Mangaluru: This is to inform you that the Urban Development Department (UDD) has ordered notification of Area Sabhas in Mangaluru. As mentioned in the order hereby enclosed, this was in compliance of the order of Hon’ble High Court, in our PIL WP 53244/2018, where few undersigned were petitioners.
The order of Hon’ble High Court, in the order dated 8th August 2019 clearly mentioned “Notification of Area-Sabhas in Mangaluru, before Ward-Elections and formation of Ward-Committees, soon after constitution of corporation after election”.
As Notification of Area-Sabhas was not done in Mangaluru, before Municipal Corporation Elections, one of the Undersigned Mr Narendra Kumar, a Criminal Contempt Petition in the High Court, on 6th December, 2018, which is yet to be heard.
While we are happy that Karnataka got its First Area-Sabha Notified in Mangaluru, after a long struggle of over 9 years, we were unhappy with the way it was notified. The importance of Area-Sabha lies in the fact that all Ward level Developmental Plans should originate through Area-Sabha meetings.
The KMC Act, Amendment, 2011, specifies under Section 13F, clearly specifies 3 important points.
i. All Voters are by default members of the Area Sabha.
ii. Area-Sabha should conduct its meetings atleast every 3 months.
iii. All decisions of Area-Sabha, to be taken by Majority of members present.
As per the Notification that came on 11th December 2019, (few days after Contempt Petition was filed), they divided each ward into 2 Area-Sabhas, with average of 5000 Voters as members of each Area-Sabha!
Even though the order of Hon’ble High Court was complied with, it was done in an impractical manner, as gathering 5000 Voters, interacting with them and getting Majority to take decisions is almost impossible.
We did raise this point with Mr Anjum Parvez, the UDD Secretary Incharge of 10 Municipal Corporations, saying that a maximum of 1500 members per Area-Sabha will be practical, to assemble at one place in every ward and take majority decisions. As our petition is yet to be heard, we shall put the same point to the Court, asking for practical implementation of court orders in both letter and spirit.
We are however, happy that a beginning has been made and we can seek court intervention in getting both Area-Sabhas and Ward-Committees in all 11 Corporations of Karnataka that have population of over 3 Lakhs (Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Tumakuru, Shivamogga, Davanagere, Ballari, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgavi, Vijayapura and Kalaburagi).
Our next goal is to get the Hon’ble High Court, order formation of AS & WCs in all 11 Corporations.
