Convenor of the Asian Mayors' Conference and Chairperson
of the All India Council of Mayors and Mayor of the
beautiful city of Dehradun - Shrimati Manorama Dobriyal
Sharma, Hon. Minister of Urban Development, Government
of India - Shri Jaipal Reddy, Hon. Minister for Local
Government and Provincial Councils, Government of Sri
Lanka - Mr. Janaka Bandara Tennekone, Hon. Ministers,
His Excellency Shri Sudarshan Agarwal - Governor and
Hon. Shri N.D.Tiwari - Chief Minister of Uttaranchal,
Your Worship - the Mayors from the different countries
of Asia, Representatives of the UN Community, Distinguished
Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am privileged and honoured to be able to participate
today in the first
Asian Mayors' Conference, here in Dehradun in India.
I thank you, Madam
Chairperson of the All India Council of Mayors, for
inviting me to the
inaugural session of this conference.
Asia has been described as the Continent of the 21st
Century, just as
America was the Continent of the 20th Century and Europe
was that of the
Century before. This is the Century in which we, the
Asian countries, will
be industrializing fast and moving towards an era of
plenty and prosperity.
It will be the Century in which, - whether we like it
or not, - Asia will be
transformed from a largely rural to an urban economy.
Many of our countries are already experiencing the drift
of population from
rural to urban areas. Cities and towns are growing with
rapidly in each of
our countries. Cities, big towns, small towns, townships
and urban centres
have started to grow where sleepy villages once existed.
What then is the problem? The newly expanding towns
are not able to respond
adequately with services, - such as those relating to
health, primary
education, crime, road safety, water, sanitation, malnutrition,
hunger,
poverty, garbage disposal and so on, - for the continuous
inflow of people
to our towns.
You as Asian mayors are challenged to give leadership
to the people of our
towns and resolve the problems that they face. You are
challenged to display
leadership qualities and managerial skills of the highest
order. You are
called upon to resolve the problems of urbanization
with the active
participation of the people of your towns. City governance
and urban
well-being are closely intertwined.
But for you, the Mayors, to be able provide that leadership
effectively,
Power and Resources need to be devolved on you by the
central government.
Your local revenue is certainly not enough for your
needs. I am convinced
that for local leaders to be able to meet the challenges
of leadership in
local communities such as in our growing urban communities,
much more
resources and powers have to be devolved to the lower
levels of
administration, while of course protecting and ensuring
the unity and
integrity of our different Nation States.
I say this with emphasis because we in Asia have not
enjoyed a tradition of
local government that is at the same time linked to
the structures of a
central government. Though most of our countries had
systems of Local
Government such as Sri Lanka's Gamsabha System and India's
Panchayati Raj,
traditionally these were not linked organically to the
country's central
system of administration. India being a huge country
where the central
administration did not reach down to villages in many
areas, Local
Government did play a very valuable role, - but here
again it was not linked
to the central administrative structures of the India's
various Kingdoms,
States and Empires.
The reforms of India's Panchayati Raj System in the
past two decades, -
particularly those of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, -
have devolved powers
more effectively to local communities. And that is why
we in Sri Lanka are
studying India's Panchayati Raj experience to take lessons
from it to evolve
Sri Lanka's own model of Maximum Devolution within a
Unitary State as a
solution to the problems we are experiencing in our
North and East.
Urban Good Governance also calls for an 'inclusive'
approach to the solving
of urban problems. Most towns consist of a diversity
of persons and groups.
To most towns, people have migrated in the past from
different parts of the
local region, bringing with them their own traditions
and cultural
practices. Many towns are multi - ethnic, multi - religious
and multi -
cultural in nature. They are also invariably stratified
according to
economic grade and class. Urban populations are also
known to belong to
different political persuasions.
The challenge before you is to craft an 'inclusive'
approach through which
all these diverse groups can join together, work together,
trust each other
with a policy of 'give and take', and evolve a positive
consensus on the
vital issues faced by their cities and towns. I admit
this is not easy. I
admit the process is slow and it takes time and great
effort to achieve. But
if the solutions to your urban problems are to be sustainable
in the long
run, such an inclusive process of consensus building
is absolutely
essential.
This is exactly what my government has been doing in
Sri Lanka in the last
12 months, not with regard to urban problems as such
but with regard to our
national problem. The basic principles of Good Governance
are the same,
whether it concerned towns and cities or whether it
concerns entire nations.
In our country we are crafting an all-party approach
to our national problem
with great success. We have an All Party Conference,
an All Party
Representative Committee and finally a Memorandum of
Understanding between
the Government and the Main Opposition Party to work
towards a consensus on
the solution to our ethnic problem: A solution that
will sustain itself with
all political groups including all the Tamil groups
in the country. As you
know we have several democratic Tamil parties representing
the Tamil people,
and also one terrorist group called the LTTE.
Our achievement in a year has been enormous. And this
is the approach I
propose to you, the Mayors of Asia, in confronting your
own problems in the
towns. Some people will complain that progress is slow.
They don't realize
the obvious, - namely, that a festering wound cannot
be healed in a day.
They also don't realize that any lasting, sustainable
solution to a serious
problem must have an approach that is both inclusive
and consensual. They
try to push us towards adopting magic formulae and cut
- and - paste
solutions, which we have seen from our own experience,
do not stand the test
of time. They do so because they do not properly understand
the exact nature
of our specific problem - its history, its contours,
its cultural aspects
and the dynamics of its _expression.
Strong enlightened leadership on your part in our towns
and cities can
therefore help configure the approach of a nation's
leadership to the
problems of the country as a whole. Our hope, therefore,
is that as you the
Asian Mayors exchange views on immediate urban issues,
you will devote some
time to the role that you can play in setting an example
in resolving the
wider issues of development and nation building.
And finally, in conclusion I wish the First Asian Mayors'
Conference all
success in your deliberations in the days to follow.
I am extremely happy to
be among you today, and especially in this beautiful
town of Dehradun,
nestled in the foothills of the great Himalayan mountains
- the Spiritual
Roof of the World. I thank you once again for inviting
me. Thank you.
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