BMC puppet panel bid to cut strings

APRIL 5: Though two months and two meetings have ticked by, the 16 Ward Committees formed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation have y...

APRIL 5: Though two months and two meetings have ticked by, the 16 Ward Committees formed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation have yet to receive their share of 8220;recognition and power8221;, though the procedures for electing the next Chairpersons to these Committees are already under-way.

The elections are slated to be held from April 10 and the last date for filing nomination is April 7. This will be second election for the post of Chairpersons of Ward Committees one year tenure, the first one held after much delay in January this year. So how succesful was the short tenure of the first set of Committees in 8220;decentralising power8221; as was recommended by the 74th Amendment of the Constitution in lines with the city councils functioning in London? And what have the present Chairpersons to say about their two-month tenure and the 8220;work8221; their Ward Committees managed to accomplish with no budgetory allocations?

8220;The civic administration is not interested in placing any proposals before the Ward Committee,8221; said NCP corporator, Ravindra Pawar, who is the Chairperson of Ward Committee no 13, covering the M East and M West wards of Chembur. As per Section 50 T T, 7C of BMC Act all contract proposals upto Rs 5 lakhs should be placed before Ward Committees for financial and administrative sanction. 8220;In my ward 23 proposals pertaining road asphalting, filling trenches, water pipe repairs etc will be taken up. But not a single item has been placed before the Committee,8221; Pawar noted. The work will be carried out by the central agency of the BMC and the Ward Committee has been given no locus standi in the matter.

The scenario repeats itself in other Ward Committees where the only matters placed on the Committee agenda so far was the naming and re-naming of roads and the cleaning of gutters and roads etc. However, Shiv-Sena corporator, Ashok Patel, Chairperson of Ward Committee covering 14 wards in Malad and surrounding areas is optimistic that things will change after the April elections. 8220;There were no budgetory allocations for the present Committees, but provisions will be made once the second set of Committees are constituted for the year 2000-1,8221; he said.

The state government has also been accused of having a lackadaisical attitude as directives for the appointment of members from non-government organisations to Ward Committees have yet to be finalised. 8220;Though the Bombay High Court has set January 15 as the deadline for constituting Ward Committees, the absence of NGO members in the present Committees makes the work un-finished,8221; said former Samajwadi corporator, Ramesh Joshi who had moved the court demanding immediate implementation of the 74th Amendment of the Indian Constitution which recommends decentralisation of power by forming Ward Committees to deal with the local matters.

Joshi alleged that neither the civic administration nor the elected representatives were interested in empowering the Ward Committees. 8220;The Committees were constituted only under the compulsion of a High court order,8221; he said. An amount of Rs 80 8211; Rs 100 crores is spent every year through the civic central agency to take up work in wards like repairing drains, water pipelines, laying roads etc. The contract proposals for these jobs should be placed before the Ward Committees and the civic administration should scrap the central agency, he added.

The Chairpersons of the Ward Committees had made a representation to the Mayor on March 17 in this regard. As of now the only response received is a letter from the Mayor stating that 8220;the matter is being considered8221; , which most of the Chairpersons received on Tuesday.