Mohalla sabhas to give CM Kejriwal budget inputs
4 April 2015 11:39 PM GMT
In its flagship political experiment to involve voters directly in drafting the budget for Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has divided each of the 12 selected Assembly seats into 40 mohalla sabhas, housing around 6,000 voters each.
The voters will be served with slips – which they will have to produce, along with their voter identity cards –to participate in the mohalla sabha meetings.
The first mohalla sabha meeting will be held on April 12 in Chandra Vihar, Patpargunj – constituency of Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
“We will advertise the budget meetings of mohalla sabhas through pamphlets, hoardings and public announcements (munadi) in the areas concerned. On the pattern of ‘voter slips’ served by the Election Commission, each voter of the mohalla sabha will be served with slips at his residence, on which the time and venue of the meeting will be printed,” said Ratnesh Gupta, in-charge of Patparganj constituency.
According to sources, the government will allocate Rs 50 lakh for each mohalla sabha in the budget, which would translate into Rs 20 crore for each of the 70 Assembly constituencies and Rs 1,400 crore for the entire project in 2015-16 fiscal. The government has selected 12 Assembly segments – New Delhi, Patparganj, Okhla, Bawana, Shahdara, Kirari, Karawal Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Shalimar Bagh, Dwarka, Sadar Bazar and Chattarpur – for the mohalla sabha meetings, where inputs will be sought from voters on the budget.
“The voters will be encouraged to come up with their problems and suggestions (on paper). There will be 10 government computer operators at the entry gate for data entry. On contentious issues, there will be a provision for secret voting through slips,” added Gupta.
All government officers of the area concerned will also be summoned to participate in the mohalla sabha meeting and shortlist issues, which would be sent to their departments for incorporation in the their departmental budgets.
“The local issues, which could be solved with mohalla sabha budget and MLA Local Area Development (LAD) fund will be kept at the local-level for redressal,” he added. In the new format, Rs 4-crore for MLA-LAD will be continued along with Rs 20 crore per constituency for mohalla sabha.
The first few rows in the mohalla sabha meeting will be for government officers, followed by voters of the area. “We will arrange 200-250 chairs in each mohalla sabha meeting and mats to seat the remaining voters,” Gupta said.
According to sources, the experiences of these budget meetings will be used to strengthen the concept of mohalla sabhas to give them a legal status, for which a Bill may be passed in the budget session of the Delhi Assembly scheduled in the first week of June.
The voters will be served with slips – which they will have to produce, along with their voter identity cards –to participate in the mohalla sabha meetings.
The first mohalla sabha meeting will be held on April 12 in Chandra Vihar, Patpargunj – constituency of Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
“We will advertise the budget meetings of mohalla sabhas through pamphlets, hoardings and public announcements (munadi) in the areas concerned. On the pattern of ‘voter slips’ served by the Election Commission, each voter of the mohalla sabha will be served with slips at his residence, on which the time and venue of the meeting will be printed,” said Ratnesh Gupta, in-charge of Patparganj constituency.
According to sources, the government will allocate Rs 50 lakh for each mohalla sabha in the budget, which would translate into Rs 20 crore for each of the 70 Assembly constituencies and Rs 1,400 crore for the entire project in 2015-16 fiscal. The government has selected 12 Assembly segments – New Delhi, Patparganj, Okhla, Bawana, Shahdara, Kirari, Karawal Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Shalimar Bagh, Dwarka, Sadar Bazar and Chattarpur – for the mohalla sabha meetings, where inputs will be sought from voters on the budget.
“The voters will be encouraged to come up with their problems and suggestions (on paper). There will be 10 government computer operators at the entry gate for data entry. On contentious issues, there will be a provision for secret voting through slips,” added Gupta.
All government officers of the area concerned will also be summoned to participate in the mohalla sabha meeting and shortlist issues, which would be sent to their departments for incorporation in the their departmental budgets.
“The local issues, which could be solved with mohalla sabha budget and MLA Local Area Development (LAD) fund will be kept at the local-level for redressal,” he added. In the new format, Rs 4-crore for MLA-LAD will be continued along with Rs 20 crore per constituency for mohalla sabha.
The first few rows in the mohalla sabha meeting will be for government officers, followed by voters of the area. “We will arrange 200-250 chairs in each mohalla sabha meeting and mats to seat the remaining voters,” Gupta said.
According to sources, the experiences of these budget meetings will be used to strengthen the concept of mohalla sabhas to give them a legal status, for which a Bill may be passed in the budget session of the Delhi Assembly scheduled in the first week of June.
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