‘We have been included in this process, this had never happened before’

Janta Ka Budget: Manish Sisodia holds Mohalla Sabhas in East Delhi

In the next few minutes, Sisodia told people six times to take the process seriously. “This is your chance to make the budget. Don’t write about personal problems, but what you want for your mohalla. Rs 50 lakhs is in your hands and we will do your bidding. But you have to think about what you want very carefully,” he said.

Behind him, in chairs put out in four neat rows, sat officials of different departments, nervously waiting to see how things would pan out. Soon, volunteers in yellow civil defence bibs had distributed sheets of paper and a pencil, with Sisodia the narrator, urging people to write one, and only one, issue that they thought needed improvement.

Issues in hand, Sisodia began reading them out and putting them to vote. In front of him, seated on the ground was a group of 300 women, with the men behind them. As he said the words “Sewer ka kaam hona chahiye”, nearly every hand went up. For others like building a library, hands went up again, but this time waving indignantly. “We need amenities, not luxuries,” one irate lady said. Some suggestions didn’t come from registered voters, but children. They said that teachers didn’t show up at their schools, and their food was bad. “You go to the school and inspect all this,” Sisodia told the District Collector standing next to him.

Some things didn’t go to plan, and not everything added up. A representative from DUSIB didn’t seem to be present, and Sisodia threatened him with suspension on the microphone. Some complained that their writings on the sheet of paper had been ignored. When the votes were counted, it was haphazard with numbers been thrown in by voices from all over, even by security guards. But as they left, the list of priorities for expenditure set, most were clear. “We have been included in this process, and this had never happened before,” they said.