Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

FBV calls for involvement of citizens in civic works

VISAKHAPATNAM: An amendment made to the Municipal Corporations Act of 1955 eight months ago has not been implemented so far, depriving the right of citizens to supervise the civic works.

Disclosing this to the media here on Friday, convener of the Forum for Better Visakha (FBV) E.A.S. Sarma and C.S. Rao of Praja Spandana said that the Act was amended on April 19, 2008 and the municipal corporations in the State were asked to form ‘area sabhas’ and ‘ward committees’ within three months with the local residents as members to oversee maintenance works of public amenities. The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation was required to allocate 20 per cent in its budget for these works to the ward committees. Mr. Sarma said that though eight months have elapsed, the GVMC had not acted on the amendment.

The FBV has pointed this out to both the GVMC and the Government but there was no response. He called upon the citizens to exert pressure on the GVMC to form the committees and sabhas quickly and allocate funds to them.

The GVMC Budget for 2009-10, that would be passed next week, was Rs.2,558 crores. It represents a 44 per cent increase over the latest estimate of Rs.1,777 crores for 2008-09. The expenditure during the first half of 2008-09 was hardly 20 per cent of it, which shows that the budget figures were overestimated.

He decried the poor allocation to important sectors such as education and public health. The priorities of the budget should change in favour of community-related facilities like public health, water and electricity. Citing an example, he said that GVMC plans to spend Rs.319 crores on engineering works during 2008-09 of which a mere Rs.9.5 crores was allocated to public toilets, school buildings and Dhobikhanas. On the other hand, the amount to be spent on GVMC’s office buildings would be Rs.10 crore.

Mr. Sarma was also critical of the slow progress of floodwater drains and drainage channels in the city and expressed apprehension that low-lying areas would once again be submerged during the next monsoon. He hoped that the new Municipal Commissioner B. Sridhar who was evincing keen interest in slum development, would ensure early formation of the committees.

Mr. Rao said that authorities had expressed their helplessness when he had asked for information, under the Right to Information Act, on the land use pattern and open lands available in the city.

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