[Punjab Act 34 of 2013]?? [10th April, 2013] An Act
to provide for community participation for performing and discharging certain
functions and duties of the Municipalities and for getting up of Area Sabhas
and Wards Committees and matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. BE it
enacted by the Legislature of the State of Punjab in the Sixty-fourth Year of
the Republic of India as follows:? (1)
This Act may be called the Punjab
Community Participation in Municipalities Act, 2013. (2)
It shall apply to all the Municipalities in
the State of Punjab. (3)
It shall come into force on and with effect
from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette. In
this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,? (a)
?Area? means an Area as determined under
Section 3 of-this Act; (b)
?Area Sabha? means in relation to an Area,
the body of all the persons registered in the electoral rolls pertaining to
every polling station in that Area; (c)
?Budget year? means the period for which the
Government lays down the annual financial statement; (d)
?chairperson? means the chairperson of the
Wards Committee; (e)
?Government? means the Government of the
State of Punjab in Department of Local Government; (f)
Municipal area? means a Municipal area as
defined in Clause (8-C) of Section 3 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 (Punjab
Act 3 of 1911) and Clause (25-b) of Section 2 of the Punjab Municipal
Corporation Act, 1976 (Punjab Act 42 of 1976); (g)
?Municipality? means an institution of
self-Government constituted under Article 243Q of the Constitution of India; (h)
?Representative? means a Representative of
the Area Sabha nominated under Section 4 of this Act; (i)
?ward? means the territorial constituency of
a Municipal area divided for the purposes of persons to be chosen by direct
election; and (j)
?Wards Committee? means a Wards Committee
constituted by the State Government under Section 10 of this Act. (1)
Within a period of eight weeks either from
the date of the commencement of this Act or from the date of the constitution
of a Municipality, as the case may be, the Government shall, by order,
determine the number of Areas into which each ward may be divided, which shall
not be less than three, but not exceeding ten in any case. (2)
Immediately the determination of Areas under
sub-section (1), a Municipality shall classify the territorial extent of each
Area, which shall necessarily include the entire geographical territory in
which all persons, who are ordinarily resident of that Area mentioned in the electoral
roll of any polling station in such territory, or, if the Municipality so
decides, two or more contiguous polling stations, not exceeding five in such
territory. Within
a period of thirty days from the date of classification of the territorial
extent of an Area under sub-section (2) of Section 3 of this Act, a
Representative for each Area shall be nominated by the Government: Provided
that no person shall be nominated as a Representative, if he is disqualified
for being chosen as, and for being a member of a Municipality under Section 11
of the Punjab State Election Commission Act, 1994 (Punjab Act 19 of 1994). Every
Representative shall hold office for a duration coterminous with the term of
the Municipality: Provided
that no person shall continue to hold office as such, if, at any time, during
his tenure, he incurs any of the disqualifications specified under proviso to
Section 4 of this Act: Provided
further that no person shall be entitled to continue as such, if, at any time,
his name does not figure in the electoral roll of any of the polling station of
the Area concerned. An
officer nominated by the Municipality shall be the Secretary of the Area Sabha. The
meeting of an Area Sabha shall be held at a public place, at least twice a
year, one during the period commencing from the 15th day of May and ending with
the 15th day of June and the other during the period I commencing from the 15th
day of November and ending with the 15th day of December. At least ten percent
of the persons registered in the electoral rolls of the Area shall form quorum
for such meetings. An
Area Sabha may, having regard to its managerial, technical, financial and
organizational capacity and the actual conditions prevailing in the Municipal
area, perform and discharge the following functions and duties, namely:? (a)
to generate proposals and determine the
priority of schemes and development programmes to be implemented in the Area
and to forward the same to the Wards Committee; (b)
to verify the eligible persons from the Area
for beneficiary oriented schemes on the basis of criteria fixed by the State
Government and prepare a list of eligible beneficiaries in order of priority
and to forward the same to the Wards Committee; (c)
to verify the eligibility of persons getting
various kinds of welfare assistance from the State Government or the Government
of India; (d)
to suggest the location of streets,
streetlights, community water taps, public wells, public sanitation units and
such other civic amenity schemes within the Area; (e)
to identify the deficiencies in the civic
amenities in the Area and suggest remedial measures; (f)
to assist the activities of public health
centres in the Area, especially in disease prevention and family welfare and to
report on the incidence of epidemics and natural calamities; (g)
to provide and mobilize voluntary labour and
contributions in cash and kind for development programmes and to supervise such
development works through volunteer teams; (h)
to undertake and support tax mapping and to
remind people of the Area of their obligations to pay taxes and user charges; (i)
to impart awareness on matters of public
interest, such as cleanliness, preservation of environment and prevention of
pollution; (j)
to promote harmony and unity and to arrange
cultural festivals and sports meets to give expression to the talents of the
people of the Area; and (k)
to co-operate with the Wards Committee for
sanitation arrangements in the Area. An
Area Sabha shall have the following rights, namely,? (i)
to get information from the
officers/officials of the Municipality as to the service to be rendered and the
works proposed to be done in the Area; (ii)
to be informed by the Wards Committee about
every decision concerning the jurisdiction of the Area Sabha and the rationale
of such decision made by the Wards Committee; and (iii)
to be informed by the Wards Committee of the
follow up action taken on the decisions concerning the Area. (1)
Within thirty days of the nomination of
Representatives under Section 4 of this Act, the Commissioner in the case of
Corporation, and the Deputy Commissioner of the District in the case of other
Municipalities, by order, in writing, shall determine in respect of the
territorial area of a Municipality such number of Wards Committees consisting
of such number of wards, not exceeding five, as he may deem fit. (2)
In constituting the Wards Committee under
sub-section (1), geographical contiguity, as far as possible, shall be
maintained. (3)
Each Wards Committee shall consist of,? (i)
the Councillor(s) as described in Section 5
of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 or the member(s) as described in
Section 12 of the Municipal Act, 1911, elected from the ward(s) for which the
Wards Committee is constituted; (ii)
all Representatives of the Areas; (iii)
the Commissioner in the case of Corporation
and the Executive Officer in the case of other Municipalities,
[ex-offcio member]; (iv)
any other officers nominated by the
Municipality to be ex-officio members and one of them shall be the
Secretary of the Wards Committee. (4)
The chairperson of the Wards Committee shall
be elected Councillor or the elected member, as the case may be: Provided
that where there are more Councillors or elected members, as the case may be,
they shall elect the chairperson from amongst themselves: Provided
further that in case of equality of votes of elected Councillors or the
members, as the case may be, the older in age shall be the chairperson. (5)
The chairperson may require the departments
of the State Government or the autonomous bodies under its control or the
Municipality to depute its representatives as special invitees to participate
in the meetings, whenever problems pertaining to their wings are to be
discussed. (6)
The Commissioner, the Executive Officer or
the Secretary of the Municipality or his representative shall be entitled to
take part in the meetings and deliberations of the Wards Committee. (7)
All minutes of the meetings of the Wards
Committee shall be recorded by the Secretary and a copy of minutes of each
meeting shall be forwarded by him to the Municipality. (8)
The meeting of the Wards Committee shall be
held at least once in each quarter of the year and atleast two-third members
shall form the quorum. The
term of office of the Area Sabha and the Wards Committee shall be coterminous
with the term of the Municipality. The
Wards Committee shall discharge and perform the following functions and duties,
namely:? (a)
to provide assistance in solid waste
management in the Area; (b)
to make supervision of sanitation work in the
Area; (c)
to provide assistance for the preparation,
implementation and encouragement of the development scheme for the Area; (d)
to encourage harmony and unity among various
groups of people in the Area; (e)
to mobilize voluntary labour and donation by
way of goods or money for social welfare programmes; (f)
to provide assistance for identification of
beneficiaries for the implementation of development and welfare schemes; (g)
to encourage art and cultural activities and
activities of sports and games; (h)
to ensure people's participation in the
voluntary activities necessary for successful implementation of the development
activities of the Municipality; (i)
to assist in the timely collection of taxes,
fees and other sums due to the Municipality; (j)
to ensure maintenance of street lights and
parks in the Area; (k)
to compile, maintain and update annually the
information about the Area in such format, as may be specified by the
Municipality relating to economic information including the number and nature
of commercial establishment in the Area, employment date and information
relating to land use, public spaces, civic amenity sites, traffic patterns,
public transportation hubs, preservation and restoration of environment natural
resources, heritage sites and infrastructure index including the extent of
infrastructural. Development, current and pending projects and the
infrastructural requirements of the Area; and (l)
to perform such other functions as may be
assigned to it by the Municipality. The
Wards Committee shall have the right to,? (a)
seek informal on from any officer/official of
the Municipality regarding any matter relating to the Area; (b)
obtain information about the plans of the
Municipality; (c)
obtain information of the budget of the
Municipality and all revenue items including tax; and (d)
be consulted in the development of land use
and zoning regulations. The
following procedure shall be adhered to while conducting meetings of the Area
Sabha and Wards Committee,? (a)
notice of meeting shall be given at least one
week in advance and placed on the notice board of the office of the
Municipality; (b)
minutes of the meeting shall be maintained
and kept in the office of the Secretary of the Area Sabha, and the Wards
Committee, as the case may be, and shall be available to the general public for
perusal; and (c)
the action taken report on the minutes shall
be presented at the next meeting. (1)
The Wards Committee shall prepare the annual
Area plan and forward the same to the Municipality concerned for its integration
with the Municipal Plan. (2)
An annual budget calendar of the Wards
Committee shall be prepared strictly in accordance with the Schedule appended
to this Act six weeks before the Municipal budget. The Municipality may suggest
changes that may be effected in the annual budget prepared by the Wards
Committee after discussion with it. The
Municipality budget shall be the aggregate of all the budgets of the Wards
Committees prepared in accordance with Section 15 of this Act and shall have
additional account heads for specific receipts and expenditures at the
Municipality level. The
Municipality shall be responsible for providing administrative and
infrastructural support to the Area Sabha and the Wards Committee for its
proper functioning and shall create mechanisms for checks and balances over the
officials and shall have the power to recommend to the competent authority for
imposition of penalties for misconduct and negligence of duties of such
officials. In
addition to the functions and duties assigned to the Wards Committee under
Section 12 of this Act, it shall be the duty of the Wards Committee to compile,
maintain and update annually the following information, namely:? (a)
economic information including the number and
nature of commercial establishment in the Area and employments data; (b)
information relating to land use, public
spaces, civic amenity sites, traffic patterns, public transportation hubs,
preservation and restoration of environment, natural resources and heritage
sites; and (c)
infrastructure index including the extent of
infrastructural development, current and pending projects and the
infrastructural requirements of the area. The
provisions of this Act shall be in addition to the provisions of the Punjab
Municipal Act, 1911 (Punjab Act 3 of 1911) and the Punjab Municipal Corporation
Act, 1976 (Punjab Act 42 of 1976) and shall not be derogatory to the provisions
contained therein. (1)
If any difficulty arises in giving effect to
the provisions of this Act, the State Government may, by order published in the
Official Gazette, make such provision, not inconsistent with the provisions of
this Act, as may appear to be necessary or expedient for removing the
difficulty:? Provided
that no order shall be made under this section after the expiry of a period of
two years from the date of commencement of this Act. (2)
Every order made under this section, shall be
laid, as soon as may be, after it is made, before the Legislative Assembly. [See sub-section (2) of Section 15] Month Primary Activity April Area Plan May Ward Plan June Ward Plan July Area Budget August Area Budget September Ward Budget October Ward Budget November Municipality's
Budget December Municipality's
Budget January Works review February Works review March Works review [1] Received the assent of the Governor of Punjab
on the 10th Day of April, 2013, Published in Punjab Govt. Gazette (Extra.),
dated 16-4-2013Punjab Community Participation in
Municipalities Act, 2013[1]