Media Release
Mangaluru, Nov 10: Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, a Bengaluru-based non-profit NGO, in association with Mangaluru Civic Groups and active citizens is organising its fifth city politics webinar– ‘Decoding Ward Committees’ on November 11 at 11 am.
The last date for citizens of Mangaluru to apply to become ward committee (WC) members is November 17.
The Mangaluru focused event aims at creating awareness on the role a WC member can play in Mangaluru’s development. The webinar that starts at 11, will have 5-minute talk each from Srinivas Alavilli, head, Civic Participation, Janaagraha who will speak on opportunities and challenges, the saga of two decades of Bengaluru’s ward committees’ Kathyayini Chamaraj, executive trustee, CIVIC, Bengaluru will share her lifetime experience as an active ward committee member of Bengaluru and Ajoy D'Silva, co-founder, MCC Civic Group will speak on ‘How, What, Why of MCC’s need for a Ward Committees'.
Narendra Kumar, president, Nagarika Shakti who will speak about 'A crusade to bring Ward Committees in 11 Municipal Corporations of Karnataka’ during this webinar. The second part of the webinar will be a panel discussion, joined by active citizens of Mangaluru.
Senior advocate and special public prosecutor Asha Nayak, G K Bhat, member of Mangaluru City Traffic Advisory Committee, Dr Rita Noronha, director of Centre for Development Studies and Education, Civic and RTI activist Gerald Towers will also be present for the panel discussion moderated by Harsha Raj Gatty, editor, Solmelu.
“We invite citizens of Mangaluru to be part of this webinar and understand the power of ward committees in shaping Mangaluru’s development. We are very pleased that MCC has called for the ward committee applications. This is a result of persistent work from citizen groups and collaboration with officials. We congratulate the MCC Civic Group, CIVIC and Nagarika Shakti for their work in bringing ward committees into focus. Based on my personal experience with ward committees in Bengaluru, I have no doubt in my mind that Mangaluru will benefit tremendously from formal citizen participation through this institutional mechanism called ward committees that literally brings democracy to the doorstep.
I am very happy to see the mechanism laid out for citizens to become part of these committees – it is way better than Bengaluru! We at Janaagraha always believe in citizen participation in
local governance and we request all the responsible, active citizens of Mangaluru to come forward to join the ward committees. With 60 ward committees, 600 citizens will now be part of Mangaluru city governance and that is a huge win for the city!” said Srinivas Alavilli, head of Citizen Participation at Janaagraha.
Event Details:
November 11 at 11.00 am
For more updates on event: https://www.facebook.com/janaagraha
Zoom link – https://zoom.us/j/98425553368
About Janaagraha:
Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy is a non-profit trust in the Jana group co-founded by Swati Ramanathan and Ramesh Ramanathan in 2001. Janaagraha’s mission is to transform the quality of life in India’s cities and towns. It works with citizens to catalyse active citizenship in city neighbourhoods and with governments to institute reforms to city governance (what we call 'City-Systems').
The 'City-Systems' framework is a whole-of-systems approach to solving for India’s cities and comprises four distinct yet interdependent components: Urban Planning and Design (master plans, design standards for public utilities), Urban Capacities and Resources (municipal finance, municipal staffing and technology), Political Leadership (empowerment, legitimacy) and transparency and Citizen Participation (public disclosures, citizen participation, service level guarantees and grievance redressal).
City politics is the organisation's attempt at building a thriving community of people interested in city policies, politics, and concerns and challenges across neighbourhoods and cities.