No ward committees in Telangana municipalities despite 2019 Act: FGG to state

HYDERABAD: To encourage citizen participation in governance and make administration in urban local bodies (ULBs) more transparent, the Forum for Good Governance (FGG) has requested the State government to constitute Ward Committees in all municipalities.

According to the Section 17 of the Telangana Municipalities Act 2019, Ward Committees should be constituted in municipalities for every ward, separately representing youth, women, senior citizens, and other eminent people from the ward. Each of the committees may consist of 15 members.

The Act came into force from July 21, 2019 but the Ward Committees were still not constituted in the State. FGG Secretary, M. Padmanabha Reddy, in a letter addressed to the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Principal Secretary, Arvind Kumar, requested the government to constitute Ward Committees in all the municipalities in the State as per the Telangana Municipalities Act 2019. For the effective functioning of municipalities, constitution of Ward Committees is a must, he said. 

Padmanabha stated that the Telangana Municipalities Act 2019 was brought in to make the administration in the ULBs more transparent and accountable. Ward Committees act like a bridge between the people and the municipality. They identify the problems like bad roads, bad drainage, shortage of drinking water and inform the concerned authorities.