Hyderabad: Poll-wary city RWAs raise pitch for local manifesto to spur devpt

• Inspired by Bhagidari system that is being practiced in Delhi, many constructions, development, and repair works have taken place
• To improve quality of lives, participation of urban residents in local governance is important
• For civic development, RWA should be aware of all development works that are taking place in their particular areas

Hyderabad: Inspired by the Bhagidari system that is being successfully implemented in Delhi, Residential Welfare Associations (RWAs) from Uppal, Malkajgiri, Secunderabad and Kukatpally localities are demanding that all party candidates to announce a local manifesto for civic infrastructure.

According to RWAs, with the polling date drawing near, the members of RWAs are meeting the sitting MLAs and also other party aspirants of their constituencies and putting forth their charter of demands (self-manifesto) like daily drinking water, underground sewerage system, widening of roads in colonies, dysfunctional street lights, erratic power cuts and urged the candidates to resolve them. Our main aim is to motivate urban dwellers to exercise their franchise and we have also prepared a civic manifesto and submitted it to the political parties. We urban residents do not want freebies, we want to participate in the local governance and also include our concerns in their manifestoes.

“Inspired by the Bhagidari system that is being practiced in New Delhi, many construction, development, and repair works have taken place, if a similar method is implemented here, there will be more quality, less delays, and lower costs. At least, there should be RWA endorsement of the finished works of the contractors, or social audit by them. In meeting with the aspirants of our constituency, we have urge them to include RWA’s involvement in their manifesto,” said Khaled Shah, general secretary of RWA in Uppal Assembly constituency,

“To improve the quality of our lives, the participation of urban residents in the local governance is important. In fact, even in previous civic body polls, they had represented the same charter of demands to the parties, but nothing has happened, this time our main motto is that we would extend support to candidates who give a genuine assurance to resolve our long-standing pending demands.

We want an opportunity to participate in local governance, as earlier there were ward committees where 20 per cent of RWAs participation was there, but now it has disappeared. If such a ward committee is formed then we can participate and involve ourselves in the quality of work done in the areas,” said BT Srinivasam, general secretary, Federation of Malkajgiri RWAs.

“For civic development, RWA should be aware of all the development work that is taking place in their particular areas. A similar concept has been followed in New Delhi for the past several years and, due to civic participation, development works are taking place rapidly without any interruption. Inspired by that method, we are demanding our candidates to include it in their manifesto and we will see that once they come to power, this should be implemented,” said V Rao, general secretary of RWA in the Kukatpally Assembly constituency and also the same was quoted by R Sunil, a member of RWA in Secunderabad.