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Performance of Urban Governments
The significance and role of urban local governments, as an integral part of local self-government has substantially increased with the advent of independence. Consequently they could not remain only field agencies for the development and maintenance of civic services and for the execution of national programmes in their respective areas but they were also called upon to act as primary units of democratic governments. There is, however, a common feeling, that they have failed to achieve the twin objectives referred to above. The expected role of the urban local governments to act as a forum of political education has not been realized at all. Democracy rests on the assumption that a government is basically an affair of the people and that all the problems are to be solved with fuller participation and consent of the people. The municipal committees and corporations have unfortunately failed to perform such a role since their supersessions have been rampant and they have not been resuscitated for years on end and elections to some of them have not been held for decades ever since their inception.
The people all over the country feel that the urban local governments have failed to meet their aspirations. The general level of administrative efficiency has been deplorably low; the standards of civic amenities have been disgusting, factionalism, and groupism have been vicious; corruption and graft have been endemic; a healthy civic ethos has not evolved; right type of civic leadership has not developed and morale has been, by and large, at a very low ebb.
Causes for Poor Performance of Urban Local Governments and Its Remedies
Some of the factors responsible for and the causes contributing to the poor performance of urban local governments may be enumerated as follows:
Explosion of Population and Urbanization
Our country is becoming urbanized at an alarming rate. There are at present 285 million people living in 3,301 urban settlements all over the country and by 2001 when the total population of the country is projected to exceed one thousand million, urban population is likely to swell to 350 million, representing 35 per cent of the total population. The rising number have accentuated the problem of urban squalor and placed heavy strains on basic civic services.
Century Old Structure of Municipal Bodies
Our urban local bodies are hampered in providing even the minimum basic needs by a structure that is 117 years old and their system of functioning which is equally ancient. While Article 40 of the Constitution casts a mandate on the state to ensure the working of village panchayats, there is no specific corresponding mandate regarding urban local bodies. These are, however, specified in Entry 5 of the State List. The Central Council of Local Self Government and Urban Development has passed several resolutions about the need for the constitutional recognition of local bodies and for statutory delineation of their powers, functions and resources. The All India Council of Mayors, as also the National Commission on Urbanization, has stressed the grant of constitutional status to urban local governments. The absence of adequate constitutional provision for urban self-government had landed municipal administration in a mess in most parts of the country. The urban local bodies, therefore, need to be granted a constitutional safeguard for their revitalization.
Absence of Any Criterion for Constituting Urban Governments
There is no generally accepted set of criteria regarding even what constitutes an urban agglomeration, let alone the manner in which it should be run. The colonial categorization of India with separate rural and urban India and devising separate sets of structure for them does not suit our country any longer. In the colonial system of municipal administration, there was no place for development planning and no role for development activity. The development of India is not possible without planning for development in our urban settlements, as much as in our rural settlement. Indeed, planning as the crucial interface between the rural hinterland and the urban settlement will be the chief progenitor of accelerated growth. There is, therefore, the need for a linking structure between the rural hinterland and the urban growth centre and to achieve this, the existing structure needs to be recast with ‘nagar panchayats’ representing transitional structure, establishment of two tier system for the medium size towns—the lower tier comprising the small elected unit for each locality, ward or mohalla to whom the municipality will devolve local powers, local responsibilities and such finances as are required to carry out their assigned tasks; and a three tier system with intermediate tier corresponding to the Borough Council in corporation areas, which could have functions similar to the administered zones which exist in cities like Bombay and Delhi. This measure would facilitate democratic decentralization, more effective participation and more responsible municipal administration.
Postponing of Elections for Indefinite Periods
Elections to municipal bodies as mentioned earlier are not held for decades after their coming into being or at regular intervals thereafter, and to the superseded municipal institutions for an indefinite period. The state government’s well developed allergy for local elections stems from the reasons that they become the barometer of the political parties’ standing with the masses; the state governments feel safer and more secure to deal with bureaucracy placed at the helm of civic administration than with the popularly elected councillors and corporators and municipal bodies run on a system of graft and patronage cannot stand scrutiny by elected bodies. The state government has thus been able to insulate civic administration from the people and run it by edicts from the state capitals. In order to ensure the functioning of democracy at grass-roots level, it should be obligatory for the state government to hold elections to local bodies at the expiry of the term of the council and no extension should be granted to their tenure and they should not be superseded without judicial scrutiny and elections should be held within a period of six months of supersession.
Misuse of Co-option
The device of co-option is intended to avail of the services of public spirited and seasoned persons who refrain from fighting elections due to the inconveniences involved. But, unfortunately, this device is exercised to get berths to their supporters by the political parties commanding majority in the councils. It would be desirable to make use of this provision by co-opting the right type of people irrespective of their party affiliations to serve best the interests of the inhabitants of the town/city.
Indirect Election of Chiefs of Municipal Councils
Direct elections of the president/mayors would be more democratic as compared to indirect elections and, therefore, should be preferred.
Absence of Proportional Representation System for Sub-Committees
The election of sub-committees on the basis of proportional representation system and devolution of powers on them will further improve the functioning of civic bodies.
Erosion of Municipal Functions
Municipal committees and municipal corporations are assigned by the state government a large number of functions of almost identical nature, with the only difference that the municipal corporations have been endowed with greater powers and finances. The functions are classified into obligatory and optional, the former are concerned with the minimum basic needs of the city people such as paved streets, metalled roads, drainage, sewerage, lighting and water supply, while the latter aim at improving quality of their life by providing such facilities as gardens, parks, swimming pools, play-grounds, stadia and other recreational facilities, institutions of higher educations, libraries, reading rooms, cultural and art galleries, tourist resorts and other programmes for the beautification of the city. After Independence their functions should have increased to tackle the problems of tremendous increase in urbanization and population and to achieve the objectives of a socialist and welfare state to which our polity is committed. On the contrary, the municipal bodies have suffered a great setback in the steady diminution of their functions which have either been taken over by the state governments themselves or transferred to special purpose agencies on the pretext of their inefficiency and inadequacy to perform them.
Failure of Municipal Bodies to Perform Their Functions in a Satisfactory Manner
It is regrettable that the performance of municipal committees has been disappointing in carrying out even their obligatory functions, and more so in regard to their discretionary functions. They have not been able to provide basic civic amenities to their population generally and especially in the suburbs which comprise of unauthorized and unplanned colonies accommodating 50 per cent of their population, piped water supply and sewerage facilities have covered only a minority of population, roads are in deplorable conditions, encroachments are galore, unsafe buildings continue to constitute a constant threat to the lives of the inhabitants, stray cattle are on the increase, traffic hazards are unabating, insanitation and unhygienic conditions in the form of heaps of garbage are a nuisance even in posh localities, and slums have emerged in almost all parts of the cities.
The cities can be restored their pristine glory and made liveable if the state governments make a judicious selection of functions to be assigned to them and do not impose upon them such functions as transport which have proved a great liability for every city; and make adequate provisions for finance, the lack of which has rendered many municipal bodies unable to take up any development work in their respective areas. It has been rightly observed that devolution of powers and functions necessarily involves devolution of finances also. The state governments, therefore, should observe this principle if they want the urban bodies to discharge their functions effectively.
Deficiencies in Personnel Management
Municipal services were provincialized in various states with a view to eliminate the evils of nepotism, favouritism and political patronage of separate personnel system and to ensure their efficient performance. But unfortunately this innovation seems to have failed to realize the desired objectives of recruitment on merit by centralized selection committee, better avenues of promotions, more favourable conditions of service including transferability, etc., due to the reasons that municipal services selection committees, dominated as they are by ex-officio bureaucrats and experts nominated by the government to the exclusion of any public men, fail to inspire confidence of fair recruitment. The importance of training for the municipal staff has not been realized as no training facilities have been made available in most of the states through the establishment of training institutes. The promotion avenues though provided to an extent of 50 per cent from within are seldom available in practice owing to the lack of finalization of seniority lists for decades and the complicated and dilatory procedures. The pay scales are not comparable with those of state services. The transfers are done at the whims of the bureaucrats sometimes en masse which not only result in avoidable inconvenience to the transferees but also smack of money changing hands. Corruption is rampant so much that the Executive Officers are suspended and the Vigilance Bureaus are obliged to look into alleged irregularities in the functioning of Municipal bodies including charges of corruption levelled against high-ups in the administrative hierarchy. Several vacancies existing in the sanitation, octroi, water supply and fire brigade departments of the corporations and the committees are not filled for years on end. Municipal councillors are sore that their authority has been eroded and whereas the municipal personnel are paid by their respective municipal bodies, they are not amenable to their control and so on.
The remedy lies in exploring the desirability of revamping the municipal services selection committees by inducting in them men of integrity or setting up of Municipal Civil Service and the establishment of Municipal Civil Service Commission on the pattern of State Public Service Commission as such an autonomous and statutory body will not only ensure selection on merit but also contribute to depoliticizing the administrative process and help dilute occasional tensions between the officers and counicillors, making arrangements for the training of municipal councillors and personnel, simplifying promotion procedures and granting promotions expeditiously when due; improving conditions of service by equating these with those of state government employees in matters of pay-scales, allowances, gratuity and pension. (Haryana Government has accepted the demands of Haryana Nagarpalika Karamchari Mahasangh to grant parity in pay scales to municipal employees on a par with government employees as the per announcement of Dr Mangal Sel, the then deputy chief minister of Haryana made on 31 July 1989 while addressing the state level convention of the Mahasangh), formulating a sound policy of transfers and particularly ensuring that the heads of the Directorate of Local Government complete their full term of three years to ensure continuity of policy and holding them responsible for their proper implementation; and taking strong disciplinary action against those found guilty of committing irregularities and indulging in graft.
Financial Scarcity
Municipal finances are in an unmitigated mess, due to the failure of the municipal councillors to impose and revise different kinds of levies and taxes owing to the fear of incurring the displeasure of their constituents, evasion of municipal revenues, calculation of octroi, one of the main sources of income, on weight and not on their value basis, exemption on octroi given to certain industrial units, accumulation of arrears into crores of rupees, meagre amount of grants, their non-utilisation or diversion to purposes other than those for which they were sanctioned, rigid stipulation for raising of loans with the prior approval of the state government and Reserve Bank of India and the non-seriousness on the part of the state governments to either determine or siphon off to the municipal bodies their share, despite the statutory provisions, which the state governments are violating with impunity.
Financial stringency has become the biggest hurdle for almost all municipal bodies on account of ever increasing expenditure on establishment which has gone up to about 60 per cent of the income, virtually no money is available for development work; municipal committees of many small towns even find it difficult to disburse salaries to their employees in time; many civic bodies have not been able to provide even the basic civic amenities in the areas which have been included in their jurisdiction during the last couple of decades, these suburbs, in many cases, have no arrangement even for scavenging of streets, much less the facility of piped water supply and sewerage systems; municipal committees have defaulted the payment of their share of the cost of water supply and sewerage works carried out in their areas. Some municipal institutions are facing great financial crisis and a few of them are virtually on the brink of bankruptcy.
Municipal bodies can overcome their financial crisis if the municipal councillors exploit, to the maximum possible extent, the resources which they are empowered to determine and raise, if evasion of municipal revenues is checked and leakage is plugged by raising flying squads, and by deploying municipal police and municipal magistracy for expeditious decisions of cases as these have been found to be quite effective in some municipal bodies; the exemption on octroi given to industrial units is withdrawn, grants-in-aid are liberalized, system of special matching grants is introduced and loans procedures are simplified and municipal bodies are allowed access to commercial banks; they are assured of their share in revenues accruing to them under the statute by the state government; are encouraged to take up remunerative enterprises, exercise economy in expenditure; a Revolving fund, a Municipal Finance Corporation, an Urban Development Finance Corporation, similar to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) which has functioned with great success in rural India, are set up to help them in meeting their financial needs as also Municipal Finance Commission is constituted on the lines of National Finance Commission to review municipal finances and recommend principles on the basis of which sound finances of the municipal bodies can be secured.
Excessive State Government Control
It has been a continuous curse on our urban local bodies that they have been under the control of state governments and their bureaucracy. The state governments have always treated them as appendages to the departments. Despite the constitution of Directorate of Local Government and the establishment of its field agencies, the Deputy Commissioners continue to exercise their erstwhile powers with the same vigour. It is because there is no clear cut demarcation of powers of the Regional Deputy Directors and the Deputy Commissioners, and sometimes their jurisdictions and functions overlap resulting in confusion and inefficiency. There is, therefore, simmering demand that the Directorate should be wound up as it has proved to be very costly to the municipal bodies who are since required to contribute substantially for its maintenance.
Supersessions, the most obnoxious type of control, have been rampant, arbitrary and prolonged. Some municipal bodies have remained superseded for decades. Elections to some of them have not been held even since their inception. The local self-government institutions have thus become defunct, moribund and non-existent. The urban local bodies are at the mercy of the state government for their finances, inhibited as they are in matter of imposing are raising taxes, etc. without government approval, and depend as they do, on the state government for sanction of loans and allocation of uncertain and meagre grants and faced as they are with similar rigidities in matters of expenditure. The state control over civic bodies has thus been restrictive, negative and oppressive. It is high time to grant them democratic freedom to function independently and to provide them guidance and cooperation in managing their own affairs. Resort to supersession should be made very sparingly subject to the approval of the state legislature and dissolved bodies should be reconstituted within six months.
In order to ensure healthy relationship between the state government and urban bodies, the Directorate of Local Government which is a bureaucratic organization and has failed to deliver goods may be replaced by a Board which should be headed by a minister of local government and reflect a sufficiently large democratic element.
Finally, the judiciary, which plays an important role in securing justice to the aggrieved parties against the arbitrary and unlawful actions of municipal bodies and state government, should inter alia ensure expeditious justice. Establishment of municipal courts could be one of the means to achieve this objective.
In short, the government control should not be so meticulous or minute as to destroy the autonomy or self-reliance of urban local bodies; rather the purpose of state control should be to develop the local selfgovernment institutions as efficient institutions of administration capable alike to formulating policies and executing them.
Partisan Role of Political Parties
However, forcefully with logical, cogent and canvassing arguments we may deny and decry the participation of political parties in municipal governments, inter alia, for the reason that civic affairs being non-ideological and concerned with improvement of civic life of the people should not be conducted on partisan basis, yet we cannot afford to be oblivious of the fact that political parties do involve themselves overtly or covertly in civic affairs. They operate at two levels. First, the political party wielding power at the state level acts as the arbiter of the fate of Municipal bodies by their partisan decisions in determining whether election for them should be held or not, notifying or withholding the notification of the elected President, removing or disqualifying the councillors, making appointments, effecting transfers and removing Executive Officers and other municipal staff, accepting or rescinding the resolutions of municipal councils and finally superseding them and postponing their election for indefinite periods.
Secondly, political parties operate within the municipal bodies themselves. Political parties contest elections by putting up their own candidates or extending support to independents, elect the president and vice-president on party lines, co-opt the members from their own parties, constitute sub-committees on party basis, and take decisions on various issues on party considerations. The Presidents exercise their casting votes to promote their party interest and political considerations are the determining factor in recruitment and promotion of municipal employees and for taking disciplinary action against them. Above all, political parties indulge in the pernicious game of defections resulting in the erosion of ethical values, changing the complexion and character of political set-up in the council and leading to rise and fall of office bearers and deterioration in administration.
In view of the fact that political parties play a significant role in municipal administration, their participation in civic affairs should be given due recognition; and they should play a constructive and healthy role by laying down proper norms and rules for nominating their candidates for election, actively campaigning for them on relevant issues, educating them for faithful execution of their responsibilities for the welfare of the citizens, exercising control over them and taking action against them if they default. Similarly, the party in power in the state government should consider the interests of the city people to be supreme and they should decide the civic issues on their merit and not on party lines. Such an approach on the part of the political parties would go a long way in mitigating the vices of political intervention in municipal administration and in ensuring the promotion of healthy civic life.
In order to remove the defects and deficiencies in the construction, composition, functions and powers of the municipal bodies and to revamp and rejuvenate them so as to enable them to work as efficient and effective democratic institutions, the Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992, relating to municipalities (known as the Nagarpalika Act) was passed by Parliament in the winter session of the Parliament of 1992 and it received the assent of the President on 20th April 1993. The act seeks to provide a common framework of the structure as effective democratic units of local self-government. It is expected that the faithful implementation of the various provisions of the Act will absolve the urban local governments of their infirmities and shortcomings highlighted in the foregoing discussion of their unsatisfactory performance.