'Decentralise, activate ward committees to tackle second Covid-19 wave at local level in Karnataka'

Activating ward committees to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic spread at the hyper-local level was a belated strategy last year. Now with the second wave hitting the city hard and a two-week lockdown, a late attempt is now being made to restart the process.

The idea is simple: Local resident welfare associations, nodal officers in every ward and active citizens are the best informed about the Covid-19 reality in their neighbourhoods. So why not let them collectively coordinate a response that addresses pandemic awareness, quarantine, hospitalisation, vaccination, oxygen availability and more.

But first, the committees should meet regularly, at least online.

The Bengaluru NavaNirmana Party (BNP) has urged the BBMP to hold such online ward meetings every week over the next few weeks.

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Ward panel meetings as a formal but highly diluted governance structure ended with the BBMP Council. However, a handful of legislators and former corporators have continued to hold the meetings, but once in two weeks. This needs to be expanded and more focused to combat the pandemic, notes Lalithamba B V, member, core working group member, BNP.

“Our suggestion is to hold online meetings, of say an hour, every Saturday at 10 am so that many citizens and Resident Welfare Association (RWA) representatives can participate. This will ensure more regular interaction and exchange of information as well as ideas between officials and citizens.”

Irrespective of party affiliation, the committee members could discuss, coordinate and address issues related to bed shortage, oxygen availability, vaccination and quarantine. “Now there is a crisis and people are running helter-skelter. It is time to take a bottom-up approach,” she says.

Chaired by the nodal officers, the committees could, for instance, spread awareness on vaccination and address vaccine-hesitancy at the local level, notes Tara Krishnaswamy, co-founder of Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB).

“The panels could also help in quarantine-related efforts, and coordinate with food facilitators who had already created a system and infrastructure during the first wave,” she elaborates.

The 14-day lockdown would mean no public transport buses or autorickshaws. “How will senior citizens get to the vaccination centres? The ward committee can coordinate these efforts by activating the citizen groups. The government has a very top-down approach. Ward panels can change that.”

"Decentralised and citizen-participative governance is the only way forward for the city, whether it is managing a pandemic or resolving civic issues.

"Ward committees and area sabhas can play a crucial role in the same. Many citizens have already started reaching out to the nodal officer and BBMP officials such as the health inspector and primary health centre doctor in their respective wards. We urge the BBMP to take their support in tackling this issue effectively."

— Srikanth Narasimhan, General secretary, BNP