TIMES NEWS NETWORK
14 Feb, 2007 0010hrs IST
HUBLI: The alleged hasty manner in which the Hubli Dharwad Municipal Corporation is pushing ahead with the formation of citizen committees at the polling booth level to prioritise development strategies for the twin cities has come in for criticism from certain quarters.
Concerned citizens told 'The Times of India' that the time given by the corporation for completing the formalities to be on the booth level panels was a little to short. "There is not enough time for the citizens of the booth area to sit together and arrive at a consensus," they said.
The Dharwad Citizens' Forum pointed out that "the proposal for formation of booth level citizen committees was announced through a public address system on February 6. The details about it appeared in newspapers on February 8, which was incidentally the last day for submitting applications."
In a statement, citizen forum's general secretary H K Pathan alleged: "The entire process is being conducted in a very hasty manner to prevent genuinely interested, eligible citizens from becoming members of such committees.
This has given room for suspicion that the process might be manipulated by some to pack the committees with their own men."
HDMC commissioner P Manivannan said: "We have given sufficient time to those interested to apply for membership of citizen committees.
I have written a number to letters to the citizens' forum and am even willing to make them a part of the NGOs involved with the corporation to uplift the twin cities. But they don't respond. So what am I to do?" The corporation had hired the services of a consortium of Administrative Staff College of India and Ernst & Young to prepare a City Development Strategy Report.
The strategies for long-term development of the city suggested in the report are to be prioritised by incorporating the response of booth level citizen committees.
Each booth will have a nine-member committee. There are, in all, 654 booths in the corporation area. So, a total of 5,886 members will have to be appointed. In response to the HDMC scheme publicised in the media, nearly 2,500 citizens have applied, including more than one applicant for a given slot in the committee in many cases.
An HDMC official involved in the formation of the committees admitted that the response has been less than sufficient, but he did not agree that it was due to lack of time given to the citizens. The poor response is now being met by resorting to the mechanism of nominating remaining members on the booth committees, he said.
Ostensibly to help in the process of formation of the booth level committees, HDMC had constituted a nine-member Citizens' Advisory Committee chaired by former Mangalore University vice-chancellor M I Savadatti.
At a meeting held over the weekend, the advisory committee, in fact, authorised the assistant commissioners of 12 zones of the corporation to nominate members to constitute the booth-level committees.
Concerned citizens told 'The Times of India' that the time given by the corporation for completing the formalities to be on the booth level panels was a little to short. "There is not enough time for the citizens of the booth area to sit together and arrive at a consensus," they said.
The Dharwad Citizens' Forum pointed out that "the proposal for formation of booth level citizen committees was announced through a public address system on February 6. The details about it appeared in newspapers on February 8, which was incidentally the last day for submitting applications."
In a statement, citizen forum's general secretary H K Pathan alleged: "The entire process is being conducted in a very hasty manner to prevent genuinely interested, eligible citizens from becoming members of such committees.
This has given room for suspicion that the process might be manipulated by some to pack the committees with their own men."
HDMC commissioner P Manivannan said: "We have given sufficient time to those interested to apply for membership of citizen committees.
I have written a number to letters to the citizens' forum and am even willing to make them a part of the NGOs involved with the corporation to uplift the twin cities. But they don't respond. So what am I to do?" The corporation had hired the services of a consortium of Administrative Staff College of India and Ernst & Young to prepare a City Development Strategy Report.
The strategies for long-term development of the city suggested in the report are to be prioritised by incorporating the response of booth level citizen committees.
Each booth will have a nine-member committee. There are, in all, 654 booths in the corporation area. So, a total of 5,886 members will have to be appointed. In response to the HDMC scheme publicised in the media, nearly 2,500 citizens have applied, including more than one applicant for a given slot in the committee in many cases.
An HDMC official involved in the formation of the committees admitted that the response has been less than sufficient, but he did not agree that it was due to lack of time given to the citizens. The poor response is now being met by resorting to the mechanism of nominating remaining members on the booth committees, he said.
Ostensibly to help in the process of formation of the booth level committees, HDMC had constituted a nine-member Citizens' Advisory Committee chaired by former Mangalore University vice-chancellor M I Savadatti.
At a meeting held over the weekend, the advisory committee, in fact, authorised the assistant commissioners of 12 zones of the corporation to nominate members to constitute the booth-level committees.
