JOIN USThe Arvind Kejriwal government is all set to take participative governance to the next level by giving nearly 3,000 mohalla sabhas — colony-level citizen groups — the power to prioritise development projects amounting to over Rs 1,300 crore annually.
Sources in Chief Minister’s office said the mohalla sabhas have been mapped using Google satellite imagery and all 70 constituencies have been divided into 30-40 colony-level groups with each group representing 4,000 to 6,000 residents.
“On an average, each mohalla sabha is likely to have an annual budget of about Rs 50 lakh,” said a government functionary.
The mohalla sabhas are likely to be encouraged to take collective decisions with consensus on issues ranging from repairing roads, pavements, lighting in parks, to improvement of community centres and building libraries.
Political rivals of the AAP, however, fear the initiative may result in hegemony of AAP supporters if true consensus is not achieved.
Budgetary support
Kejriwal is holding several rounds of discussions with officials and MLAs to ensure that the financial powers of the Mohalla Sabhas get statutory and budgetary support.
“We demanded at least Rs 50 lakh budget for each mohalla sabha,” said a legislator, indicating that Finance Minister Manish Sisodia may grant anything between Rs 1,300-1,500 crore for empowering the 3,000 colony-level groups.
Ahead of the presentation of his budget for 2016-17, Kejriwal has started discussions with principal secretaries and ministers on issues related to the proposals seeking funds for schemes like education, health and Swaraj Fund, sources said.
In his last budget, Sisodia created a provision of Rs 253 crore under the Swaraj Fund Scheme. Before the allocation, the AAP government held public meetings in 11 constituencies to know public requirements. About 50 public meetings were organised in each assembly constituency which were attended by residents of the area.
In the next financial year, there willl be mohalla sabha meetings after the Delhi government gives statutory backing to these groups’ financial decision-making role.
At present, each municipal councillor also has an annual fund of Rs 50 lakh for development works in his ward. If mohalla sabhas get financial powers of about Rs 50 lakh each, these may become financially as powerful as the elected representatives in civic agencies which currently have no representation of the AAP and are run by only BJP and Congress councillors.
A BJP councillor said: “Kejriwal seems to be preparing for the 2017 municipal elections by planning to give power to his supporters in all colonies.”