Mayors meet on May 29 to demand more rights

KANPUR: With an aim of adding more teeth to local self governments, mayors from 12 corporations in the state will gather in the city on May 29. They will be pressing for sweeping changes in the functioning of municipal bodies and revision of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act during the one-day meet.
Talking to TOI, Mayor, Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) Ravindra Patni said, "We will debate and put up a proposal to assign more power and privileges to local self governments, particularly mayors, in leading urban centres of the state.''
We will seek revision in 74th Constitutional Amendment Act and its implementation on the lines of southern states which provide a city-government concept where mayor gets the right to transfer of the officers.The Act further says that the right to formation of municipal cadre and transfers of municipal bodies remains limited to it, Patni added.
He also said, "The other major point that will be raised during the meet is that the post of commissioners in municipal bodies should be filled in by an IAS cadre officer instead of the incumbent PCS officers."
Mayors from Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Agra, Jhansi, Meerut, Moradabad, Ghaziabad will converge here in the city and Kanpur will play host to them.
Patni blamed state government for overlooking urban municipal bodies because of vested interests. He said, "All the municipal corporations are being neglected because BSP does not hold the post of mayor in any city in the state.
Several local development issues and carrying out JNNURM's plans will also figure on the agenda. A plan has been mooted to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue as well. Another ambitious plan of strengthening urban bodies by bringing all the corporators from all the 12 corporations together in Lucknow is also in the offing.