To render better services: Training prog for chiefs of civic bodies held

KOLKATA: State Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim on Thursday inaugurated a training programme and workshop on Capacity Building of chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of civic bodies, organised by Institute of Local Government & Urban Studies (ILGUS), in Salt Lake.

"A number of new municipalities have been formed in the recent past and also there have been changes in the municipality act. We are all public representatives- be it councillor or MLA and our primary job is to render the best of services to the common people. So, adequate knowledge of running an urban local body is of utmost importance for chairpersons and vice-chairpersons. We have come out with a document on the functioning of the urban local bodies,"Hakim said.

There was a time when a municipality area did not have such a large number of citizens to cater to, but with urbanisation the services that need to be rendered to the citizens have increased manifold. So many new programmes like Housing for All, Nirmal Bangla, AMRUT(Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation), NULM (National Urban Livelihood Mission) are being executed in urban local bodies.

Hakim said that the activities of ILGUS was stalled for a considerable period of time , however the activities of it will now go on in full swing.

"I am the Mayor of Kolkata, but am not a technical person and majority of the urban local bodies' heads are also not technical persons. So why should we sign to approve building plans or be signatory to trade licenses or cheques. So, we have given the power to executive officers in the municipality to be signatories to these,"

Hakim added.

Hakim said that in recent times, the UD & MA department has brought significant changes in the procedures of functioning of municipalities to ensure transparency.