01094pab a2200145 454500008004000000100002300040245006500063260000900128300001400137362001100151520071500162650001500877650002200892773003400914180718b2007   xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aRamanathan, Ramesh  aFederalism, urban decentralisation and citizen participation  c2007  ap.674-81.  a24 Feb  aWhile panchayati raj institutions for the rural areas, created after great and prolonged struggle, have given rural dwellers their self-governance structures and a fair degree of empowerment, nothing similar has been done for urban dwellers. Participatory involvement of citizens in and accountability of local self-governance structures are almost totally absent in urban areas. The author discusses the work of a non-governmental organisation in which he is actively involved in attempting to create informal structures that seek to redress this shortcoming and offers a charter for more formally recognised structures that could be organised on a wider scale to give the urban dweller a voice. - Reproduced.  aFederalism  aUrban development  aEconomic and Political Weekly