Media Release
Mangaluru, Jan 21: The 2nd edition of the annual citizen participatory budgeting campaign of the Mangaluru city corporation (MCC) – My City My Budget – was launched today at the Mini Town Hall by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy and Mangaluru Ward Samiti Balaga in the presence of citizens from the different wards of Mangaluru.
Janaagraha has recently completed the 7th edition of My City My Budget campaign for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) collecting over 16,000 inputs from citizens across the 243 ward of BBMP. The My City My Budget campaign in Mangaluru will be conducted till the January 29. During this period a specially designed budget bus will traverse across the 60 wards of Mangaluru collecting inputs from citizens for the upcoming budget of the city corporation for the year 2023-24.
Citizen can also submit inputs online visiting: https://www.mycitymybudget.in/
The standard input form, prepared based on wide consultations with city councillors, MCC officials and ward committee members, is made available to the citizens to provide their priorities for the developments works to be taken up in their respective wards. Citizens have to indicate their top 3 priorities from among a list of 8 categories including Footpaths, Solid Waste Management, Strom Water Drain, Streetlights, Parks, Public Toilet, Roads and Under Ground Drainage. The input categories for this year are selected with special focus on climate action (sustainable development) at ward level. As part of launch ceremony a detailed workshop on participatorybudgeting was conducted by the Janaagraha state team for the citizen volunteers from various wards of the city. A series of workshops and events are planned along with the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), NGOs and ward committees till Jan 29. Associations and active citizens willing to conduct awareness programme in their area may contact Collette Cardoza, City Associate of Janaagraha at 9599462937. Janaagraha will perform a detailed analyses of the input received and prepare a report of the My City My Budget campaign, which will be submitted to the Mangaluru city corporation by February 4, for consideration and making suitable allocations in the upcoming budget.
“My City My Budget has been launched by Mangaluru City Corporation in association with Janaagraha. It will be good for us to know what are our people’s expectations, so that we can have a citizen-centric budget” said Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner, Akshy Sridhar, IAS.
“The My City My Budget campaign enables true decentralization of planning and budget making of infrastructure and services in our cities. The Mangaluru city corporation has taken a pioneering step by forming and running the ward committee as well as empowering the citizens to contribute in the making of the budget of their wards. It is a great opportunity for the citizens to participate in the transformation of their neighbourhoods and wards.”said Santosh Nargund, Karnataka State Lead for Citizen Participation, Janaagraha.
“My City My Budget is the first step towards decentralization. It is a great platform for citizens to share their opinions on how the budget needs to be spent for the city’s development. The budget bus will visit all 60 wards of Mangaluru and collate opinions on what areas the wards need development,” says Kishore Attavar, Convenor, Mangaluru Ward SamithiBalaga and Ward-46 Committee (Cantonment) member.
“The 2nd edition of the My City My Budget campaign was launched successfully in Mangaluru in the presence of huge number of citizens. This is a significant step towards participatory budgeting in Mangaluru and this campaign will pave the way for citizens to be vocal about the developmental and infrastructural works that demand immediate attention from the city corporation.”Manjunatha Hampapura L, Karnataka state programme manager for Citizen Participation, Janaagraha.