'Form ward committees in all municipal corporations'

Bengaluru-based Lanchamukta Karnataka Nirmana Vedike joint secretary Narendra Kumar has stated that a writ petition would be filed before the High Court within 15 days, seeking directions to form ward committees in remaining 10 municipal corporations in the State, including Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC).

Moreover, the MLAs are also being requested to amend the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act to add guidelines for effective formation and functioning of ward committees, he added.

"Ward committees are essential to ensure citizens' participation in decision making while taking up development works. Though the KMC Act has a mandatory provision for the constitution of ward committee, 10 municipal corporations in the State lack ward committees. Only the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) formed ward committees, that too after the High Court issued an order," Mr Narendra Kumar said.

Speaking to media persons here on Wednesday, he stated that the BBMP ward committees are full of relatives and friends of corporators, due to lack of proper guidelines to select ward committee members.

Hubballi-Dharwad Pragati Sankalp (HDPS) convener Santosh Nargund stated that ward committees would take decisions on behalf of citizens, and would have a control over the corporator.

From each polling booth, one area sabha representative should be elected, while he or she should also be in the ward committee. This wold make the administration accessible for the common people. Guidelines should be framed for proper selection of members of ward committees, while works of those committees should also be publicised properly, he noted.

Citizens were not consulted while implementing major projects like Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in the twin cities. Having ward committees would have better community participation and check on corruption in development works, he added.