Rather than wait for elected representatives to fulfill their promises, residents’ associations and mohalla committees in the city should prepare a citizens’ charter for their localities and present it to politicians seeking votes for the forthcoming Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections in early 2012.
“These aspiring corporators should be asked to sign this charter or make their promises in an affidavit, so that they can prepare a better agenda and implement it in the next five years,” said Satish Khot, president of National Society for Clean Cities (NSCC) while speaking at DNA’s ‘Your Locality, Your Voice’ gathering on Sunday at Dhanraj Parmar hall in Wanavdi, on Sunday.
While the NSCC would prepare a citizens’ charter for the entire city, residents’ associations or mohalla committees should do so for their respective localities, he suggested.
The residents and residents’ forum (mohalla committee) representatives from NIBM Road (Panel No. 61) and Mohammedwadi (Panel No. 45) were present for this gathering, along with former mayor and NCP corporator, Rajlakshmi Bhosale, and Shiv Sena corporator Tanaji Lonkar.
Wanavdi NCP functionary Prashant Jagtap, NIBM Road Residents Forum secretary Sushil Kumar and Nyati County mohalla committee member Capt Deepak Sethi were among those who spoke on the occasion. Area residents, mohalla committee members and politicians came on a common platform to discuss pressing civic issues of their locality.
“All citizens should be aware of their roles and responsibility and, instead of waiting for the elected representatives to fulfil their promises, we should be the ones to prepare a charter and give it to the aspiring candidates who are contesting the elections, so that they can prepare a better agenda and implement it,” Khot said.
“We should create more mohalla committees so that more people come together to undertake bigger projects. We should be taking ownership of our localities, talking to the authorities and the elected representatives and to the government to get our problems sorted,” he said.
During the meeting NIBM Road mohalla committee member Alka Kapoor, a resident of Chandan Gardens, demanded that corporators and ward officers not only attend the mohalla committee meetings regularly, but also prepare 5-year plans for the areas.
Emphasising on a point raised by NIBM Road resident YK Gupta, Khot urged the corpoprators to initiate a system so that details of tenders and projects awarded to contractors are made available on the PMC website. It should also upload the decisions taken by corporators in the PMC standing committee meetings and general body meetings without any delay, he stressed.
Former mayor Bhosale and other corporators present agreed that these were valid suggestions.
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