Drinking Water remains the focal theme at 8th National Conference of RWAs at Ghaziabad
By: Pallab Ghosh
Radiance News Service
The 8th National Conference of Resident Welfare Associations (8th NCRWA) was organized at Krishna Engineering College, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on November 23 and 24 respectively. The focal theme of this conference was “Drinking Water”.
Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat inaugurated the 8th NCRWA and said that rainwater harvesting and making use of grey water are the main remedies to tackle the water scarcity problem. He said, "2000 laboratories have been established in the Country to test the quality of water and pipeline water supply has been accomplished for 5 crore houses in the Country and the aim is to join every house with piped water by 2024". Shekhawat invited a delegation of CoRWA to frame modalities of establishing a regular link between the Government and the RWAs for Rainwater Harvesting and the use of Grey Water.
Rajya Sabha MP Anil Agrawal from Ghaziabad was the Chief Guest for the inaugural session and complimented the initiative, "It is a matter of great pride for all of us that a National Conference of RWAs is being organised in Ghaziabad".
Regional Pollution control board officer Utsav Sharma informed the house that he has started a Van which would collect used electronic goods from houses as it would be easy to indiscreet dismantling and burning could be stopped to reduce air pollution.
VV Rao from Telengana pointed out that storm water management of rainwater has to be integrated with recharge and disposal facilities. Dr KSR Murthy from Visakhapatnam presented a white paper on water pollution and water conservation.
B Iyarappan from Chennai supported the concept of interlinking of Rivers in phases. Ramesh Prabhu from Mumbai presented a plan to loop in RWAs from different corners of the Country. TV Nageshwara Rao from Hyderabad brought out the crying need of making the pavements encroachment free in every city. Venu Gopal from Trivandrum emphasized the need of developing a QRT (Quick Reaction Team) culture in all Nagar Nigams. Shri Atul Goel from URJA Delhi said that an accountable relationship between local authorities and the RWAs is the key to mitigating all woes. Former Director of the Institute of Science and Technology Venketeshwara Rao called for disciplining the RO installers to set the TDS of treated water to at least 150 milligrams per litre. Pankaj Agarwal from DRJF and Naveena Sridhar from Malleswaram Swabhiman Initiative spoke on methods of recharging the water bodies.
The second day of the Conference:
Uttar Pradesh state Health Minister Atul Garg, MLA Sunil Sharma, Chairman of DERC Justice Shabihul Hasnain, Vice Chairman of NDMC Satish Upadhyay, Member of UP RERA Balvinder Kumar, City Commissioner Mahendra Singh Tanwar, IAS, Member of the Central Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs of the Government of India Abhay Upadhyay from Kolkota attended the session.
RERA authorities were told in specific terms to take suo motu cognizance of the erring builders, unethical practices and the ongoing projects to reduce the load on mediation cells in the total interest of the home buyers.
A Souvenir was published to commemorate this event bringing out the details of the steps which can be taken at the Govt level, RWA level and Individual level to check water pollution and increase water conservation and deliver municipal services with efficiency.
The Chief Convener of the National Conference of RWAs Col Tejendra Pal Tyagi brought out that National President and Founder of CoRWA Dr Rao VBJ Chelikani is the fountain Head of the National Conferences of RWAs which he started in Hyderabad, way back in 2012.
Col Tyagi said, "RWAs are mini-municipalities, while still being much bigger than many village Panchayats that are given the status of a separate local government. It is for this reason that no office-bearer of RWA can afford to be in favour of a political party or caste or religion, as the urban community, unlike in the rural communities. Every RWA is a primary school of Democracy. RWA are the grass root level of democracy". A demand was raised, loud and clear, in this Conference that RWAs should be given constitutional status and powers and they should be treated as the fourth tier of the Governance.
11 proposals were made which were subsequently passed as RESOLUTIONS unanimously by the house, as follows :
1. We are at this Conference releasing a Vision Statement of the RWAs. A manifesto to participate in the governance, as the 4th tier.
2. To take RWA-Specific Commitments for the Mitigation of the Climate Change as a follow up to our PM's Commitments at the Glasgow Conference.
3. To re-issue an updated "Practical Guide on Water Management for RWAs" released at the 7th NCRWA, with particular emphasis on "Drinking Water"
4. To continue to participate in the 'Clean & Green India' mission by following domestic plantations.
5. Launching an appeal to RERA authorities in States to provide representation to RWAs in their Mediation Cells.
6. To work for the Preparation of a National Directory of RWAs
8. RWA Federations to form Panels of Election Observers to conduct elections in RWAs & AOAs
9. Special attention to the "80+ among the Elderly" in cooperation with All India Senior Citizens Confederation and All India Retired Railwaymen’s Federation.
10. Campaign for extensive utilization of digital and IT technology for the management of the RWAs.
11. Campaign to set up Ward committees, as mentioned in the 74th Amendment to the Constitution with RWAs in the center stage.
National Conferences of RWAs were organized earlier at Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Delhi, Trivandrum, Bangalore and Mumbai which were inaugurated by the then Minister of Housing Honourable Shri Venkaiah Naidu Ji, Honourable Shri Hardip Singh Puri Ji , Honourable Shri Sashi Tharoor ji, Honourable Shri Mahesh Sharma ji in the august presence of many other constitutional authorities.
A general body meeting of CoRWA-Nation and CoRWA-UP was also conducted wherein following main decisions were taken - A glance
· South Zone of CoRWA will be looked after by Shri K.Raghvendra Rao of Hyderabad as Convener and Shri Balgurunathan Iyerappan as Additional Convener.
· A National Core Team comprising Shri Harshul Kaushik, Shri Shivam Jindal, Shri Ishan Tyagi is constituted to develop the youth wing of RWAs all across the Country. It is supposed to act as the cutting edge of the sword.
· The next National Conference will be held at Chennai, other things remaining the same.
· The present Team of CoRWA will continue to work for one more year before elections are held.
· The executive committee of CoRWA-UP may be redesigned or reconstituted through a core committee comprising Col TP Tyagi, DR R K Arya, Pawan Kaushik, Jay Dixit, Kailash Chandra and MK Sharma