Mysore civic body moves towards participatory governance

The Mysore City Corporation (MCC) has taken up initiatives to move towards public participatory governance with a new advisory committee of experts at city level and 686 citizens' committees at the booth level.

Apart from these, it has initiated measures for decentralising powers by setting up nine zonal offices with independent responsibilities.

Explaining the features of the new measures, Manivannan, MCC commissioner, said the experiment was found successful in Hubli during his tenure there.

"At presently there is a big gap between the public and the MCC. There is no holistic approach in city governance. Good expertise is available outside the MCC also. The talent available on civic issues can make three corporations. We need to harness this expertise to build a better city. For this, we need a formal mechanism. We must have a participatory system with the stakeholders."

As part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), citizens have been empowered to undertake all-round development in their respective wards and assist the MCC in development.

The experts' committee with nine expert sub-committees is the first step. The second step is to have polling booth-level committees in this direction, he said.

The 686 citizens' committees will have nine members each, taking the number to over 6,000 stakeholders, with representations to all sections and age groups and one-third membership going to women. While the experts' committee is being expanded for accommodating more experts, November 18 is the last day for submitting applications for booth-level citizens' committees.

The second step would be to decentralise administration by setting up nine zonal offices with autonomy. As each booth committee can get Rs 10 lakh from JNNURM funds, the zonal offices will obtain plans from the booth committees and draw up the local budget.

Most of the wireless sets bought spending Rs 36 lakh had become useless. Now 300 newly bought sets have been given to all the inspectors. The control room has been stabilised to work round the clock to receive public complaints any time.

More vehicles have been acquired and they will carry equipment for emergent operations. Laptops have been given to all the departmental heads, Manivannan said.

For these measures, MCC has obtained Rs 5 crore from the state government and has spent Rs 30 lakh so far. This experiment in Hubli, he said, had resulted in agitations and dharnas.