'50 per cent of Mumbai's municipal councillors have criminal records'

About 50 per cent of Mumbai's municipal councillors have criminal records and have FIRs registered against them at various city police stations, says a report card prepared by city-based organisation Praja Foundation.

The newly elected Mayor, Snehal Ambekar has got first rank. Interestingly, the mayor has jumped from 44 rank to the first position since last year.

Sadly, none of the councillors are in 'A' grade.

Of the 50 councillors with criminal record, 22 had cases registered against their name even after being elected. To the dismay of the citizens, about 17 councillors out of these 22 did not have previous criminal records but FIR have been filed after being elected.

While releasing the report card, the managing trustee of Praja foundation, said, "We do not want more councillors to have criminal records like their seniors in the field as 50% of the MLAs have criminal records to their names. We hope that they do not make any more mistakes when they become MLAs too."

The report also came down hard on the accessibility of the elected representatives in the city, with the report claiming that the councillors are less accessible than last year by almost 27 per cent.