Do you think that there is a need to rebuild urban governance structure ensuring convergence and fixing accountability at the base level? Comment (200 Words)
Refer - The Indian Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
Nitish Rathore 5 years
Please review.
IAS Parliament 5 years
Good attempt. Keep Writing.
IAS Parliament 5 years
KEY POINTS
· A comparative analysis of the emerging coronavirus cases across India clearly shows that rural areas have fared extremely well in comparison to urban areas in enforcing the various Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines related to the lockdowns and, consequently, in containing the overall spread of COVID-19.
· There is a stark contrast between the socio-economic and demographic landscape of the rural and urban areas. A robust urban governance model needs to recognise these differences and accordingly adapt itself to better serve the urban citizen.
· There is an urgent need to re-empower the institution of the district magistrate in urban towns, where districts are not well-recognised by the public and the district administration machinery is not even used by many government departments. District planning committee has to be formed formed across states to strengthen the governance.
· Most of the functions that the gram panchayats and other departments perform in rural areas are usually monitored and supervised by district collectors this is not the case with the municipalities in urban areas.
· To achieve convergence, we need to have a clear command and control structure at the field level. We need to eliminate the multiplicity of authorities and institutions in the urban areas with one function being managed by one institution only and which is publicly accountable.
· A beginning in this direction could be made by designating the district magistrate as the ex-officio municipal commissioner, and also ensuring that the line department functionaries report to the District Magistrate in the field.
· This will ensure accountability of performance, and will also ensure easy grievance redressal which is currently a nightmare for the urban citizen because one usually doesn’t know the correct grievance redressal authority for specific complaints.
· A reformed urban governance machinery needs to invest in building a credible database of the urban poor and migrants, along with mapping their skills that is maintained centrally at the office of the re-empowered district magistrate.
· The urban poor may be granted new types of identification documents which can be held by the people in addition to those pertaining directly to their native place: The national migrant database, announced in May by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is a step in this direction. This database will help in implementing MGNREGA like schemes for the urban poor also, which will provide adequate employment opportunities for the skilled and unskilled workers.
· A reformed urban district administration shall have to increasingly use technologies such as mobile-governance, geo-spatial platforms for zonal regulations and property tax, tele-education, and block chain-based networks for record keeping and verification.
Karan Chaudhary 5 years
I think i have not written the question acc. to question's demand.Plz review critically.
IAS Parliament 5 years
No need to define about urban local governance.Avoid writing general statements. Try to write the answer specifically, role of district collector, metropolitan planning committee etc. Keep Writing.
Sanjeev Kumar Singh 5 years
Kindly give feedback
IAS Parliament 5 years
Try to focus on the alignment and keep it in straight line and include about the role of District planning committee. Keep Writing.
Surya 5 years
Please review
IAS Parliament 5 years
Good attempt.Try to include about the role of District planning committee. Keep Writing.
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