MUMBAI, Dec. 12 -- With the BMC election campaign less than a month away, the role of the resident welfare associations is assuming a more critical role in reaching out to voters. "We are the link between citizens and candidates," said Dhaval Shah, co-founder of the Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizens Association (LOCA). Shah said that LOCA asked four major parties to list their most probable candidates and then took an online poll to list the one residents favoured the most. "About 2,700 persons responded, a sizable number considering that only 12,000 persons voted in our ward in the last election," he said. LOCA is also planning a series of citizen-centric initiatives to ensure that residents make an informed choice. "We intend to put out information such as the educational qualifications of candidates and cases against them," said Shah. "We also plan to host interviews with candidates. The process of drafting ward-wise citizen manifestos is also on." Similarly, residents of Charkop Sector 8 Vikas Samiti, intend to coordinate a Meet Your Candidates event physically. Mili Shetty, chief co-ordinator of the Samiti added that political candidates try to lure voters with freebies, but emphasised that they were not interested. "We are more keen on resolving local civic issues that impact us directly such as better lighting in public parks, regular watering of plants on dividers, and more benches and garbage bins," she said. The We All Connect (WAC), the residents group at Kandivli's Lokhandwala township, has already listed out the concerns that need immediate attention from elected representatives. Residents have been asked to put forth or raise these issues when their candidates visit their housing societies during election campaigning. Their list of demands includes a local police beat post, action against illegal hawkers, illegal parking, and opening the 120-ft DP Road. Not all resident associations have positive experiences, said a core member of the Prabhadevi Area Welfare Association (PAWA) set up by residents of swanky new buildings a decade ago to resolve concerns such as the congested New Prabhadevi Road during an annual fair and their access road being blocked by hawkers. "Our concerns get overlooked compared to those of the old chawl residents though we pay much higher taxes," he said. "Our complaints to the civic authorities also tend to get the pass-the-buck treatment. Left with no recourse, we just tweet away our woes."...