“We have no identity. People do not recognise us. Officials and corporators ignore us. In the one-and-a-half year we have been chosen, there has not been a single meeting,” cried Renuka, ward committee member, Gudimalkapur.
“Corporators say they spent lot of money to get elected while we were selected. We are shooed away when we seek meetings,” rues Satyanarayana, another member.
“We have no identity and no meetings are held,” complained Mohd. Quadri from Kishanbagh while Governdhan Reddy from Jubilee Hills pointed out that neither ward committee members nor area sabha members had any clue about the functions and responsibilities.
Study released
Such complaints poured forth from among nominated members of these two bodies gathered for the release of a study on ‘Functioning of ward committees and area sabhas: issues and recommendations' by Confederation of Voluntary Organisations (COVA) and People's Union for Civic Action and Rights (PUCAAR) here on Friday.
Five municipal wards – Mehdipatnam, Ghansi Bazaar, Puranapul, Azampura and Saleemnagar, each of them represented by corporators of political parties like the BJP, Congress, MIM, MBT and TD, were chosen to ascertain reasons for the committees' inactivity.
Citizens drawn from voluntary groups, ward committees, area sabhas and officials from the ward secretaries to the zonal commissioners were interviewed for the study.
While everyone agreed that these two micro-level meetings were key to grassroots participation for proper planning and development, there were several vacancies.
Ward committees (10 members drawn from different sections of the society chaired by the corporator concerned) are to meet once a month and area ‘sabhas' (one for every 5,000 population) are to be held once in three months yet few meetings have been held after oath taking. GHMC had promised 20 per cent budget for works decided by these two bodies.
Members are demanding appointment letters and identity cards along with travel and phone reimbursements.
They say officials and corporators are not interested in holding meetings. There was no budget for conducting area sabhas and no offices for conducting meetings of either of them.
Majority of people are unaware of the concept and functioning of these meets. While top officials are amenable, ground level implementation for ward committees and area sabhas is nil.
Spreading awareness
COVA-PUCAAR representatives Mazher Hussain, Sarat Asthana, Amit Gilani, Habeebuddin, Mohd. Turab, Nasser Siddiqui, Renuka and Muralikrishna, who prepared the report, called for spreading more awareness for these panels, invite media for their meetings, display resolutions, etc.
