Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has instructed the officials concerned to formulate a new State Urban Policy focussing on planned development and service delivery to the people with utmost transparency.
The officials had been directed to work on new revenue and rural policies simultaneously. The Chief Minister who reviewed the progress of works on the formulation of the new urban policy for the second consecutive day on Sunday, instructed the officials to incorporate the salient features of the proposed Municipal Act, Municipal Corporations Act and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Acts in the new Urban Policy.
Efforts should also be made to evolve steps for effective administration in Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority area as well as other urban development authorities across the State. The officials had been directed to come up with draft proposals for the new Acts in the next couple of days and the Chief Minister said the government planned to convene a session of the Legislature to discuss and pass the new legislations.
Ensure greenery
The new legislations, Mr. Rao said, should not give scope for corruption and they should be aimed at ensuring that there was no room for allowing illegal and unauthorised constructions at all levels. The new Acts were being formulated with a view to keep the cities clean and ensuring greenery and they were being envisaged to fix responsibilities on the officials at different levels for effective discharge of their duties.
Accordingly, provisions would be made for awarding stringent punishments to the officials who were found guilty of dereliction of duty. Guidelines would be incorporated in the legislation to entrust the collectors with responsibility of settling issues in the municipalities and municipal corporations in their respective jurisdictions. The new legislations would ensure that prioritisation of works would be made for spending the funds earmarked for the development of these bodies and no one would be allowed to spend funds as per their whims and fancies.
The Chief Minister recalled how the government identified priorities immediately after the formation of the new State and welfare sector was given the top priority. In the process, the power and water related problems had been resolved while the TSiPASS had been introduced for accelerated industrial development. The government was now focussed on enactment of new Revenue and Municipal Acts to enable governance on fast track without giving scope for corruption at any level.
