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Concerns in Urban Local Governments

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June 17, 2018

What is the issue?

  • It is quarter century since the creation of municipalities under 74th Constitutional Amendment Act.
  • It is imperative at this juncture to assess the progress of municipal governance in India.

What are the concerns?

  • Limitations - Sates have fallen short of implementing the provisions of the 74th Amendment.
  • There are concerns in underlying constitutional design of urban local governments (ULGs).
  • Local governments are financially constrained.
  • They do not have the administrative capacity to carry out its functions.
  • ULGs are increasingly disempowered and depoliticised as an institution.
  • Power - The elected representatives at the city-level are rendered powerless.
  • In most municipal corporations, the mayor is largely the ceremonial head.
  • The executive powers are vested with the State government-appointed commissioner.
  • This disjuncture in municipal governance has been exploited by State governments.
  • Parastatal agencies - Various parastatal agencies are created by the State government.
  • These further deny municipal corporations their political role.
  • E.g. urban development authorities (building infrastructure), public corporations (water, electricity, transportation services, etc)
  • Even urban planning and land-use regulation is with State government-controlled development authorities.
  • These agencies function with certain autonomy.
  • Moreover they are accountable only to the State government, and not the local government.
  • Parastatal agencies and unelected commissioners are pre-74th Amendment legacies that have not been undone.
  • Depoliticisation - There is increasing depoliticisation of local government in recent years.
  • These seek to ring fence projects from local government.
  • E.g. Central government programmes such as the Smart Cities Mission.
  • This programme mandates the creation of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) for Smart Cities.
  • SPVs will have operational independence.
  • They will have autonomy in decision making and implementation.
  • State government can further delegate the decision-making powers available to the ULBs to the Chief Executive Officer of the SPV.
  • Disempowerment - Even for performing functions that are within its purview, local government requires State government permissions.
  • These include functions like levying local taxes or undertaking civic projects above a certain budget.
  • Municipalities are not yet autonomous units to be truly called as the “third tier” of government in India’s federal system.
  • The creation of parallel institutions further disempowers the elected local government.
  • It shows how higher levels of government distrust local politics.
  • Functions - Functions in 12th Schedule which a State government is expected to devolve to the local government should be relooked.
  • It does not include essential civic issues such as urban transportation, housing or urban commons.
  • Civic activism - This has often been focussed on the creation of two bodies mandated by the 74th Amendment.
  • They are the ward committees and metropolitan planning committees.
  • However, there is an over-reliance on such semi-representative bodies.
  • This does not augur well for creating a genuinely democratic city government.
  • Civil society’s emphasis on nominating its members into ward committees can further depoliticise local governments.
  • It could make them captive to the interests of certain elite resident welfare associations.
  • Exceptions - The 74th Amendment contains an industrial township exception.
  • A municipality need not be constituted in areas which are declared as industrial townships.
  • These provisions have been employed by State governments to keep local governments weak.
  • Distribution - The 73rd Amendment provides for three levels of panchayats at village, taluk, and district levels.
  • Unlike this, power in urban areas is concentrated in a single municipal body.
  • It could be the municipal corporation, municipal council or town panchayat.

What is the way forward?

  • Local governments must be increasingly acknowledged as inherently political spaces.
  • The present model of urban governance vesting power in a singular municipality should be relooked.
  • Urban governance reforms should focus on political empowerment of local government that promotes local democratic accountability.

 

Source: The Hindu

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