UNITED-FEDERATION OF

RESIDENT WELFARE ASSOCIATION

                      (U-FERWAS) Regd.No.219/07

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# 12-13-705/10/AB, Balaji Residency, Gokul Nagar, Tarnaka, Hyderabad-17

Tel: 040 6450 4993, 6521 4993, Fax: 27154118.

e-mail: ifhd@sify.com , www.ifhd.org

Vision: Resident Welfare Associations are the finest expression of civil society consensus; an answer to urban problems; a tool for community building and for self-management and direct democracy.

Revised Model Protocol of Agreement Between GHMC and U-FERWAS

Our Commitment:

Being the democratically-elected basic unit of local governance, we have the right and the responsibility to represent the resident-citizens in our localities, before all public service providers who are paid by public funds. Hence, as stakeholders, we offer to:

1)      Help in the collection property tax or any other levy;

2)      Cooperate in D.P.L. Centers (for ration cards or family cards);

3)     Cooperate periodically in voter registration, verification and election process;

4)  Collection of census and other information-collection on various beneficiaries;

5)      Study and pooling of individual and collective problems, so that the administrative machinery is not disturbed and their time is not wasted by individual representations and discussions;

6) Ensure authenticity, validity and public-interest nature of the complaints and collective representations;

7)    Ensure the general compliance of the official rules and regulations by the residents regarding constructions, public space and public utilities;

8)      Identify, inventorise and protect public properties and prevent their misuse and encroachments;

9)   Come forward, wherever possible, to self-manage, under contract, the maintenance of essential and proximity services, such as, cleaning, sweeping and greening activities, parks, street cleaning, lighting, garbage and other solid waste management, drainage de-congestion, treating mosquito menace,etc.;

10)  Come forward, to liaise, similarly, in the case of other services, such as, electricity and water;

11)  Provide consumers’ endorsement on the quality and quantity of the services and goods provided by the private contractors and the municipal staff; 

12)  Maintain general health and hygiene in the area and to act together in case of emergencies like epidemics, floods, fire, heat waves, etc.;

13)  Co-plead, along with GHMC, or to go for Public Interest Litigation (PIL), in certain cases, and to make appeals to the Courts, so as to seek relief and to protect the rights of the Corporation;

14)  Ensure the quality and due process of works undertaken, by carrying out ‘social audit’ and third-party evaluations;

15)  Cooperate in the implementation of welfare measures undertaken in favour of the slum-dwellers who are a part of the local community;

16)  And, in general, to collaborate to implement any economic, social and cultural welfare measures undertaken by the Corporation in favour of the children (vaccinations, child labour), senior citizens (safety, security, domestic violence, shelter), women (maternity, domestic violence, shelter), youth ( games & sports), etc.

Your Commitment, in return, to:

 
Recognise, firstly, that the following commitments are already covered and ensured by the Citizen Charter or the Right to Information Act or the Consumer Protection Act or the Manual of Code of Conduct of the Public Officials and other statutory and constitutional provisions and,
Acknowledge, secondly, that, under our constitutional law, the Executive is also one of the three separate organs of the State and, as such, must operate independently and objectively, in upholding the rule of law, its due process and procedures in the implementation of the decisions taken by the legislative wings at local, State and the Cental levels;

The Administration of the GHMC would strive to:

1)      Make accessible, on the request of the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) all information of public interest concerning their areas, under the Right to Information Act, Citizens Charter, etc. such as, the decisions of the different bodies of the Corporation like the Council, the Standing committee and of the departments, particularly, the Town Planning, Engineering, Health and Hygiene, etc.;

2)      Make available the Local Fund Audit reports and the remarks of the Comptroller and Auditor- General of India, so far as they carried out;

3)      Acknowledge and reply, as much as possible, (a) When the representatives of the RWAs write or e-mail or send faxes to the officials; or to re-direct them for reply to the concerned department or person,

(b)      When they visit the officials, they should be received, on priority, with due respect to their representative character and voluntary nature of their work, and

(c)      Similarly, when the officials visit the area, the local representatives of the RWAs should be informed and consulted, if they have expressed such a desire, in advance;

4)      Organise periodic Dialogue Sessions with the representatives of the RWAs to review the pending problems with various departments or sections or officers concerned either in the officials’ offices or in the meetings arranged by the RWAs;

5)      Assess, periodically, the citizens’ satisfaction levels concerning the functioning of the Citizens Charter and the Grievance Redressal mechanisms put in place;

6)      Seek the cooperation and participation of the RWAs in all activities in which they are concerned, as it is happening in the case of the electoral process in which the Election commission of India has been expressly mentioning the RWAs as the logistic partners;

7)      To provide, in a proactive manner (as under section 4 of RTI Act), information on all Town Planning and Engineering approvals, execution, estimations and evaluations and to seek the RWAs reactions as stake holders, and

8)      Initiate and arrange coordination meetings with other departments which are not under GHMC, such as, the R& B, Police, Electricity, water but whose cooperation and efficient functioning is needed to fulfill GHMC’s own mission.

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