Mumbai: The Bombay high court directed chief minister (CM) Devendra Fadnavis to look into the need for changing existing laws related to setting up of ward committees as stipulated in the 74th amendment to the Constitution.
While accepting the arguments of the petitioner that formation of ward committees should be based on electoral wards and not municipal wards, the court directed the chief secretary, urban development (BMC), to get amended relevant sections of the Maharashtra Municipal Councils Act that deal with the constitution of ward committees. The court asked Mr Fadnavis to look into it, too.
A division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Anuja Prabhudessai was hearing the writ petition filed by NGO Loksatta Movement stating that the NGO had learned that ward committees were not being constituted diligently by the government.
Senior advocate Dr Sujay Kantawala, appearing for the petitioner, informed the court that only 17 of the 24 municipal wards had these committees but that they were ineffective as they were expected to serve an approximate population of 12 to 13 lakh per ward. He suggested that, forming electoral ward-wise committees would be more effective by allowing the public to participate in urban governance as electoral wards had around 3 to 3.5 lakh people.
The bench found the suggestion to be valid and asked the state whether the same could be done. However, when the counsel for the state said that the relevant laws lack provision for the same, the bench directed to amend the laws and that the highest authority of the state for urban development (CM) take note of it and ensure that the amendments were effected at the earliest.
