City planning is a highly complex process that tries to cater to several needs of civic life. This is beyond the comprehension of a single individual or agency and calls for the widest participation of various stakeholders. Participatory planning enriches the process and quality of planning.
local administration handles issues that are vital to citizens in their daily lives; hence they have immediate interest and stake in the performance of the services. There is, therefore, a strong case for taking expert knowledge down to the communities and fertilizing it with community-based wisdom. It is also realized that there is a need to define the roles of different community stakeholders along with Governmental functionaries and work out coordination plans between them as regards preparation of strategic plans.
The urban local bodies can plan, monitor, and evaluate area based developmental work for each ward and organize training for Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs). An expert committee should be constituted at municipality level to assist and guide the RWA members. Training programme for the RWAs must take into account the local area based cultural, local, linguistic and social factors. By this way, the residents will enable them to understand their rights and responsibilities.
Inter district exchange visits of the RWAs must become a regular feature of the capacity building exercises. An all Odisha annual conference of the selected RWAs can be a noble step. This will lend a sense of institutional solidarity and enhance motivation of the RWAs to particulate in sorting out their problems.
Each local authority can enter into a dialogue with its citizens and local organizations through a consultative process. Only then, city planning will be efficient. There is a need to foster relationship among various civic actors. Civic body meetings with public attendance are important for evolving transparent and need-based models. This will create a concept of a local community which combines wards/districts into a cohesive unit.
RWA welfare committees will do the work for water harvesting, solid waste management, sanitation, community policing, women safety, senior citizens’ safety and other civic issues like education, sports and youth affairs.
Non-Governmental organizations can also play a healthy role to voicing the concerns of the less privileged. It has been seen that the deprived communities, which are low in self-confidence, require the stimulus of participation in public life.
In Odisha, RWAs should participate fruitfully in resolving civic issues. They are crucial in day- to- day delivery of civic amenities. Therefore, the Government of Odisha should give them legal rights on lines of village gram sabhas so that they can function effectively with requisite authority.