Centre to Form Joint Panel with CoRWA

Hyderabad: In a move expected to bring the concerns of resident welfare associations (RWAs) into national policy discourse, the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs has agreed to form a joint committee with the Confederation of Resident Welfare Associations (CoRWA), a pan-India RWA federation headquartered in Tarnaka, Hyderabad.

The decision was taken during a meeting held in New Delhi on Tuesday between CoRWA representatives and Union minister Manohar Lal Khattar. The minister directed joint secretary Kuldeep Narayan to hold consultations with CoRWA on setting up the joint committee and on addressing urban civic issues regularly.

Hyderabad-based B.T. Srinivasan, secretary-general of CoRWA, who was part of the delegation, said the initiative could finally give structured national visibility to city-level issues. “RWAs in Hyderabad have long struggled with waste, water, and infrastructure concerns. This joint panel gives us a mechanism to be heard directly by policymakers,” he said.

CoRWA also pushed for stronger enforcement of solid waste rules. Its national adviser Rajan Chhibber urged the ministry to issue advisories under Section 15 and Para C of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, directing all municipal corporations to establish sanitary landfills by year-end. “Every city is piling up garbage. Without landfills, this will only worsen,” he said.

Col Tejendra Pal Tyagi (retired), CoRWA’s national president, described RWAs as “elementary schools of democracy” and said CoRWA had brought together municipal voices from across India through 12 years of national conferences and four All-India Mayor–RWA summits.

The delegation also requested that a dedicated nodal officer be appointed within the Ministry to coordinate with CoRWA on civil society matters and urban complaints from RWAs across the country.

The minister is said to have reportedly responded positively to all key demands and assured that the joint committee would be operationalised soon.