Thursday, 23 March 2022.
The draft bill prepared by the government which aims to drastically reduce the number of municipal authorities has been withdrawn, following protests from three unions and opposition parties, Yeniduzen reported.
Critics of the ‘Local Administration Reform’ bill said that there had been no consultation with the unions or other stakeholders. While agreeing that there needs to be reform of local authorities, merely axing 15 of them was perfunctory and did not address the problem of how local authorities were run, they said.
Therefore, by way of a compromise with the opposition parties, the government has withdrawn the draft bill and it has been proposed that a parliamentary committee be set up to discuss how municipal reform can be best implemented. The aim being to achieve decentralisation, reduce the number of municipalities in consultation with all the regions while providing improved services to the community.