The latest amendment to the Decentralization Act and the Urban Planning and Management Act will prevent local councils from implementing any development projects on their own, Male' city Mayor Adam Azim has expressed concern.
Speaking at an event in Vaavu Felidhoo to mark the 66th anniversary of Felidhe atoll council, Azim said the two laws would take away almost all the land under the authority of the councils. He said this means councils will have very few things they can do.
"There needs to be very deep thoughts and ideas on this. These changes have come to the law. The law has made it difficult for city councils and [other] councils to do any development work on their own. The work left to the councils is cleaning cemeteries, sweeping streets, registration of birth certificates. Very simple tasks like this," he stated.
However, he said the councils should also be allowed to provide the important infrastructure needed by the people. He noted that President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu advocated for it when he was the Mayor of Male'.
“But with the changes brought to the law now, this is the opposite of his previous views,” Azim said.
He said the main reason for introducing decentralization in the world was that developing countries, with all the responsibilities under the central government, were not seeing development at the pace the people wanted. That is why the people of these countries started pushing for decentralization, he said.
"The results of this in these countries have been very bright. This has led to projects that meet the needs of the people using fewer economic resources," Azim said.
That system established a transparent policy and provided an opportunity for the people to monitor those who were there to provide services and reduced the doors leading to corruption, he added.
