PR is must for civic bodies
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- Media & Corporate communications
- Monday, 12 March 2012 23:39
- Published on Monday, 12 March 2012 23:39
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Gujarat Global News Network, Ahmedabad
Public Relations is must for the governance of civic bodies since these local self governments deal with all needs of people right from cradle to grave. It is needed for building trust in people about the civic body and its activities, a pre condition for consensus on important decisions to be taken by a civic body. This is how Ahmedabad Mayor Asit Vora and urban Management consultant PU Asnani view the role of PR in the civic bodies.
Speaking on importance of PR in civic bodies organized by the Ahmedabad chapter of Public Relations Society of India, both of them said PR is effective and successful when administration is committed to accountability and transparency. This makes the work of a civic body smoother and development of a city better.
Asnani who is former Deputy Municipal Commissioner said the role of civic bodies had a paradigm shift when civic bodies got constitutional status through an amendment in 1994. Now, civic bodies have independent financial powers and they cannot be suspended at the whims of state administration.
Giving example of new property tax system introduced in 1994, Asnani said that elected wing was very apprehensive of the success of the system. This is because at that time property tax used to invite more than one lakh objections and half of them resulted in appeal.
But, the Corporation made the property tax formula transparent. Anyone could know the basis of the tax he had been asked to pay. This transparent system with access to information led to a great success. In the first year, objections reduced to just 1524 and there were no appeals in these cases. The net result was that most of people paid the tax and thus the income of the tax increased considerable. Within next few years, special courts set up for the property tax were closed down which saved millions of rupees on the court system.
He said that people support in decision making was necessary, whether it is a routine work like widening of road or some regulatory measure. For this, people must have faith in the administration that the tax money and other resources at the disposal of the civic administration were used in a right manner for right cause.
He said that citizen satisfaction survey must be done to get the feedback of people and there should be follow up action on it. Effective and efficient local government management directly depends on how well the local administration manages its communication with citizen.
Mayor Asit Vora who himself is a PR personnel had many success stories to prove that transparency in the administration and communication with the beneficiaries of a project were most important for successful governance riding a strong PR campaign. He said BRTS, Kankaria carnival and upcoming Sabarmati riverfront project were best examples of the governance strategy.
He said groups of people belonging to different sectors of society are made to experience the advantage of a new activity like BRTS. This convinces people about the need for the activity and thus makes the new project successful. BRTS is the best example. It has succeeded in Ahmedabad and has even won laurels abroad.
Giving an example of importance of feedback, he said that authorities studies failure of Delhi BRTS and revamped its routes to ensure that it did not meet the fate of BRTS in Delhi.
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