AAP govt approves formation of 'Mission Swaraj' for 'mohalla

Delhi government today approved formation of 'Mission Swaraj' to implement its ambitious 'mohalla sabhas' project through which people will be empowered and encouraged for participating in governance at the local level.
A senior government official said 'Mission Swaraj' being the nodal agency of the project, will play a vital role for the idea of 'swaraj' to succeed in the national capital.
The agency will oversee the execution of the 'mohalla sabhas' including coordination among different agencies or departments of the city government and the Centre, local bodies and external agencies.
The decision was today taken at a meeting of the cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

In June, the cabinet had approved formation of 2,972 such sabhas across the 70 Assembly constituencies in its bid to empower people and encourage participation in governance.
The Governing Council of Mission Swaraj, to be headed by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, will carry out mapping and related activities to define the exact constitution of mohallas in the national capital and update them on an ongoing basis as needed.

"The main objective of 'Mission Swaraj' is to work in close coordination with all DUDAs to oversee and manage the rollout of 'mohalla sabha' project across the capital.
"It will also define the roles and responsibilities of the sabhas in Delhi, and update them on an ongoing basis to reflect greater devolution of functions to the sabhas over time," the official said.

'Mission Swaraj' will also evolve and implement strategy for generating awareness and communication about the sabhas and their functions to the people, and also ensure overall coordination with different agencies or departments of Delhi government, Centre, and local bodies for successful realisation of the vision of the project.
Creation of IT and GIS portal for effective planning and management through e-governance and g-governance tools will be done. This is also proposed to be executed with the support of Delhi e-Governance Society (DeGS), Department of IT, Geo Spatial Delhi Limited (GSDL) and other external agencies.
As per rough estimate, each Assembly segment has been divided into 40 mohallas, with number of voters ranging from 3,000-6,000. Some big Assembly constituencies like Matiala will have about 70 sabhas.

The Kejriwal government had last year held sabhas in 11 Assembly constituencies for preparing a "participatory budget" in which the residents were asked to decide which development projects should be taken up in their localities.