BIHAR, INSTITUTIONS ARE BEING RE-ESTABLISHEDAct soon to bring transparency in Bihar ULBs
Urban Local Bodies in Bihar will soon have a transparent umbrella through which their assets, liabilities and obligation can be viewed by common men
Published on 8/19/2008 4:53:22 PM
By Sarita Yadav
Patna: All the 122 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in Bihar will soon have a transparent umbrella through which their assets, liabilities and obligation could be vividly viewed by common men.
The first state in the country to enact the Model Municipal Act ensuring all-round development of municipal areas, Bihar has moved further towards people's empowerment by introducing Bihar Urban Local Bodies Disclosure Bill, 2008.
The Bill already passed by the state Legislature during the monsoon session is awaiting Governor's nod to become an Act.
"As a matter of fact, section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005 has made it obligatory on part of all the Public Authorities, to publish within 120 days from the date enactment of the RTI Act, all relevant details, assets, liabilities, obligations, duties and functions," an official said.
This Bill was in pursuance to this provision, he added.
The Act aims to bring about a transparency in the working of these ULBs. Even after passage of Bihar Municipal Act 2007, the local bodies failed to deliver the goods to the common men.
The state has yet to prepare a statement of its urban policy or strategy. Without such a unified policy document, urban sector works have been fragmentary and have been undertaken by different agencies without close alignment of resources, resulting in grossly inadequate and inefficient urban development.
Despite the breakthrough Bihar Municipal Act introduced by the state in 2007, fully empowering the ULBs to provide all urban services and recover costs, non-municipal agencies like Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) and Bihar Rajya Jal Parshad (BRJP) retain control of typical municipal functions such as the creation of water supply and sewerage systems.
Besides, the ULBs have very low technical, financial and institutional and management capacity and need extensive strengthening, along with immediate financial reforms, to fulfil their mandate under the Municipal Act.
According to the 2001 census, Bihar had an urban population of only 86.8 lakh, or 10.46 per cent of the total population, versus the national average of 28 per cent.
About 60 per cent of this urban population is in the southern part of the state, with a significant concentration in Patna, and more than 50 per cent is in class I towns (towns with a population of more than one lakh; Bihar had 19 of these in the 2001 census), thus putting concentrated pressure on those towns.
