Citizens should decide for themselves on local development: Arvind Kejriwal

As a resident of Koshambi,a locality that lies on the Delhi- Ghaziabad border,Kejriwal said,“In our locality,people refused to pay taxes to the civic body as it was not providing any services. Then we realised that we can have various methods of revenue generation within a mohalla or a ward like using the park walls for advertisement and in turn tell the advertisers to maintain the park. This will ensure financial autonomy and reduce dependence on corporators even for buying a broom,which requires them to go through various leves of bureaucracy.”

Sharing an interesting anecdote from an area sabha in Sonia Vihar in Delhi,a resident raised the demand of opening a liquor shop in the locality. “While many in the crowd would have been alcohol consumers,they all wanted to maintain their teetotaller image in front of members of their own locality. So,for lack of support the demand was dropped and money was diverted to other pressing needs,” added Kejriwal.

Among various issues discussed in the workshop,a major loophole in the act as pointed out by Janwani is that according to the act,while the representative of the Area Sabha will be a member of the local ward committee and he will be either elected or appointed,the method of election is not clear. As a suggestion,Janwani pointed out that election is preferable to nomination.

Maruti Bhapkar,independent corporator from Pimpri-Chinchwad,said,“While the Model Nagar Raj Bill of the Centre does look into the real issues behind the Area Sabhas,the act by the Maharashtra government is a farce,which will help them access JNNURM funds. Massive amendments are needed in the state act. In the name of practices like public private partnerships,a lot of public money is being siphoned off.”