HUBLI: The Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation has embarked on an ambitious project to involve citizens in the development of the city through Citizens' Committees, which were formally inaugurated here on Monday.

Addressing presspersons here on Monday, M.I. Savadatti, former Vice-Chancellor of Mangalore University and Chairman of the Citizens' Advisory Committee constituted to monitor the formation of such panels, informed that 654 Citizens' Committees, one each for all the polling booths in the twin cities, had been formed by the corporation.

`Landmark experiment'

He termed the endeavour as a landmark experiment in the history of urban administration in the country, which he said took nearly two months of coordinated efforts from eminent persons from various fields, officials of HDMC and support from former council members.

He said people's participation in the city administration had been actively professed by experts in urban development.

It might be recalled that the HDMC has been preparing a City Development Strategy (CDS), which has been funded by Cities Alliance, Washington, and supported by City Manager's Association, Karnataka (CMAK). The CDS requires citizens' participation and once finalised would act as an essential document for enabling the corporation to get funds for its development projects.

To a query, Commissioner P. Manivannan informed that the concept of "Area Sabha" proposed by Janaagraha in Bangalore, had been the inspiration behind the model adopted by HDMC. The citizens' committees would serve as platforms where citizens could discuss and prioritise strategies for the development of the city, he said.

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