Council of Mayors seeks more power to local bodies

Dehradun, July 16 (UNI) The All India Council Of Mayors has sought more rights and powers to local self-government bodies as per 74th Constitutional Ammendment.

After the meeting of All India Council Of Mayors' Executive Committee held under the chairmanship of Dehradun Mayor Manorma Sharma Dobriyal here today, the Mayors from different cities told reporters that the Council has decided to reiterate its demand of implementation of 74th Constitutional Ammendment.

''The responsibilities of local bodies have increased manyfold, hence it is very necessary that the Mayors are given more power.

But political interference is still present which hampered our work,'' they said.

Also advocating a direct election of Mayors, they recommended a fixed tenure of five years. ''Despite making the ammendment mandatory, it is not being implemented in all the states,'' they said, lamenting that as local self-government bodies functioned under state governments, they had no power to take decisions.

''As maximum public related works come under local bodies, they should be self sufficient, self reliant and democratic. Mayors should be given decision making power including writing performance report of officials working under them,'' they said.

Later, Chairperson of the council, Mrs Dobriyal apprised that in today's meeting the subject matter and programe for the forth coming Asian Mayors Conference to be held in Dehradun was charted out.

She said that for proposed Conference, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajpakse has consented to be the chief guest and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has been requested to preside over the function.

However the date of the conference was yet to be fixed, she added.

Today's meeting was attended by the Mayors of Chandigarh, Delhi, Bangalore, Bhopal, Vadodra, Faridabad, Raipur, Shimla, Guwahati, Bhubneshwar and Burhanpur.

UNI/LPT VD RS1726