Better use of funds by civic bodies stressed

A one day workshop on economic Sources of civic local bodies was held in Rajkot early this week which was jointly organised by the All India Institute of Local Self Government, Rajkot Chapter and Shri Arvindkumar Maniar Jankalyan Trust.

The genesis of the workshop was by and large focussed on the need to understand the econometrics of local civic bodies, policies to be adhered to and how best the resources can be utilised to improve the performance of civic bodies.

Emphasising the need of such a session, Professor S S Mehta, Demographer of School of Planning affiliated to Centre for Environment Planning & Technology (CEPT) Ahmedabad said, "At present, Gujarat has 7 major Municipal Corporations and by 2025 we are expecting 12 more to be added in places like Porbandar and Bhuj. In that case it becomes necessary to understand the complete econometrics and functioning of the civic bodies based primely on crucial parameters of input and output."

The workshop was attended by more than 200 representatives from across the municipal corporations, nagar palikas located across Gujarat State.

Jai Narayan Vyas, an eminent expert and politician stressed on bringing transparency in the civic governance saying, "Out of the total funds allocated to urban local bodies (ULBs), hardly 66 per cent is spent, there is no transparency due to rationalisation of taxes."

Talking of public private partnership models, Vyas said, "public private partnerships have exhibited tremendous results but they should be designed keeping in view the civic requirements of a particular centre, because at times it is not affordable."

Vijay Anadkat, Special Engineer of Rajkot Municipal Corporation gave a presentation on the City Development Plan as approved by Government of India, vide the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM) Scheme.