Kohima Bureau
Kohima, Mar. 16 (EMN): Nagaland’s new minister for Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Metsubo Jamir on Friday mulled the possibility of replicating a working system that is already in place to the urban areas. That way the urban local bodies (ULBs) can function as intended he said while expressing concern over issues surrounding the state’s municipal institution.
Interacting with journalists after holding his first meeting with staff of the directorate of Municipal Affairs, Jamir stated support for reservation of seats for women in the civic bodies.
Given the success of the concept of village development board (VDB) of having 25% reservation of seats for women, he said if the legalities are agreeable the concept can be replicated in the urban areas as well. He maintained there were VDBs in the villages that were using the protection of Article 371A that are exempt from the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution for the Panchayati Raj Act.
Similarly, he opined that if the 74th amendment can be exempted, the VDB can be duplicated into town areas as ‘urban development boards’ where women would be assured a 25% or a set number of reservation of seats with or without election (by nomination), and contested anywhere openly in the general category among men.
If this can be implemented, the minister pointed out, women even have the likelihood of occupying up to 40-50% of the seats or more.
Jamir also felt that the core issue was land ownership. However, he was hopeful that all parties should come to a meeting point and amicably resolve the issue to avoid conflict. “It is painful to see our people fighting over these issues,” he added.
Also, Jamir underscored the need to revamp the departments in his charge: Urban Development and Municipal Affairs as there was no proper demarcation of the urban and the rural “in our concept.”
“We don’t know where the village land ends and the town land starts. We really need these demarcated for urban development activities because there are overlapping issues,” he said. Due to lack of demarcation and as multiple villages together have stakes in town areas, he said that the question arises as to what exactly the Urban Dev. department should do in places where rural funds are already flowing to.
The minister pointed out that although the Urban Dev. and Municipal Affairs were two separate departments, yet they have a common cadre; the former holds administrative control till now. After officially taking charge of the two departments, he said to have been visiting the directorate of Municipal Affairs to interact with its staff and learn about the possibilities of integrating the activities of the two departments.
Jamir, who had previously served as the director for Rural Development department before joining politics, said he was exploring the possibilities of also replicating how the RD was streamlined by way of amalgamating the State Institute of Rural Development with it. But here, he clarified, the Municipal Affairs department would not be wound up but that he was observing if it might be amalgamated with the Urban Dev. department. Other 'possibilities' include creation of a separate cadre channel for each department.
The additional director of Municipal Affairs Dr. Toshimanen Ozukum disclosed that the Municipal Act 2001 shall be revised saying that the previous cabinet had set up a high-level committee. The draft revised act has already been submitted to the committee, it was informed. He said it was ‘taken care’ that the opinions of the tribal 'hohos' were considered during the drafting phase.
During a meeting earlier, issues raised to the minister by the directorate staff pointed to deficiency in the current system: lack of officers, lack of sanctioned posts (ULB-dedicated cadres); need for urban planners with appropriate background, and the need for a good database.
One of the staff pointed out that the lack of a database was a constant problem in identifying correct beneficiaries of schemes implemented by the department. Citing the Housing for All scheme as an example, the staffer informed that there were 32,000 beneficiaries from across 23 towns but there were some cases where those not eligible had applied and some where both husband and wife were applying.
The department is stated to have geo-tagged 3000 beneficiaries in Kohima, Dimapur and Shamator and the first instalment of Rs.60,000 for each beneficiary released.
A department handout has revealed that it was currently implementing 16 projects under 10% “lumsum,” (sic) Housing for All and Smart City as the nodal department. The handout informed that the department has credited INR. 111 cr. into the account of Smart City ‘which is maintained in a private bank by the company.’ Previously, the Municipal Affairs was a cell of the Urban Dev. but was bifurcated to become a full-fledged department in 2015.
