In an attempt to help locals have a greater say about civic projects undertaken in their respective areas, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has directed all heads of departments to appoint nodal o
In an attempt to help locals have a greater say about civic projects undertaken in their respective areas, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has directed all heads of departments to appoint nodal officers for each Mohalla Sabha in all the 70 Assembly constituencies.
On an average each of the Mohalla Sabhas will cover 4,500 people of four polling booths. The AAP government’s move assumes significance in the run-up to the 2017 municipal polls as it may help the AAP to increase its presence across the 272 wards.
The AAP government has allocated Rs 350 crore in the 2016-17 Budget under the Swaraj Nidhi Yojna. As many as 2,969 Mohalla Sabhas formed by the AAP government will be empowered to decide on the developmental work in their respective areas.
The Kejriwal government had organised the Mohalla Sabhas in 11 Assembly constituencies on an experimental basis last year. It had also allocated Rs 20 crore for each constituency for execution of their civic projects.
Mr Sisodia has reportedly told all the departments to appoint a nodal officer for the Mohalla Sabhas to carry out development work. This year, the scheme has been modified on the basis of the inputs from the last year. The officials reportedly informed Mr Sisodia that boundary of each Mohalla Sabha has been finalised and departments have been asked to mark their assets and send lists to the administrative department of the government. A notification to this effect is expected very soon.
A senior officer said through these Mohalla Sabhas, people can make suggestions to the government about the projects they would like to implement in their respective areas.
However, only registered voters at the polling centres where Mohalla Sabhas are held can take part in the exercise. The city legislators will also contribute from their funds of Rs 4 crore to implement the decisions taken at these public meetings.
Each Mohalla Sabha will hold meetings every two months.
The Mohalla Sabhas will be given a time-frame of about six months to initiate the process of the election of a committee comprising of the community representatives.
The Aam Aadmi Party government is very clear that the Mohalla Sabhas will not interfere with the existing constitutional layers of governance of the Centre, the State and other municipalities.
The city has different kinds of areas like slum clusters, unauthorised colonies, rural and urban villages, planned colonies and group housing societies. The needs and requirements vary from one area to the other.
