Municipal Administration Minister K.T. Rama Rao has stressed the need for planned development of the municipal areas across the State and asserted that the urban local bodies, including the municipalities, should explore ways to augment resources.
The ULBs should mandatorily conduct resources, power, water and sanitisation audit as part of the exercise so that they could improve their performance in line with the instructions being issued by the government.
The Municipal Administration Minister, accompanied by Finance Minister T. Harish Rao conducted a day-long review meeting on the performance of the municipal bodies in the erstwhile Medak district on Friday.
The Minister said the government would take steps to fill vacancies in the ULBs soon as the State Cabinet had given its consent for commencing the exercise.
The Siddipet municipality had turned out to be a model in implementing reforms for improving its performance and augmenting resources and other ULBs should replicate the Siddipet model in implementing the development programmes.
Since there are no elections in the coming three-and-a-half years, the officials concerned should focus on planned development of the ULBs in the coming days, he said.
42-point charter
The government, at the instance of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, prepared a 42-point charter development plan for the municipalities comprising steps that should be taken to become model municipalities. The plan would be circulated among the municipal commissioners and chairpersons soon so that they could check about the issues in which they are complying with the set norms and the areas that needed attention for planning the future course of action for prioritising the works.
The 42-point charter comprises issues like whether the particular ULB had a dumping yard, systems for online permissions to buildings, supply of drinking water to households among other things.
Officials concerned should ensure that the Chief Minister’s instructions on “plan your village, plan your town and plan your State” are carried out in the developmental plans. Since the government was promptly releasing funds under the Pattana Pragati, the departments concerned should work with commitment in ensuring the development of their respective areas. The officials concerned should have thorough knowledge about the revenue and expenditure of the municipalities as part of the resources audit so that focus could be on augmenting the resources exploring new sources. It is mandatory to segregate dry and wet wastes as part of the sanitation audit while steps should be taken to ensure payment of salaries to sanitation staff in the first week of every month. Steps should be taken to ensure that there are toilets for every 1,000 population in all the municipalities by August 15, and 50% of them should be She toilets. The government on its part would deploy 400 old buses that could be used as She toilets in different areas.
