Hubballi: Officials of the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC), who had been consistently reluctant to form ward committees (WC) for one reason or another for the past two decades, are now showing zeal to realise the dream of citizen participation.
On Friday, they held two awareness meetings, one in Kannada Bhavan Hubballi and the other in Kala Bhavan Dharwad. Seven corporators also attended the meetings and expressed their solidarity with citizens to involve them in governance.

Santosh Nargund, Program Lead, Civic Participation, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, stated in a special lecture at both meetings that WCs are constitutional mandates that empower citizens to be active stakeholders in urban development.
“Citizens must make good use of it by joining WCs. According to the KMC Act, WCs will have ten members, including women and representatives from the SC and ST communities. With this, Hubballi-Dharwad will have 820 members for 82 wards, and these members will be able to contribute to the construction of their dream smart city,” he added. Many citizens raised valid concerns, such as why political party workers are barred from functioning in WCs, the legality of WC resolutions, the relevance of an income certificate to become a WC member, and the selection criteria if a large number of applications are received, and so on.
Shankaranand Banashankari, additional commissioner of the HDMC, stated that member selection will be completely apolitical and transparent. “In the coming days, we will hold many more awareness programmes at the zone and ward levels so that more citizens can come forward to participate in governance.”
The last date for submitting applications, which is currently April 25, will be extended. The rule of enclosing income certificates with applications will be dropped, he said.
There is also a plan to play jingles in garbage collection vehicles that ply in the city.
Corporators-elect Shivu Menasinakai, Sheela Katkar, and Manjunath Burli attended the Hubballi meeting, while Shankar Shelke and others attended the Dharwad meeting. They all agreed that WCs will assist corporators in prioritising development projects. Both meetings were attended by HDMC PRO Girish Talawar, zonal assistant commissioners, and other officials.