The citizens of Hubli-Dharwad have demanded greater financial autonomy for the urban local bodies. At a workshop on the draft Karnataka Urban Development Policy-2009 organised by the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation in Hubli on Monday the stakeholders suggested that provision for financial autonomy would ensure speedy implementation of the plans and provide for accountability.
The workshop aimed at eliciting suggestions and opinions of citizens and other stakeholders regarding the contents of the policy in the wake of the 74th amendment to section 12 of the Constitution could be effectively enforced only when the urban local bodies are financially sound.
They were in favour of a 30-month period for the mayor instead of five years suggested in the draft policy. Opposing the direct election of mayor, the citizens suggested it should be a system of mayor-in-council. The suggestion in the policy of electing the members to the ward committees was opposed, by the citizens’ organisations. Instead, they wanted the citizens’ committees and ward committees to comprise of members nominated by the government.
On the drinking water supply, the stakeholders suggested that 40 percent of cost should be collected from the citizens while the local body should bear 60 percent.
Nayanatara Nayak, Ashok Jadhav, Deepak Chinchore, Shridhar Pujar, Mukund Maigur, Mohan Nagammanavar and others participated in the panel discussion and offered suggestions. The members rued lack of coordination among various government agencies which was hampering development.
Former chief secretary and urban development advisor to chief minister A Raveendra explained the provisions of the policy and said Karnataka was the first to come out with a comprehensive policy on urban development. He said the policy was needed keeping in view growing urbanization and increasing urban poverty. “The policy aims at correcting the imbalance in the process of urbanization” he said.
The draft policy deals with correcting the special imbalance, alleviation of urban poverty, development of infrastructure, resource mobilization, environmental issues and streamlining the administration with greater stress of democratic set up. Raveendra explained the strategy to be adopted for the implementation of the policy. He said attention had been paid to ensure that the urban development policy did not clash with the policy for overall development of the state.
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Minister for Urban Development, law and parliamentary affairs Suresh Kumar inaugurated the workshop and said the percentage of urbanites in India and Karnataka was on the rise over the years and the time had come to focus attention on planned growth of urban areas. The minister wanted the policy to attach importance to the welfare of pedestrians and cyclists in its development plans.
Hubli-Dharwad mayor Veeranna Savadi, Belgaum mayor Yallappa Kurubar, urban development secretary S D Meena, HDUDA chairman Datta Dorle, HDMC commissioner P S Vastrad and others were present.