The Hindu      30.10.2014 

Corporation council declines to form ward committees

Defying a recent directive of the Urban Development Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake, the Mangalore City Corporation council, in its monthly meeting on Wednesday, declined to constitute ward committees in the city. Instead it resolved to constitute a three-member House committee to study the pros and cons of constituting them.

The city corporation will have to constitute ward committees under the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Act, 2011. The Lok Adalat, on January 4, 2014, had also directed the corporation to take steps to constitute the committees.

Mr. Sorake, in a meeting on October 7, had directed the corporation to form ward committees within a month and alsoto form citizens’ forums, deliberation committees and ward sabhas.

He added that the State government had sent a circular to city corporations to form ward committees and some of them had already taken steps to this effect.

At the council’s meeting on Wednesday, the Mayor Mahabala Marla said that the three-member committee, headed by senior councillor Lancelot Pinto, will study the proposal and then the council will decide.

According to the Act, the councillor of each ward will head the 11-member ward committee and it should meet every month.

The council approved a proposal to give the corporation some “police powers” on the lines of the powers enjoyed by urban local bodies in Europe. The Mayor said the government would have to amend the Act for this to become a reality.

The council took the decision as the Directorate of Municipal Administration had sought the consent of all city corporation councils to a proposal to amend the Act.