The Hindu 27.12.2009
Orders on public disclosure rules of urban civic bodies hailed
Staff Reporter
| ‘It will go a long way in promoting good governance’ |
VISAKHAPATNAM: Forum for Better Visakha (FBV) convener E.A.S. Sarma on Saturday complimented the State Government for the initiative taken in issuing GO Ms. No. 725 and 726 stipulating rules for public disclosure of information by the municipalities and municipal corporations.
“It will go a long way towards promoting good governance in the urban local bodies, “Mr. Sarma said.
The forum was aware of the details of the compliance report submitted by the State’s Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department to the Ministry of Urban Development on various items listed under the JNNURM scheme.
This is required to be able to obtain funds under that scheme. Stating that they were not certain as to the genuineness of these compliance reports, he said Item 12 of the compliance report (JNNURM) required enactment of a ‘public participation’ law.
No doubt, the government has enacted such a law (Act No. 7 of 2008) for the creation of Ward Committees and Area Sabhas but the purpose of that Act stood defeated as the required rules were yet to be framed, even though it was nearing more than one and a half years since that Act came into being, he said in a letter sent to the Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban Development.
Similarly, against Item 13 of that list, the State Government declared last year itself to the Ministry of Urban Development that a public disclosure law had already been enacted though no such law had come into force till then. Perhaps, the State Government implied that the Right to Information Act, 2005 was already in force, Mr. Sarma said.
However, not many municipalities and municipal corporations have complied with that Act in terms of the mandatory public disclosure envisaged under Section 4 of that Act.
Therefore, in reality, the compliance reported by the State government remained questionable, he stated.
Mr. Sarma felt that the orders were issued on disclosure rules now merely to be able to take advantage of JNNURM funds rather than promoting public disclosure towards better governance and suggested that both the government and the municipal bodies should make a public disclosure of the actual progress achieved at the field level in terms of all the items listed in the compliance report submitted to the Centre under JNNURM.
