June 10, 2011 1:19:28 am
The Delhi government is mulling over giving more powers to Resident Welfare Associations ,besides allotting a part of the revenue and specific responsibilities to them. These measures are being taken as part of the new amendment to the Delhi MCD Act Bill,which the government is currently working on.
The Dharamrajan Committee,which has been re-activated,is working on the Bill as part of a concept note that the committee will present to the Delhi government. According to sources,the enumerator blocks that were cut out during the recent census will be used as the basic building block for the RWAs.
Each RWA will be formed with six to 10 enumerator blocks,roughly coming up to 100-odd houses. The government also wants to hold periodical elections to RWAs to ensure that there is only one such association representing a certain area. Earlier,several RWAs would lay claim to work done in a given area,resulting in chaos.
However,holding periodical elections is an expensive option. We are looking at all possible ways this can be carried out. Recently,Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat held Internet-based elections for a limited number of voters in the municipal polls and it was successful, a senior official said.
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The DMC Act already has provisions for giving at least 35 per cent of the revenue to a local body. The money was not transferred till now because the term local body was not defined properly. If the RWA is given a legal identity and powers,the government would be able to transfer the money too. The RWAs will be given the responsibility of maintaining cleanliness and waste management,besides taking care of parks among other issues, the official added.
We cannot comment on any aspect of the draft Bill as it is still under discussion, said Urban Development Secretary R K Srivastava. The Bill will also be deal with the problem of multiple boundaries. In Delhi,the planning districts are different from MCD districts and revenue districts, the official added.
Once the draft Bill is ready,it will be sent to the Home Ministry for ratification. It will have to be tabled in the Delhi Assembly before it can be implemented.
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