Heaps of files, people forced to go from one floor to the other, many cubicles and lethargic staff; this is the impression of a BMC ward office. There are 24 ward offices in Mumbai; each office like a kingdom in itself, with the data of lakhs of people. But with least clarity on what should be done with the data.

Mumbaikars provide all their information to the civic body; from property details, electricity supply details, water bills, birth certificates and municipal taxes of all sorts. Each of these 24 wards collects this data from crores of Mumbaikars. But then this civic body that has a budget of Rs 33,000 crore, can’t even store it correctly, at a single centre that can monitor it with ease. Every time one needs some information from the BMC, there is a long mundane process as the staff scans through files to get it.