Wednesday, 05 January 2022| PNS | Dehradun
Releasing its final report under Uttarakhand Urban Agenda 2022 campaign on the urban laws in the state, the Social Development for Communities (SDC) Foundation said that civic bodies here are being governed as per the laws of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and the government needs to make its own municipal laws as to the geographical conditions and needs of the state.
This SDC Foundation has prepared this report in collaboration with Bengaluru based not for profit organisation, Janagraha which has an experience of two decades in urban policy and governance. The report has mentioned the good provisions and missing provisions in the state’s urban laws across planning, capacities (finance and human resources), political leadership, and transparency and citizen participation on the basis of the assessment of nine urban legislations of the state including Uttarakhand (Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporations Act) 1959, Uttarakhand (Uttar Pradesh Municipalities Act 1916), Uttarakhand Urban and Country Planning and Development Act, 1973 and other relevant acts. According to the report, there is a lack of municipal legislation that consider the contemporary realities and needs of Uttarakhand’s Urban Local Self Governments (ULSGs). There are no mandates on ULSGs to draw up city sanitation plan, city resilience strategy and comprehensive mobility plan and for public participation in the preparation of each level of plans. ULSGs are not empowered to raise borrowings or invest their surplus without prior sanction of the State and there is no public disclosure law mandating the disclosure of civic data by ULSGs as per the report.
According to the head of the civic participation of Janagraha, Srinivas Allavali, the local bodies in the state are still being governed under the laws of the erstwhile UP and the government needs to make its own municipal laws according to the geographical conditions and needs of the state. He said that there is still no mandate for the urban local bodies (ULBs) for scientific estimation of the workforce, systematic training and capacity building of municipal employees and councillors.
The founder of the SDC Foundation Anoop Nautiyal also said that the authorities should focus on increasing the participation of social institutions and citizens in local plans. The authorities should also focus on the non-urban areas of the state. He said that the powers of mayors and municipal commissioners must be increased too as according to them they have to take permission from the state government for most of the projects that affects the work in the city.
Nautiyal said that SDC is sending these factsheets to all the political parties of the state with the appeal to include such issues in their manifestos to adopt the process of sustainable development across the state.
