Chandigarh, January 18: Haryana Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal has set the target of complete financial self-reliance for all the ten municipal corporations in the State. He stressed upon the significance of the municipal corporations as the units of Local Self-Government and shared his vision of transforming the Corporations into financially viable and truly professional bodies.

The Chief Minister was presiding over a meeting with Mayors and Commissioners of the municipal corporations held here today.

During the meeting, Municipal Commissioners and Mayors presented their respective plans to the Chief Minister for increasing their income and curtailing the expenditure. The Department of Urban Local Bodies too made a presentation on the way forward towards achieving efficiency through increased used of I.T. and decentralization of various financial and administrative powers.

On this occasion, the Chief Minister also launched two online services, namely, Water and Sewer Connection and Billing System and Change of Land Use System, which would streamline the process of approval of CLUs and sanction of water and sewerage connections as well as bill-generation and receipt-collection.

During the meeting, the department of Urban Local Bodies informed that the Municipal Commissioners have been delegated complete powers of sealing the premises, appeal and revision under the Haryana Fire Act, 2009. Further, powers of granting Fire NOC and approval of Fire Fighting Scheme have also been delegated to the Municipal Commissioners as per the provisions of National Building Code, irrespective of any ceiling on land area.

The Urban Local Bodies department proposed that municipal corporations to be able to decide cases of transfer of ownership to tenants/lessees of 20 years involving area upto 500 sq.yards at their own level and to increase the limit of administrative and financial approval of tenders to Rs 2.50 crore and Rs 10.00 crore in case of Commissioners and Municipal Corporations respectively. It was also proposed for Commissioners and Municipal Corporations to have power to sanction Capital works upto 2.50 crore rupees and 10.00 crore rupees respectively, while enjoying unlimited power in case of maintenance works. It was also proposed that they will also have the powers of concurrent appointing authority with respect to a certain level of officials working under them.

Apart from this, necessary powers for approval of building plan and occupation certificate will also be delegated to all the Municipal Commissioners in line with Municipal Corporation, Faridabad and Gurugram.

The Chief Minister discussed at length various strategies to recover arrears, especially those of property tax and water and sewerage bills. He directed the department to come up with one-time settlement schemes to encourage the citizens to deposit their arrears. He also insisted on timely and hassle-free delivery of services to the citizens.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that on the occasion of the Good Governance, the State Government has already announced that the year 2020 would be observed as “Susashan Sankalp Varsh” and fair and prompt delivery of services to the public is only possible through e-governance. He said that making the Water and sewage billing system and change of land system online will not only bring transparency but will also help in reducing corruption.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister was apprised for transparency in the quotation of the works being carried out by the local bodies, a Quotation Management System would also be launched in all the Municipal Corporations of the State. The Quotation Management System is an easy to use and flexible application which allows a company to create, submit and track quotes and invoices. It was informed that in a bid to bring accounting reforms in Municipal Corporations of the State, Double-entry accountant system should be launched for asset-liability. Apart from this GIS technology will be used for proper assessment of properties.
While, giving directions regarding the water management, the Chief Minister said that all the Municipal Corporations in the State should adopt double lining system for water management under which the treated water can be reused. He said that the system can be started from HSVP sectors. He further directed that smart water meters should be installed in all the districts to monitor, measure and ensuring the continuous water supply and further to significantly reduce water loss.

He said that collector rate should be rationalized in all the Corporations. He said that there is no problem of red thread in cities, the area of the city is the area with normal revenue, so the pending registries should be completed by giving some rebate. He said that Dharamshalas which are involved in commercial activities, then property tax should be imposed on such Dharamshalas.

The Chief Minister said that strict action should be taken against such societies which have built and sold plots without EDC and conveyance deeds.