Citizens' participation through the involvement of Community Based Organisations and NGOs in improving the delivery of civic services and improving the urban environment has been encouraged by the M.C.G.M through the various mechanisms and schemes such as Advanced Locality Management (ALM); Dattak Vasti Yojana; Online Complaint Management System (OCMS); adoption of garden and footpaths; construction, operation and maintenance of toilets etc.

Under the ALM set-up local citizens' groups called ALMs interact with M.C.G.M officials once a month in the Ward office. The meetings are normally chaired by Asst. Municipal Commissioner of the concerned Ward and are attended by all Sectional Heads of the Ward. In order to ensure delivery and proper monitoring of quality civic services with the full participation of community, it has been found necessary to further decentralize the monitoring mechanism.

Based on the feedback about the urgent need to strengthen Citizens' participation with greater involvement of elected representatives and voluntary citizens' groups in the improvement of the urban environment and delivery of civic services at the local level, it has now been decided to create a de-centralized mechanism for regular interaction between Voluntary Citizens' Groups, representing a Beat of 3 -5 roads, elected Councillors and Municipal officials by forming Local Area Citizens' Committees taking each Councillor Ward as a unit. This will help to develop proper understanding and co-ordination between Voluntary Citizens' Groups, elected Councillors and Municipal Officials for achieving timely and efficient delivery of municipal services and bringing about a better physical environment at the local level by creating awareness among citizens about their civic rights and responsibilities.

A Local Area Citizens' Committee (L.A.C.C.) will be formed at each Councillor's Ward to deal with the following subjects:
1. Cleanliness and Garbage Collection
2. Water Supply and Sanitation
3. Regulation of hawking
4. Safety of pedestrians and parking of vehicles
5. Maintenance of Roads, Footpath and Storm Water Drains, including installation and maintenance of street furniture and bus stops and proper regulation of digging and re-instatement of trenches excavated by utilities
6. Road side and public gardens
7. Disaster Management
8. Any other matter relating to public safety, public health and public amenities and decided by the Committee.

The Committee will consists of:
1. Asst. Commissioner of Ward
2. Municipal Councillor of the Ward
3. Jr. Engineer (Maintenance)
4. Jr. Engineer (Water Works)
5. License Inspector
6. Jr. Overseer of SWM
7. Jr. Overseer of Pest Control Office
8. ALM of the areas
9. Voluntary area representatives selected by the Asstt. Commissioner for each beat in the Councillor's Ward.

Each V.A.R will nominate one person to attend the meetings of the L.A.C.C

The Asstt. Commissioner will act as Convener of the Committee.

Voluntary Area Representatives (V.A.R) will be selected by the Asstt. Commissioner of the Ward for every Beat consisting of a cluster of buildings (residential, commercial and / or others) on 3-5 roads. This means each Councilors Ward will have around 8-12 Beats, each Beat represented by a V.A.R. The Asstt. Commissioner of the Ward will select V.A.Rs for beats other than those already represented by existing ALM Groups based on the past record of their activities and their capacity and willingness to work with M.C.G.M to create awareness among citizens about their civic responsibilities and facilitate co-operation between citizens and civic officials in respect of the matters included within the purview of the L.A.C.C.

Meetings of Local Area Citizens' Committees will be held at pre-selected Municipal School buildings every week (preferably Saturday) and will be attended by the Asstt. Commissioner of the Ward or his representative who is not below the rank of Asstt. Engineer, such as Asstt. Engineer (Water Works), Asstt. Engineer (Maintenance), Asstt. Engineer (Building and Factories), Medical Officer Health or Asstt. Head Supervisor. The Asstt. Commissioner of the Ward shall attend the meeting of every L.A.C.C at least once in a month and he may invite the officer-in-charge of the local police station, traffic police and / or concerned officer of the B.E.S. & T and others public / private utility services to attend meetings of the L.A.C.C to deal with issues concerning them whenever required.

Any one J.E. or J.O. who is a member of the concerned L.A.C.C will be made responsible by the Asstt. Commissioner of the Ward to draw minutes of the meeting and submit the same to Asstt. Commissioner and circulate to all the concerned section / departments / agencies for taking necessary action. He will also prepare action taken reports for the Committee after obtaining reports from all concerned. The Municipal Commissioner will review the formation of the L.A.C.Cs. and their functioning every month from December, 2004 onwards.