RWAs moot coordination body

To improve civic governance and increase citizen oversight on performance of the municipality, social group People's Action wants a Residents' Ward Committee (RWC) for Gurgaon on the lines of Delhi.

To improve civic governance and increase citizen oversight on performance of the municipality, social group People's Action wants a Residents' Ward Committee (RWC) for Gurgaon on the lines of Delhi.

HT Image

It will try to form a working relationship between councillors and citizens.

"The Delhi model will be replicated in Gurgaon and it will be easier as the numbers of wards here are much less compared to 272 in the Capital," said People's Action founder Sanjay Kaul.

“It is an integrated model of planning with a representative of each RWA in the ward of the RWC. It is a democratic way of working with councillors, as the chairperson of its respective ward committee and one convener chosen with majority of votes within the committee,” added Kaul.

Those who attended the dialogue include Joint Action Forum of Resident Associations (Jafra), DLF City RWA, Mayfield Garden RWA and Kishore Asthana rom Sushant Lok, among others. Jafra chairperson Col. (Retd.) Ratan Singh lamented that the MCG lacked sufficient staff and of those employed, many were deputed from other departments.

“The MCG needs to be made stronger with better infrastructure, otherwise development work will be affected as its staff keeps shifting from one department to another," said Singh.

The RWC will meet once a month and the minutes of the meeting will be sent to the mayor.

This will ensure transparency, accountability and responsibility as councillors will be answerable to members about issues taken up by them.

It is like a unified command centre that will work to make the local government more efficient.

“This is all about capacity building, where the benefit is mutual for residents as well as the government. This is the age of aggregation where the more you consolidate the more you aggregate, and the chances of your being heard increase simultaneously,” said Shashi Sharma of People's Action.

“Here, people will rise above individual interests and work at the ward level,” added Sharma.

Atul Goyal who is handling the Delhi chapter, said it will help fill the gap between planning and execution and restore transparency in various departments.

Kaul said they will strategise to break the resistance expected from the councillors in making this model a reality. It took over three years to develop in Delhi.

To ensure transparency, all notifications, letters and other documents will be posted on the RWC website.