All India Mayors Council chairman Ashutosh Varshney at the the council’s 100th executive committee meeting in Cuttack on Saturday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Jan. 8: The All India Council of Mayors (AICM) today made a strong plea for uniformity in mode of election, tenure, status and powers of mayors to ensure that all corporations in the country are governed by common rules and regulations.

“The mode of election, tenure, status and powers of mayors varies from state to state. In some states, they are elected through direct voting, while in most others the responsibility rests on the elected councillors. Moreover, the tenure ranges from one year to five years,” chairman of the council Ashutosh Varshney pointed out.

“It’s ridiculous that in case of metropolitan cities such as, Delhi, which has a population of over 1.5 crore, the tenure is one year, which is too short to even familiarise with the officials,” he said at the inaugural session of the council’s 100th executive committee meet here at Saheed Bhawan.

The council has been seeking more powers to enable the mayors and the municipal corporations to provide better services.

“The mayors and the municipal corporations were being denied adequate powers due to non-implementation of the 74th constitutional amendment by the states. In the process, they are being confined to providing civic services to the people,” Varshney pointed out.

Attending as chief guest, state tourism and higher education minister Debi Prasad Mishra said his government was contemplating to form an “urban cadre”.

Former chairman of the AICM and Madhya Pradesh home minister Uma Shankar Gupta, Cuttack MP Bhatruhari Mahtab, state school and mass education minister Pratap Jena, Barabati-Cuttack MLA Debashis Samantaray and Choudwar-Cuttack MLA Pravat Biswal attended the event as guest of honour.

The 74th amendment has paved way for three-tier democratic set up and accordingly the mayors should have the same autonomy and powers to administer the cities as the Prime Minister and chief ministers enjoy for effectively governing their respective jurisdictions. It was the main issue that was discussed at the council’s executive committee that was held here today.