City corporation to carry out background verification of ward committee applicants

Mangaluru City Corporation has agreed to verify criminal and political background of applicants who wish to be members of Ward Committees in view of complaints that many who have applied are members of political parties and have criminal background.

The decision follows a recent meeting of a delegation from Mangalore Civic Group (formerly known as MCC Civic Group) with Corporation Commissioner Akshy Sridhar. The Commissioner said that he will get the complaints examined by the jurisdictional police and also the political parties.

The formation of Ward Committees will, however, continue simultaneously. As and when responses from the police and political parties are received, necessary action will be taken, Mr. Sridhar told

The Hindu here on Tuesday. Steps will be taken to address deficits, as complained by civic groups, over the course of time, the Commissioner said.

A release from the group said that it demanded immediate cancellation of the provisional selection list of Ward Committees during its recent meeting with the Commissioner and that the selection be held afresh. It indicated some course-correction measures to be adopted for fresh selection. The Commissioner agreed to implement some of the measures to rectify the flaws.

The group said that there were many flaws and violation of rules in the selection process, including selection of active political party workers, lack of transparency in the process. It suggested 10 course correction measures. Inclusion of political party members will defeat the very purpose of the Ward Committees as they are expected to monitor the functioning of councillors at the ward level.

Mr. Sridhar, the release said, agreed to implement some of the measures, including verifying claims of not being an active party worker and not having pending criminal cases by the political parties and the police, respectively. He also agreed to set right deficiency in 49 wards where provisionally selected members are less than the maximum 10.

The delegation included Nigel Albuquerque, Prathapchandra Kedilaya, Arun D’Souza, Anand Rao, Suresh Nayak, Oswald Pereira and Rajaram Addoor.

The Mangalore Civic Group was formed in 2015 to foster citizen’s participation in local self-government.