Mayors across the country want a special municipal cadre in the Indian Administrative Services and also the implementation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Bill to strengthen local self-government in their states.
The All India Mayors Council has unanimously demanded the implementation of the Amendment Bill, but also alleged that some states were not adopting it because they had an apprehension that the Bill would give more rights to mayors.
“The 74th Amendment apart from empowering mayors will also increase their duties towards the public”, said Naveen Jain, president of the Council.
Jain said it was also decided to request the Central government to enact an All India Municipal Act and create “Municipal cadre” in the Indian Administrative Services.
“The IAS officers selected for municipal cadre will be required to work in municipal corporations in their whole service period whereas at present an IAS officer transferred in a municipal corporation just passes his time there. While being in the municipal cadre, he will have to work in a municipal corporation and will be transferred to another municipal corporation. In this way, they will pay more attention to the development of the cities,” Jain further said.
He said he and other mayors will soon meet the Prime Minister and the chief ministers and present the proposal.
He said that issues of water conservation and increasing green cover of the city were also a matter of concern.
“If Indore can achieve the status of the cleanest city of the country, then why not others”?, he asked and added that, “A fine city must be a city of fines.”
Explaining this maxim, Jain said to keep the city fine it must be ready for fines for any illegal civic affair. Slapping fines will force the citizens to follow municipal laws and keep the city neat and clean. He said mayors should think of providing facilities to citizens because it is presumed that by 2035 more than 50 per cent of India’s population will live in cities. (IANS)
