Their concerns are urgent and relevant in view of the surge in urban chaos in major towns and cities in Uttarakhand. There is gigantic 7000 percent surge in registered vehicles in Uttarakhand for the past 21 years and every year it adds around 42000 vehicles. There are over 29.68 lakh registered vehicles as on March 31, 2020, says UK's state statistical diary.
Setting the citizen-centric agenda for the parties, Janaagraha's Civic Participation Head, Srinivas Alavilli says that the cities of Uttarakhand are growing rapidly. But quality of life for citizens is poor as it depends on quality of urban governance laws and policies that the parties in governance implement in towns and cities, which so far are missing, he adds.
What has prompted the concern of the citizens is that Uttarakhand is 30.2% urban based on 2011 census, but it has an average annual urban growth rate of 4.0% which is much higher compared to the rural growth rate of 1.2%. As per projections, the state would be 46% urban by 2050.
The cities of Uttarakhand are haphazardly planned, and governed so far. Dehradun, Haridwar, Roorkee, Haldwani, Kashipur, Rudrapur, Rishikesh, Kotdwar have witnessed rapid growth beyond their capacities. Further, being a hilly State, the cities of Uttarakhand face unique challenges, particularly on the environmental front, they say.
However, urban governance reforms are yet to be a mainstream political agenda in the state. Transformative urban governance is key to enabling the cities of Uttarakhand in delivering good quality of life to its citizens, they add.
“We urge all the political parties to empower city governments by devolving funds and function, empower citizens by forming ward committees and giving them a say in making city budgets at ward level, Alavilli adds.
He says that they hope to make urban governance reforms a hot topic during the upcoming election cycle in association with SDC Foundation.
Based on Janaagraha’s extensive work on urban governance, citizen participation, municipal finance, participatory budgets across many states, we believe Uttarakhand must focus on city governance for improving quality of life for all citizens, he says citing the success story for the parties.
According to Alavilli, these recommendations have been prepared after a comprehensive study of various cities, their laws and the city systems required to meet the challenges of today's era.
He says that if political parties include these issues in their manifesto and try to implement them sincerely after winning elections, it will prove to be a "revolutionary" step towards improvement of present living conditions for citizens in urban areas of the state.
SDC Foundation President Anoop Nautiyal says Foundation has prepared five factsheets on sustainable urbanization in recent times in Uttarakhand. These factsheets are based on issues such as Garbage Free City, Safai Mitra Suraksha Challenge, Ease of Living, City Climate, Public Transport, Parking, Traffic and Urban Laws, he adds.
He says that now a letter covering all these issues has been submitted to all the political parties specially requesting them that they should include these issues in their respective manifestoes to make a connect with the electorate and the issues that matter and make difference for them.
According to Anoop Nautiyal, the way Uttarakhand is being urbanized, public facilities are not being available accordingly and there is a virtual urban mess. The suggestions prepared jointly by Janaagraha and SDC Foundation have not only raised urban problems, but also suggested solutions to those problems, he adds.
He further says that their organization in collaboration with Janaagraha is willing to provide further data and analysis if needed by the parties.
In addition to this, Anoop Nautiyal says that the recommendations are mainly related to urban governance transparency, training of councillors, officers and employees along with raising additional resources of income in the state. The recommendation also relates to issues like basic amenities in urban areas, sanitation, poverty alleviation, climate change, he adds.
They say that Janaagraha, a Bengaluru based NGO with an experience of two decades in urban policy and governance, and Dehradun based SDC Foundation will collaborate on transformative urban governance in Uttarakhand.
Janaagraha and SDC Foundation will work together to resurface urban governance as an election agenda, submit recommendations to all political parties for inclusion in their manifestos and will be committed to offering support to the newly formed Government in Uttarakhand in making transformative urban governance a reality, he adds.
The key proposals of Janaagraha and SDC Foundation are to empower the city governments of Uttarakhand and create vibrant and participatory cities. The two organizations would extend support for the enactment of new municipal legislations that take into account contemporary realities and needs of Uttarakhand’s cities, replacing the legacy municipal legislations of the erstwhile united Uttar Pradesh.
They would like to help with empowering city governments with powers over funds, functions and functionaries ensuring a strong political leadership and accountability in Uttarakhand’s cities, they say. Janaagraha and SDC would like to support the establishment of a state level training institute Uttarakhand Municipal Training Institute/ Uttarakhand Institute of Local Administration to build capacities for municipal governance.
Janaagraha has extensive experience to help with making a model for democratically vibrant cities particularly among hill states, by implementing participatory budgeting in all cities, and adopting ‘Open Cities’ framework, to foster citizen-centric transparency in governance.
It would also pitch to constitute ward committees and area sabhas in each ward to ensure voices of women and children, urban poor and other marginalized groups are factored into city governance.
Finally, the two organizations would extend support with strengthening climate governance in cities, and building climate action plans at ward and city level to equip cities to adapt and mitigate the challenges of climate change.
(Kuldeep Chauhan is Editor, HimbuMail)
