to an extent.

As far as we are aware, Kochi does not have an exclusive online platform for its people to engage and interact with respect to calling out issues which need to be addressed by government authorities.

As per details available on Central Govt’s Smartcities website it mentions that as part of “E-Governance & Computerization”, a “Citizen’s Grievance Monitoring” system has been implemented. Ironically the website of Kochi Corporation mentioned on Central Govt’s Smartcities website leads to a wrong website which is in fact a portal which does not belong to Kochi Corporation. This clearly indicates the disarray in which lies our state of affairs in Kerala with respect to implementation of “Smart Cities” and “Digital India”.

In spite of technological advancements in urban planning and “Smart Cities”, our government authorities have not yet succeeded in providing an online platform to raise complaints or identify areas of improvement with respect to urban development with active participation of citizens. 

As it is well known there is no existing platform to connect government authorities, kochi corporation with each other or with the community to address grievances of the people of Kochi. 

How does one connect with your local representative, either the Councillor of your ward or the MLA or MP of your constituency. Most of the times these lawmakers are not within easy reach of the community or the common citizen. Even if we are able to connect with them how do we ensure that our grievances are addressed?

In spite  of the success of “Residents Associations” of some localities, it has not translated into an impact on civic engagement and participation in urban development issues. Most of civic participation is limited to raising complaints with  respect to garbage accumulation, collection and disposal; poor condition of roads, flooding, and cleaning of drainage gutter etc. However there are residents associations which are very efficient and involved in addressing civic issues. There has been little thought applied to really addressing these issues with a long term perspective. Even if there are ideas within the community on how to address these issues for the long term, these ideas have not percolated to government authorities. 

With this platform we look forward to individuals, organisations, NGO’s and communities engaging with each other and sharing their ideas and thoughts on urban development and addressing civic issues. 

We are open to accepting ideas, concepts and articles on all issues with respect to civic engagement in urban development. If you would like to share photos or videos of issues which need to be addressed by your local Councillor, MP or MLA please do share the same with us. 

We look forward to bringing in contributors, thought leaders, activists and most importantly ordinary citizens for the development of this platform. 

Eventually our idea is to make this a platform for citizens of Kochi to engage towards a greater mission of bringing in accountability and ensuring action from our lawmakers. We need all stakeholders- people of Kochi, shops & establishments, Kochi Corporation, State Government of Kerala, MLA, MP and local councillors to actively participate on this platform. This concept is in its early stage of development and we will have a clearer picture in the days ahead. Your feedback and participation in this project is critical for its success.