Plan local development, highlight civic issues at your ward committee meeting

At ward committee meetings, you can discuss any local issue - from potholes to your ward's annual budget. Know more about how you can make a difference in your locality by taking part in these meetings

Ward committees bring democracy to your doorstep, and give you a say in the planning and management of local work. The Nagarpalika Act, 1992, a central law, made ward committees mandatory for large cities. But this was not implemented in Bengaluru for long. It took years of citizen campaigning for ward committees to be formed at all.

More recently, the High Court judgement in a PIL by the NGO Environment Support Group, and public outcry, compelled the Bengaluru Mayor to issue a direction to compulsorily hold ward committee meetings on the first Saturday of every month. Following this, the BBMP Commissioner issued an circular on the same. As a result, since last December, ward committees meetings started to be held in the city.

The citizens’ group CfB (Citizens for Bengaluru) estimates that over 500 ward committee meetings have taken place in the city so far. At these meetings, issues such as garbage management, street lights, drainage, and illegal parking were dealt with. Here is an account of one such meeting in Shantinagar ward.

MPs and MLAs are hard to access, and until recently, corporators used to be as well. But at ward committee meetings, your local elected representatives have to present themselves, and their ongoing work, to you every month. People who previously felt helpless when dealing with waste management or potholes now have someone to hold accountable.

You can voice your concerns, help plan and oversee public works in your ward, and submit questions for discussion at the meetings. Just as Panchayat Samitis have brought about local governance in villages, ward committees can bring better local governance to cities.

Of course, we cannot expect changes overnight. While some wards like Jayanagar have active ward committees, some others have not had their first meeting yet! Though the Mayor had instructed corporators to hold meetings every month, there is no disincentive to those who don’t comply. The only thing that can get corporators to show up is citizen pressure, and the concern that they may not get voted into office again if they don’t perform.

Here is a video on how you can make a difference through ward committee meetings:

Here are some resources:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

City Buzz: Diwali-led pollution spike in Delhi | Municipal green bonds issue… and more

Other news: AQI round-up in cities; Lancet report highlights risks to India from extreme heat; office rents surge to pre-pandemic levels.

Delhi world's 'most polluted' city post Diwali: Study Delhi's Diwali night blazed with colours and high-decibel firecrackers. The Delhi Fire Services (DFS) department received a record number of 318 distress or emergency calls of fire accidents, out of which 280 were alerts. According to Swiss firm IQ Air, the air quality index stood at over 345 shortly after dawn, in the "hazardous" category, with New Delhi at the top of a real-time global list as the world's most-polluted city. However, on November 1st, Environment Minister Gopal Rai expressed gratitude to Delhiites for "largely refraining from bursting firecrackers" on Deepavali, which helped…

Similar Story

How to save a neighbourhood park — Mumbaikars show the way with Patwardhan Park

A detailed account of how citizens got city authorities to reverse their decision to build an underground parking lot under a park in Bandra.

On September 22nd, the playground on the Raosaheb Patwardhan Park resembled a happy space where people gathered to enjoy and chat, children played football, a few played badminton or even hula hoops. A group jived over Zumba dance moves, while others danced to the live percussion music. The crowd had gathered to celebrate the playground being saved from the clutches of cemented development. A cake was cut to celebrate the occasion. Elected representatives from all the major political parties, Varsha Gaikwad, Mumbai head of the Congress, Priyanka Chaturvedi from the Shiv Sena and even Ashish Shelar, the local Bharatiya Janata…