Decentralisation and urban local bodies

It is nearly two decades ever since constitutional safeguards were provided to the urban and rural local bodies, in a bid to decentralise the administration for effectively reaching the fruits of development to the people at the grass root level. albeit with their active participation. The principle was that the local people should be involved in the decision making process designed to meet their felt needs rather than somebody sitting far away doing the same.

But it has turned out to be a mirage. While one could see some progress in activating the panchayat system to meet the rural needs, it has practically been a non starter as for the urban local bodies are concerned. With the trend in the urbanization increasing the prognosis is not something which is palatable.

The irony is that the constitution is amended to provide safeguards to these local bodies, enabling legislations have also been made in some cases. But the problem, which has proved too insurmountable at the moment, has been the typical mindset on the part of administrators, political or bureaucratic who are singularly averse to the concept of sharing power, a legacy which the country has inherited from the colonial days.

Another tragedy has been that while there has been discussion in the past at one stage or other about improving the delivery system in the rural areas, such debate has been practically absent as for as the urban areas is concerned. And the urbanites remain totally insulated from whatever is happening in their domain and have hardly raised their voice to get their due guaranteed by the Constitution through the famous 74^th Constitutional amendment act – C A A.

The part lXA of the Constitution dealing with Municipalities (from Article 243P to Article 243ZG , including the Twelfth Schedule) lays down clearly as to what should be done to bring about the decentralisation and the functions and responsibilities entrusted to the urban bodies under the new dispensation planned.

It provides among other things for a two tier system of the municipal council and the ward committees for the municipality having a population of more than three lakhs (Art243S), (while a three tier system has been envisaged for the panchayats): the constitution of District Planning Committee for consolidation of the plans prepared by the panchayats and the municipalities in a district for preparing a draft development plan for the district as a whole and a separate planning committee for the metropolitan areas (Art.243ZE).

As for the functions are concerned, the Constitution requires the state legislatures are required to enact enabling legislations, to endow municipalities with such powers ad authority require4d to enable them to function as the institution of self government and responsibilities for the preparation of plans for economic development and social justice and performance of functions and the implementation of the schemes as may be entrusted to them including those in relation to the matter listed out in the twelfth schedule (Art.243W). A Finance Commission is to be constituted for distribution of net proceeds of taxes and others leviable by the state and to deal with allied matters (Art. 243Y).

But all these provisions have either remained in the statute books or if implemented they have remained on paper, making a no worthwhile addition to improve the ground level situation in the municipalities.

In Karnataka, the two tier system of the urban local bodies has not come into existence at all. Most of the municipalities continue to persist with a single tier system. No ward committees with elected members have been constituted at all. . The provision pertaining to the nomination of persons having special knowledge or experience in municipal administration (Art.243R(2)(ii) ) has been grossly abused as an instrument for distributing political patronage than as an instrument designed to finetune the working of the municipal bodies.

What is more galling is the manner in which the State Government has turned all the municipal bodies into subservient bodies as for the finances are concerned. Ever since the Devaraj Urs government bamboozled the municipal bodies to agree to the abolition of the octroi during the emergency, all the municipalities in Karnataka have become totally dependent on the state government for the doles. The alternative arrangement planned by the state government for the abolition of octroi has not proved to be a viable arrangement at all. When the governments finances are in the doldrums, how it be expected to help the municipalities to come out of the red. At the moment, property tax has been the only independent source of income, which is not adequate even to meet the salary bill.

Had the octroi been allowed to continue, it would have made the municipalities financially independent by the manner in which the volume of commercial activities has galloped over the decades and would have enabled them to plan for the development on their own without waiting for the doles from the government. Even now it is not too late to retrace the step. Unless the financial stability is assured, no municipality will be able to meet the aspirations of the people living in its area.

The twelfth schedule of the Constitution, which lists out the subjects, which come under the purview of the municipalities. Under this, urban planning including the town planning should come under the purview of the municipalities. But no move has been made to entrust the urban local bodies with this function. The State government for reasons known to it has allowed the separate entities like the urban development authorities constituted for various municipalities to exist and continue to perform the function, which should have been done by the municipalities. Besides, most of the Urban Development Authorities barring the BDA have no legal local standi, since they are the creation of executive orders of the government. And the money raked by these bodies, remains out of the reach of the municipalities. This arrangement has been persisted only as an avenue for handing out political patronage.

The constitution of the State Finance Commission to improve the finances of the urban bodies has hardly made the impact mainly because of the lackadaisical approach of the state governments. Two State Finance Commissions have given reports already and the report given by the third Commission has been pending with the state government for more than year. The State Government busy as it is in surviving from one crisis to another has been sleeping over the report. On the eve of the panchayat elections, which are just concluded, the state government woke up to say that it would take action on it and has not said anything on why it remained silent all these days.

The provision regarding the constitution of the DPCs for the districts and MPC for the metropolitan proposal also remain on paper, while the government officially claims that it has been implemented. (The claim was made even when Mr. M Y Ghorpade was the Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj). During the days of the Janata Dal government, when Mr. M P Prakash was the Minister for Rural Development, elections were held for choosing the members from the various municipal and rural bodies to the DPCs and then the matter was dropped all of a sudden. These bodies have not been constituted at all.

In nutshell one can say that the responsibility of not developing the municipalities as real local self government institutions, as the Constitution had laid down squarely rests on the state government. For its own reasons, the state government has turned them into vassals and has come in the way of their being developed as vibrant local self institutions.

Unfortunately, the municipal bodies are not conscious of what is being denied to them deliberately by the government. The main reason for the lack of interest or awareness has been the policy of the government in keeping the tenure of municipal chief as one year. Busy as they are in attending the reception on their assumption of office and participating in the farewell functions while demitting office, none of the municipal chiefs have any time to devote to ponder over what they are missing in the process. The proposal to either give a full five year term to the Mayor , by going for direct election and creating a Mayor-in-Council arrangement, which would give primacy to the elected body over the executive has fallen on deaf ears.

If the constitutionally elected government is a party to the gross transgression of the constitutional provisions, where should the appeal lie? This has been the tragedy, which we are witnessing in Karnataka today.

-0-A 4.01.11