ONE ON ONE
Making ULBs smart, citizen centric Diana A Lopez Caramazana of Local Government and Decentralisation Unit, UN Habitat, and Arnau Gutierrez Camps, Adviser, Multilateral Affairs, International Relations, Directorate of the Province of Barcelona, expressed their views on local self-government’s needs, responsibilities globally in a one on one with Urban Update. They also laid focus on basic essentials of smart cities and the need of coordination between different tiers of government Prathiba Raju, Assistant Editor
What is your viewpoint on the three tier system of the governance, how to integrate them and boost local government? Diana: See India is still following the British tradition. We have been working with the United Cities and Local Government (UCLG) for so many years, though it is divided into a three tier system, basically everybody works for the welfare of the common man. When it comes to this system everybody should have clarity on who does what and who does it better. When it comes to immediate necessities of people, it is the local government that knows them better. The state level should coordinate
with the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and the centre. They need quality coordination and a fair distribution of roles and responsibilities. Though there might be some political conflict in-between, there should always be a sphere to discuss and sort out things. It is possible that at a certain time the local governments are not talking to the central government and vice versa. So if there is a lack of coordination or dispute it is going to just affect people. Synchronisation is needed. Regular dialogues between each tier of the governance are necessary. How is the local governance here in India, compared to other developing
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countries like China, Bangladesh and Pakistan? Diana: Local governance is a focal point for UN Habitat. UCLG is our privileged partner. We have been working together on the global report, which comes out once in three years, on how the different regions globally work with the local governance and an overview on the same. There have been three reports: on democracy, finance and basic services. We had released reports in 2008, 2011, 2014, next would be released in 2017. Every three years we have a Congress by UCLG concentrates on one specific issue. Asia pacific is one chapter in which India is included, next
First of all any country needs a proper legislation to handle local governance, if they don’t have it how can one run a city. Globally ULBs need legal competence Diana A Lopez Caramazana
26 December 2014 | www.urbanupdate.in
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