Duties and responsibilities of citizens, rulers and administrations to improve urban services

- People oriented

Guidance - H.S. Patel IAS (Retd.)

Need for adequate town planners for well-planned development of cities

Continued from previous...

In the previous article we learned about the medical and legal provisions regarding the municipal system in India and from the perspective of Gujarat, at present about 45% of the total population of Gujarat lives in cities and urban development authority areas. The form of migration from villages to cities is no longer limited to business opportunities, but also due to socio-economic conditions. A seminar workshop on 'Future of Cities' of Envisioning Cities organized by Gujarat Engineers and Architects Association was recently held in Ahmedabad Management Association. It discussed the planned and unplanned development and lack of infrastructure in the cities of the country, but urban problems can only be solved by presenting urban problems or exposing them through daily papers or news media. Not to be missed, for this there are duties and responsibilities of urban citizens, rulers i.e. elected representatives and administrative officers as important stake holders. The provisions of Municipalities Act for Municipalities, Gujarat Municipal Corporation Act (GMC) for Municipal Corporations and Town Planning Act for Urban Development / Area Boards are in force for the administration of cities. According to the 74th constitutional amendment of India, ULB - Urban Local Bodies have been given the constitutional status of constitutional City Government.

Essential services in urban civic services include roads, water, sewerage, besides the provisions of Town Planning Act - 1976 along with municipal laws for important well-planned urban area and regulation of construction are important for planning development as well as regulation of construction. Hatkeshwar overbridge built in Ahmedabad for some time and quality of road construction, after some time there will be questions about drainage of rain water during monsoon, these things are not limited to Ahmedabad, mostly all cities are facing such questions. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, when he was the President of Ahmedabad Municipality from 1924 to 1928, rendered good services to the city of Ahmedabad during his rule, for all the city citizens and the rulers and officials of the administrative system are exemplary because the British Commissioner during the British rule and By showing political will against the resistance of the elected councillors, from relieving the pressure on the relief road, to the town planning of areas like Alicebridge, relief work during plague, flood, sanitation, water supply, all these things are shown as examples because, almost a hundred years later, in today's rulers or administrators. Such lack of commitment or will is visible and due to this civic services cannot be provided to the urban citizens on an expected basis.

As a remedial measure with the said precedent, a long-term vision plan of cities is necessary. Every city has potential along with its geographical position and on that basis Cities are Center of Opportunities and Engine of Growth, for that a planned master plan is required considering the growing population as a basic principle and especially the areas outside the municipal and metropolitan areas. Unplanned constructions are taking place in areas falling under Urban Development Authority and Transition Area and basic basic services are not available in these areas as expected. As once Bhopal in Ahmedabad, despite being adjacent to Ahmedabad for many years had the status of a village panchayat, similarly if we look at the municipal areas, Godhra, Palanpur, Bharuch, Ankleshwar and its surrounding areas come under the village panchayat as an organizational structure and they have functional urban services. There is no mechanism to provide the way, I know that when we were Collector Rajkot, an 'A' grade municipality like Morbi, for many years construction was done indiscriminately without permission and there was no mechanism to control it.

Now coming to the issue of administrative weaknesses, the most interference in any municipal system is from the politically elected wing and this has resulted in increased administrative dysfunction. Since the officers of the municipal area are irreplaceable and due to the constant geo political situation, the morale of the administrative staff has not been there, when the powers have been given to the elected wing by the 74th constitutional amendment, accountability also has to be determined. Since phased construction started for poor construction of Hatkeshwar Bridge in Ahmedabad starting from Foundation of Pi, in case of poor construction the CT Engineer is not the only one responsible, along with it bring out who's intervention till final billed to accommodate/save this monopolist. should Giving work to inefficient, greedy monopolists affects the quality of work. Poor performing monopolies should be blacklisted immediately. But based on my experience as a municipal commissioner in this matter, municipal works are weakened mostly because of monopolies with political backing. In addition, in the town planning department in the cities, in which the posts of town planners of the urban development department of the state government are vacant in large numbers, besides considering the extent of urbanization, the posts of town planners of different levels have been introduced and the process of finalization of town planning has been introduced by T.P. Systematic strengthening is also required for implementation. If the citizens also work as a pressure group instead of being indifferent to the urban services, the urban services will become strong. Finally, according to the speech given by Sardar Saheb at the time of honoring by Ahmedabad Municipality, "I Could remove the dirt of Ahmedabad City but could not remove dirt of politics" this statement is still presented today.