HYDERABAD: Residential Welfare Associations (RWAs) in Greater Hyderabad have launched a signature campaign demanding that ward committees be constituted immediately to implement good governance in GHMC.
President of United Federation of RWAs VBJ Chelikani Rao said though the GHMC had completed 15 months in office after the elections in December 2020, no ward committee has been constituted yet. UFERWAS is an apex body of RWAs in the city.
He said as per article 243(S) of the Constitution, ward committees will have to be formed in each urban local body and the civic body has to nominate a representative from an RWA, but unfortunately this is not happening in Telangana. “To fulfil this demand, we took up the signature campaign and are planning to solicit signatures of 100 RWAs in the city,” he told TOI.
He said the RWAs can play an advisory role to decentralise many governmental activities so as to avoid wastage and bring more efficiency in waste management, fighting water, soil and air pollution and in protecting infrastructure.
Rao said they are also considering the advice of retired professionals and former bureaucrats, who are working as presidents and secretaries of RWAs concerned in the city, in constituting the ward committees. “If the state considers citizens’ participation in the ward committees and makes them full-fledged members of the RWAs, then we will make efforts to make Hyderabad implement the government’s initiatives such as Swachh Survekshan,” said RWA member KR Kishore.
A senior GHMC official, however, said unless the state steps in, they cannot constitute ward committees. “After completion of the campaign, a delegation led by UFERWAS will meet minister KT Rama Rao next month and urge him to take a decision on the ward committees,” Rao added.
