Scrap sector RWAs, bring smaller wards if need be?

March 31, 2025
Devinder Dhingra

Satyam (The Truth)

First of all, let me elaborate what I am addressing as a sector RWA.

We all know there are two formats of RWAs, one in which the end services within premises such as sewer, lighting and water facilities etc. fall in the domain of an RWA, that I would call ‘A Society RWA’, and the second like we have in the places where these end services are provided directly by the relevant government authorities, such as Municipal Corporation, DHBVN etc., that I would call ‘A Sector RWA’.

A society RWA is more or less a mandatory body as it has to maintain the services and also take care of everything within its premises, while a sector RWA is a choice and responsible for the common areas and its upkeep.

Before I come to the real topic, let us first understand the modalities of these RWAs. Whether it is a society RWA or a sector RWA, no official is allowed to take any salary and thus on paper it is treated as a “Welfare Non-profit body”, i.e. a social service kind of thing. But in reality, the motivation to be a part of such RWA offices is less a social service at the core of it.

What will motivate someone to be an official of an RWA?

1. The person eyes on that he would make money by other means. Well, this sounds good for society RWAs that have huge maintenance funds but very less for sector RWAs at present.
2. The person’s ambition is to storm into politics and of course, RWA may be the first step to achieve it.
3. The person is fed up with the job done by an existing RWA and wants to change the team as he or she doesn’t like them at all or that’s the only way he can improve the living conditions surrounding him.
4. The person loves to be in a position of authority. However, when I am writing it, for a sector RWA, I don’t know why the word illusion and Ghalib’s lines ‘Dil ke khush rakhne…” are continuously knocking my mind. Anyway, not to hurt anybody, let us call sector RWAs ‘a low empowered body’. And from the motivation point of view, let us say some people like to be in a head position, in the local language ‘Chowdhary’ of the area.
5. The person really wants to do social service. I am sure youngsters reading it may even call it ‘social service, my foot’. But we believe yes, even if there are very few people of this kind in today’s time, yes, they may exist or at least let us not lose hope.
6. Last but not the least, some people enter a governing body just to support the main guys because they have to complete a team of eleven people. No other motivation, no other interest.

Given the above points, I don’t understand why government bars the RWA officials, which have maintenance collection, I mean society RWAs, to draw some payout monthly for three main positions namely the president, the secretary and the treasurer. If all politicians get paid, why not allow them as well. Of course, there might exist a government regulation on defining a maximum cap that these officials should be allowed to draw, but why none? Why not add this legal monetary motivation as well so that there is a wide participation?

Anyway, let me come back to the main line of discussion, i.e. sector RWAs.

The job of a sector RWA is to take care of common facilities like parks, common roads and other aspects like security. Given that it is not a mandatory body, in reality, the most of its tasks, or better say the most of the tasks that people expect from it, overlaps with the works of a municipal councilor. Go to small cities or other places where there is no RWA, you’ll find people talking to a municipal councilor for municipal related works.

And why not? It is a fact that a municipal councilor is the residents’ representative for the municipal related works of the ward that include streetlights and even indirectly the parks since the park maintenance fund to RWAs is also routed via a municipal corporation.

Some may mention, here, security and electricity. But the fact is as said above, streetlights also fall in the domain of a ward councilor. And then, anyone or any group of people can make a complaint for common areas as well. For that matter, even security can be handled by a group of people themselves like some park committees. Please also keep in mind that a sector RWA is not a mandatory obligation as on date.

The main drawback in the existing setup is since there is an overlapping of tasks, people go to the local RWA for Municipal issues while they should actually go to the municipal councilor as it is their domain. Of course, I am not discussing here the people who don’t want to do anything themselves when they face MC related issues, not even raising a complaint.

Due to this overlapping of the jobs, the accountability of such MC councilors actually does not come out practically and the reason most of the people in a ward where sector RWAs exist don’t even know who their councilor is.

The funny part is that a sector RWA is not a party in the Municipal decision body and is held accountable for the tasks which are actually supposed to be the domain of the Municipal councilor.

Please also remember that an MC councilor gets monthly compensation, allowances, funds and even an office support to carry on their tasks, apart from having closeness to the political setup, which provides them with enough motivation.

The question that might be boggling your mind at this stage would be “what are the works of an RWA then?”, especially since even park maintenance funds can be sent to a municipal councilor and they can pass it to the respective park committees as per need.

Well, that’s why I have titled this article “Scrap sector RWAs, bring smaller wards if need be?”, and that comes with a question mark. Should we or should we not, I leave it to you.

Let there exist a sector representative body, an RWA kind of thing as well, but its role should not overlap with the role of the MC ward councilor. Let a sector RWA be merely a residents’ representative body that would verify the end works being performed and for tasks other than municipal body jobs.

Also, there should only be three positions in such residents’ representative body, namely a president, a secretary and a treasurer and maybe two redundant members who only will come into picture when someone from the three positions resigns. The expenses for running such residents’ representative body can easily be covered by collections like local vendors such as kabadiwalas etc. and the membership fees if any.

So, the next time you see municipal jobs not being done in your area, hold your municipal councilor responsible wherever they have been elected.

Lastly, no state or political party should be allowed to be a part of the Municipal Councilor body directly. All the representatives should fight as an independent candidate so that their accountability does not hide behind a political party.

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