Kochi, Nov 22: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu today stressed for reworking of outdated laws and
regulations which seek to centralise powers and functions, rather than
decentralise them.
Addressing the gathering at the Golden Jubilee celebrations
of Kochi Municipal Corporation here, he said ‘’the top-down approach must be
replaced by bottom-up approach for finding effective governance at the local
level.' Stating that laws will have to be amended if they come in the
way of effective functioning of municipal bodies and lead to delays in
execution of projects, the Vice President said that ‘’if necessary, the
Municipal Corporations must be given more legislative powers and the mayors
empowered with greater administrative functions to enable effective
governance.’’
The tax-paying public rightly wanted corruption-free, accountable, transparent and effective governance, he reminded. While availability of funds might not pose a problem under various programmes, including the ‘Smart Cities’ initiative, launched by the Union Government, the timely execution of the projects must be accorded highest priority, he added. Pointing out that Mayors and Corporators were elected by the people and they would be directly answerable to the voters, Mr Naidu said ‘’greater accountability has to be infused in the functioning of the corporations and elected representatives. However, they also need to be empowered with three Fs—Funds, Functions and Functionaries. In case, each local body is governed by a different act, the situation must be remedied by clubbing varied acts and bringing out a single, umbrella act for ensuring uniformity in functioning and governance.’’ UNI
The tax-paying public rightly wanted corruption-free, accountable, transparent and effective governance, he reminded. While availability of funds might not pose a problem under various programmes, including the ‘Smart Cities’ initiative, launched by the Union Government, the timely execution of the projects must be accorded highest priority, he added. Pointing out that Mayors and Corporators were elected by the people and they would be directly answerable to the voters, Mr Naidu said ‘’greater accountability has to be infused in the functioning of the corporations and elected representatives. However, they also need to be empowered with three Fs—Funds, Functions and Functionaries. In case, each local body is governed by a different act, the situation must be remedied by clubbing varied acts and bringing out a single, umbrella act for ensuring uniformity in functioning and governance.’’ UNI
Post A Comment:
0 comments so far,add yours