Warangal: Study reveals chinks in GWMC administration

Warangal: The Praja Foundation released its Urban Governance Report on Telangana in Warangal on Thursday. The report captures Urban Governance structure in Telangana and the implementation status of 74th Constitution Amendment Act, 1993 in Telangana.

The consultation following the report launch was attended by a total of 28 key stakeholders including former Mayor, Corporators and representatives from Civil Society Organisation and Academia.

While introducing the Urban Governance Report, Milind Mhaske, Director, Praja Foundation said, "Praja has undertaken a nation-wide study on mapping the implementation of 74th CAA.

Till date, we have covered 22 States, one union territory and 33 major cities wherein in-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders including elected representatives, government officials, civil society experts."

Praja's Urban Governance Study has found that Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) independently controls only four functions out of the 18 functions mandated under the 74th Constitution Amendment Act, 1993.

This results in multiple agencies involved in delivering same function, commenting on this former Mayor T Rajeshwar Rao pointed out, "GWMC is a part of HRIDAY, AMRUT and Smart City Missions. But due to lack of coordination between the agencies responsible for the schemes, there is duplicity of work in sanitation across schemes and no work where it is necessary."

Corporators voiced out that there are number of bottlenecks in the working of the corporation. A lot of coordination and discipline is required. The relation between elected representatives and administration is crucial. If they go together, problems can be solved. The GWMC corporators discussed their need to be empowered with financial and decision-making powers within the Standing Committees of Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation for better service delivery & accountability.

The GWMC corporators also indicated the need for their participation and involvement in decision making of the parastatal agencies and administration. In addition to that, they also expressed that the Smart City SPV board should have corporators as members in it and other State agencies such as Kakatiya Urban Development Authority (KUDA), Hyderabad Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB).

Corporators raised the point that there is lack of awareness on roles and functions of a corporator and other relevant provisions of the corporation act. Therefore, it was proposed that capacity building programmes for Corporator should be mandatory and should take place regularly.

Lok Satta Udyama Samstha State advisor Parcha Kodandarama Rao, INTACH Warangal chapter convenor M Panduranga Rao, Corporators Abubaker, Boda Dinna, Yambadi Ravinder, Aashritha Reddyand K Madhavi were among others present.