The Hindu : New Delhi News : No money given to RWAs, asserts Sheila

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Saturday, Mar 19, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

No money given to RWAs, asserts Sheila

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 18. The Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today assured the State Assembly that not a single rupee had been given by her government to any of the residents' welfare associations or market associations participating in the "Bhagidari" scheme.

Replying to MLAs' questions on the scheme, Ms. Dikshit said the criteria for the participating associations were very clear. They need to be a registered association; in case of group housing societies they should have been duly constituted under the Act; they should have been holding elections regularly and their annual accounts should have been audited.

Further, she said, parallel RWAs were not included in the scheme and the Deputy Commissioners or the ADMs were checking their accounts to establish their authenticity.

On being questioned by Congress MLA Meera Bharadwaj if the legislators were being taken into confidence about the working of the associations under the scheme, Ms. Dikshit said a list of members representing various associations in the committees would be sent to the respective area MLAs and it would be ensured that they work with the Corporators and MLAs of any given area.

Noting that Bhagidari was a planned scheme that was duly recognised by the Government of India, Ms. Dikshit lamented that some members of the Opposition were trying to politicise it.

The Chief Minister said while so far 1,700 RWAs had attended workshops for mobilisation and training as a workshop can accommodate only about 100 of them, they were performing various important functions on a voluntary basis and were not being paid anything for it.

Noting that even in the administrative reforms at the Centre, Bhagidari was being discussed and other States too were studying this successful model, she said only planned expenditure was going into the activities being performed with their assistance and no money was being paid to them.

Efforts were being to make the model more effective, she said, adding that in 2004-05 under the Citizen-Government Bhagidari scheme a sum of Rs 32.95 lakhs has been utilised by the General Administration Department and Rs 42.38 lakhs by the Divisional Commissioner's office.

Alongside the workshops, she said, the citizens' groups had joined hands with the Government departments in carrying out rainwater harvesting, segregation of waste, upkeep of parks, verification of tenants and servants, and payment of electricity and water bills. Also, she said, in 650 government schools, School Welfare Committees had been constituted to improve the standard of education and to improve the facilities.

These organisations were also playing a key role in empowerment of women under the Stree Shakti Programme.

Pointing out that the Government of India had now written to the other States to emulate the model, the Chief Minister said with the help of the Administrative Reforms Department of the Government of India three documentation reports have been prepared in which the scheme has been evaluated. Besides, the programme is evaluated at the level of the Chief Secretary and the Chief Minister periodically, she said.

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