Ward-level administration in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, as announced by Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development K.T.Rama Rao, will be launched from June 16, the designated date for ‘Municipal Administration Day’ as part of the 10th Telangana formation day celebrations.
Mr.Rama Rao made the announcement while addressing an orientation programme for ward-level officers of GHMC, on Saturday.
Office spaces for all the wards, along with other facilities, have been finalised, he said during his elaborate and persuasive speech. Exhorting the zonal and deputy commissioners to do handholding for ward-level governance for a few months, Mr.Rama Rao assured all support and funding for officers from the government.
He sought to justify the ward-level governance in view of the population explosion in the city. Each ward has a population equal to a municipality outside GHMC, but woefully lacks in administrative system municipalities are endowed with, he said.
Each ward office will have 10 officials to receive and address public grievances, including Assistant Municipal Commissioners designated as Ward Administrative Officers, who will coordinate the team. Other members include ward engineer, ward-level town planner, ward entomologist, ward community organiser, sanitary jawan, ward-level urban biodiversity supervisor, ward assistant deputed from HMWS&SB, ward lineman/line inspector deputed from TSSPDCL and a computer operator.
“Be polite with the citizens, and do not return any grievance on the pretext of the ward’s purview,” Mr.Rama Rao told the officers. It is also the duty of the ward-level officials to work with the community and increase awareness against littering in the city, and water bodies, Mr.Rama Rao said, and called for Hyderabad to be made as clean as Tokyo.
He put forth a proposal to designate every Saturday as ‘Rethink Day’, to implement the ‘Reduce-Reuse-Recycle’ motto. Collection points should be arranged to collect discarded items from the public so that they do not throw them into drains.
Job charts will be prepared for each of the staff, and soon a citizen charter will be introduced with prescribed deadlines for redressal of each grievance, he said. Upcoming Haritha Haram targets. too, will be fixed ward-wise.
The concept of ward offices will be replicated by other States and the Centre, just like other schemes of the Telangana government, Mr. Rama Rao said. “What Telangana does today, India will do tomorrow,” he said.
