Dragging the feet

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: About three months have elapsed since the Andhra Pradesh Legislature enacted the Community Participation Law (CPL) which enables citizens to participate in the development process in the urban local bodies (ULBs) but the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department is yet to finalise relevant rules so that the new law can be put into effect.
Under the Community Participation Law, citizens will become part of the ward committees (WCs) in ULBs to carry out specific tasks and also work out development plans related to each civic ward. To enable this, the ULBs will be required to earmark 20 per cent of their annual budget to the WCs. Each ward committee, headed by the respective municipal corporator\councillor, will have ten members representing non-governmental organisations, residents welfare associations, professional institutions, trade or industrial organisations and other stake-holders. The WCs will supervise sanitation, distribution of water supply, road repairs, maintenance of markets, functioning of civic schools and health centres besides facilitating tax collection. They will also prepare an annual ward development plan and an inventory of municipal assets. The civic body will be required to consult the WCs in the development of land use and zoning regulations within each municipal ward. Again, each municipal ward in an ULB will be divided into certain number of "areas" which will have an area sabha representing at least 2000 people in a particular locality. The area sabhas will also draft proposals for development programmes and submit them to the respective WCs. "So far we have only the public representatives deciding on the priorities for development. But in many a case the demands of the people are not actually met. The Community Participation Law will set this anomaly right and ensure that development works are taken up in a focused manner and also fulfil the requirements of people at the micro level," a senior official of the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department said.
MAUD secretary Pushpa Subrahmanyam said rules related to the Community Participation Law were being framed and everything would be in place in about a month and a half.
Meanwhile, composition of the all-powerful Standing Committee in the municipal corporations will also change once the CPL comes into force. The strength of the Standing Committee will be increased to a maximum of 15. Chairpersons of the municipal wards committees used to become members of the Standing Committee but now every corporator becomes eligible for election to the apex body in the municipal corporation. The Standing Committee is now being vested with additional responsibilities like planning for economic and social development, protecting the environment and ecology and promoting cultural, educational and aesthetic aspects.