Area sabhas to be held to discuss civic issues in four big cities

They will include local residents and will meet once every three months

The Greater Chennai Corporation will soon have 2,000 area sabhas, which will make suggestions and submit project proposals for the areas concerned.

This has been decided on the ground that the local body has 200 wards. Likewise, Madurai and Coimbatore will have 1,000 area sabhas each and Tiruchi, 650. The area sabhas could make representations about grievances and suggestions on civic amenities to the respective municipal corporation councils.

As all four local bodies come under the category of ‘million plus’ cities, they will have 10 area sabhas per ward.

The basis for the determination of area sabhas has been stipulated in a gazette notification issued by the Municipal Administration and Water Supply (MAWS) Department.

Essentially modelled on the lines of gram sabhas in rural local bodies, the area sabhas include all residents of the respective places. They will meet once every three months.

Other than all the 21 municipal corporations, the remaining two categories of urban local bodies - municipalities and town panchayats - will have four and three area sabhas per ward, respectively.

A senior official explains that till now, only residents’ welfare associations, depending upon the situation, got involved in matters concerning civic governance, and there was no structured platform for the participation of people. The creation of area sabhas will fill the gap, the official adds.

As per government norms, local bodies with a population ranging from over five lakh to less than 10 lakh will have area sabhas ranging from six to nine per ward. Salem, Tiruppur and Vellore fall under this category. In respect of municipal corporations whose population is up to five lakh, the number of area sabhas will be four to five per ward.

The State government has also laid down the conditions for the constitution of ward committees, which will have one member from each area. The councillor representing the ward concerned will head the committee.

However, K. Saravanan, president of ‘Thannatchi’, which specialises in issues concerning local bodies, is not satisfied with the functions entrusted to the area sabhas and ward committees. He says the two forums have been made into “mere petitioning bodies”. His organisation is planning to mobilise public opinion in favour of more powers by working with others.