Media Release
Mangaluru, Sep 21: A delegation of Mangalore Civic Group (formerly known as “MCC Civic Group”) called on Akshy Shridhar, the commissioner of Mangaluru City Corporation, on Tuesday, September 14 and presented a memorandum to him demanding the immediate cancellation of the entire selection of ward committee members and restarting of the same afresh. The memorandum also included suggestions to the MCC regarding course-correction measures to be adopted for the fresh selection process of Ward Committee members.
After listening to the contentions made by the delegation, Akshy Shridhar immediately agreed to accept and implement some of the course-correction measures suggested by the Mangalore Civic Group to rectify the flaws observed in the current selection process for the formation of Ward Committees.
In its memorandum, Mangalore Civic Group pointed out that numerous flaws and violations of rules had been observed in the present provisional selection of Ward Committees members. Some of the objections raised are the selection of active political party workers as Ward Committee members, lack of transparency and accountability in the entire process, and inconsistencies in the listings presently announced. The memorandum included a list of ten course-correction measures for overcoming the shortcomings of the selection process.
As the responsibility of the ward committee is to monitor the functioning of the Councilor at the ward level and ensure that they function in a transparent and accountable manner, the inclusion of party workers in the Ward Committee would defeat the very purpose of setting up the committees, the memorandum stated. There is also a gross mismatch of numbers in the various listings of members announced by MCC, the memorandum pointed out.
In response, Akshy Shridhar has agreed to implement many of the course-correction measures. He accepted the demand for verification by the MCC of the two claims that the applicants made on Affidavit while applying for Ward Committee membership—that of not being an active party worker and not having pending criminal cases—from the heads of all political parties at the block/ward level and local police, respectively. The commissioner also agreed to fill up the deficits of 49 wards where the provisionally selected ward members are less than the maximum of 10.
The delegation of Mangalore Civic Group included Nigel Albuquerque, Prathapchandra Kedilaya, Arun D’Souza, Anand Rao, Suresh Nayak, Oswald Pereira, and Rajaram Addoor.
The Mangalore Civic Group was formed in 2015 under the erstwhile name ‘MCC Civic Group’ to foster citizen’s participation in local self-government.