Abhijit Datta

Institutional Aspects of Urban Governance in India

In the time-frame of its evolution (since the British-India days) till the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, the author analytically examines the institutional aspects of urban governance in India. Clarifying its political ideology and reality, he discusses its typologies; functions, areal problems in big city governance, and municipal accountability. In conclusion, he expresses his apprehensions about em!!rgence of a civil society despite the 74th Amendment Act.

Constitutional Status of Local Government in India

THE QUESTION of according constitutional status to local government is . being discussed in a nwlt>er of countries--both unitary and federal, developed as well as;developing. Apart from West Geinia.ly and Japan, where constitutional reeognition W118 sanewhat forced by the Allied Powers after the WOrld War II, in recent times Brazil ana Nigeria have accordE:d such constitutional recognition to their local rg0vernments. currently, AUstralia is also actively considering suitable changes in the constitutions of the conrnonwealth and that of the states to grant suitable constitutional recognition to local government. rlie Draft European Charter of IDcal Self-Government (1982) prepared for adoption by the meJ!t)er-states of the COUncil of Europe provides for adequate legal protection to local authorities. In India, constitutional recognition to the panchayati raj bodies was suggested by the Asoka Mehta conmittee (1978) to accord requisite status to rural local government, as well as an assurance of their continuous functioning. 1 The All-India Council of Mayors has also been demanding, since 1977, suitable amendments to the constitution for providing safeguards against partisan supersessions to the nunicipal bodies and indefinite postponement of civic elections. Before we discuss the question of constitutional status of local government in India, a few terminological aspects need clarification. First, we refer local government to mean self-governing authorities with defiried powers, taxes and functions. Secondly, in spite of structural differences among the urban and rural local authorities, or even within the municipal authorities, the term local goverrunent~ would cover the entire family of· local self-governing entities. Thirdly, the term local· inplies a limited area where voter-proxi-

Constitutional Strengthening of Local Government in a Third World Federation

Concerned with emasculation of local governments in Third World federal polity due to several reasons, the author picks up a federal polity each from America (Brazil), Africa (Nigeria), and Asia (India) to examine, with a. comparative perspective, various prevalent methods of constitutional empowerment. Gaining useful insights therefrom, he identifies the directions of future constitutional strengthening of local government in India.

Financing Municipal Services

JN the context of growing urbanization and the ever-widening gap between the desired and the existing level of municipal services in India, a discussion of the problems and prospects of municipal finance becomes meaningful when this is preceded by a general consensus about the exact role and functions of the urban local bodies in the total governmental system of the country. Such a consensus unfortu· nately is hard to come by and the need for decentralized decisionmaking is neither clear to a society used to authoritarian rule nor to the upper-tier governments inheriting the legacies of colonial administration. Failure to face this basic political issue in the post-Independence attempts at reorganization of urban local government have led to contradictions between goals and recommended measures aimed at tightening of checks and balances in local decision-making process. This is paralleled by attempts at taking over local authority functions ·either through outright centralization or creation of special purpose bodies and State undertakings. Erosion of local functions is invariably followed by erosion of local revenue, so that the degree of discretion and flexibility in local fiscal policy approaches almost vanishing point. On the other hand, due to the somewhat ambivalent role of the urban local government, its transformation into an institution for development has not taken place. Even today, the basic municipal structure of the country remains the same as that created by Lord Ripon in the 1880s, which was primarily conceived as (a) means of political education for the growing intelligentsia of the country, and (b) providing relief to the Imperial exchequer. This stands in sharp contrast to the experiments in the field of rural panclwyats where attempts have been made to sustain local development through the external stimulus of plan assistance, but without the internal resources necessary for maintenance of gains already achieved.

National Level Municipal Training in India: Needed Reorientation

The author traces the past efforts at national-level municipal training in India and examines the working experience of its present institutional providers and the concerned sponsoring ministry. This is foll owed by an exploration of the emerging changes in municipal environment and the needed reorientation of municipal training within the context of municipal development. The author argues that training necessarily needs to be demand-driven in future, rather than supplybased as at present. He also highlights specific implications of such training reorientation in the municipal sphere.

Slums and the Urban Poor : Design for Sustainable Programmes

Following a discussion on poverty-related issues in urban slums, author examines sHbstantive aspects of urban poverty alleviation programmes covering their design, management and ·institution support. While favo11ri11g replaceme11t of the present area strategy by a comprehensive Natio11al approach, he suggests restr11ct11ri11g of municipal bodies for efficacy of delivery services to slums, in additio11 to roping in of CBO, NGOs and private sector.

Whither District Government

IN a thought-provoking paper Nirmal Mukarji has pleaded for devolution of political powers to directly elected district governments in the country. In an earlier paper Mukarji sketched out the structure of his proposed district government in Indias federal polity. 2 The present paper attempts to evaluate the Mukarji proposal in some detail and, in that context, highlight its implications for future restructuring of local government and the states field administration. The concluding section suggests a national consensus on the need for thorough-going reforms towards decentralisation of sub-state governments.

Organisation for Metropolitan Planning and Development

THE STUDY1 undertaken jointly by the Indian Institute of Public Administration and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, was focussed on: (i) the institutional framework l!lf the four metropolitan areas and the evolution of the metro-authorities; (ii) the role of the metro-authorities as a platform for interaction as a device for integration of metropolitan activities; (iii) the effectiveness of the metro-authorities in performing the tasks adopted; and (iv) the efforts for mobilisation of resources for metropolitan development by the existing public organisations operating in these areas. It was presumed that metropolitan planning and development needed a support system in terms of organisation, autonomy in decision-making and resource adequacy, so that the existing metro-authorities could function effectively. A series of working hypotheses were advanced around the four major areas of enquiry indicated above. The study covered the four metropolitan areas of the country, viz., Delhi, Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. Within these metropolitan areas, all public organisations responsible for physical development were studied so as to hazard some generalisations about the efficacy of the existing metro-authorities. A comprehensive check-list was prepared for collecting information on area delineation, the institutional milieu, evolution and role-effectiveness of the metro-authorities and the success of the public authorities in mobilising resources for metropolitan development.

Municipal Administration in the Coming Decades

THE PAST legacy and the present status of municipal government in India has by now been well documented. In addition, its future outlook and prospects also have been sketched out in at least two papers.1 Let us first summarise the salient points arising out of the two papers concerning the future system of municipal government before venturing into the more mundane level of future municipal administration in action.

A Functional Approach to Indian Federalism—Case Study of Urban Development

THE conventional method of enquiry into a federal system1 takes a formalistic turn where the approach is basically oriented towards the constitutional structure and relationships between the federal government and its component units. Nowhere has this approach been more succinctly reflected than in Diceys memorable phrase : Federalism ... means legalism .2 Such a formal approach has its obvious utility; but it is necessarily a limited approach. It takes for granted the provisions of a constitution and remains confined within their narrow bounds.