Nagar Trends: Power of a Nagar

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Cities in India have long been shaped by constitutional changes, but how much power do they really have? Our pan-India study with Praja Foundation is digging deep into the reality of urban governance, exploring the gap between what’s on paper and what’s happening on the ground. From administrative control to actual decentralisation, the study unveils surprising insights. Are our cities truly empowered, or just caught in the maze of state control?

Source: JPI Urban

Cities in Indian Constitution

Originally, the Indian constitution did not have an explicit focus on cities or city governance. When the constitution was adopted, the priority was to integrate states and territories in the newly formed country based on the pre-independence governance structures. Later, the states were reorganised linguistically. Local-level institutions such as panchayats and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) gained attention in the early 1990s when the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Indian Constitution recognised them as the third tier of the government. The 12th Schedule was added through the 74th Amendment, with 18 functions meant to be devolved to the ULBs listed in this schedule. These 18 functions were to be the remit of the urban local bodies. Some of the already existing schedules include a list of states and union territories; their respective functions (union list, state list and concurrent list); and administration and governance of scheduled areas, tribal areas and panchayats.

All the Municipal Acts list anywhere between 40 and 50 functions to be undertaken by the ULBs. Kerala’s Act has approximately 150 different functions.

Pan-India Study

Nāgrika has been conducting a pan-India mapping of the implementation status of the 74th Amendment and municipal functions enshrined in the 12th Schedule. This is being done as part of a knowledge partnership project. The project is an urban governance study led by Praja Foundation, a non-partisan organisation working towards enabling accountable governance. Praja’s initiative aims to advocate policy changes that will change the way Indian cities are governed. It is a multi-year project in nature, with ground research as the foundation being used to form a pan-India network and influence change across the country. The Nagrika team have already visited 16 out of the 29 states which are part of the study.

Objective

The primary objective of the Nagrika component of the larger study is to build an evidence base on the status of decentralisation of municipal functions at the city level by collecting it directly from the cities. The study is analysing how empowered the municipal corporations are to undertake those functions in terms of staff and capacity, financial resources, legal mandate, and autonomy in decision-making.

Source: EduRev

For each of the states, we have analysed the municipal acts to understand the functions provided to the city governments as per these acts. We have also verified with the city governments directly how many of those functions are performed by them and various other state or national-level agencies. In addition, we are identifying the prevalent institutional structures across different states and municipalities along with the roles and responsibilities of various departments and officials (elected as well as administrative) within the municipalities and local/regional civil society organisations working on governance issues.

Preliminary Reflections from the Study

Nagrika presented some of its reflections on its study in a regional-level roundtable organised by Praja Foundation in Feb 2019 in New Delhi. The consolidated findings of the study will be presented in due course of time. Our initial findings from the first 6 states, as well as regional and state-level consultations held to validate the findings, are available here.

a. Composition of the functions

Though the 12th Schedule lists 18 functions, these 18 functions themselves are actually composed of many more functions. All the Municipal Acts list anywhere between 40 and 50 functions to be undertaken by the ULBs. Kerala’s Act has approximately 150 different functions.

Within the 18 functions, there are a few functions which contain more than one function. For example, the ‘Promotion of Cultural, Educational and Aesthetic Aspects’ is one function, but a municipality requires different resources and skills for promoting cultural activities, running educational institutions and enhancing aesthetics in a city. ‘Public amenities including street lighting, parking, bus stops, and public conveniences’ is also considered one function, but each of these is a distinct function.

Then there are others which might sound like one function but have multiple parts, like urban planning. This function includes the creation of a spatial plan as well as its execution. The agencies, as well as the skills required for designing a plan versus enforcing a plan, are also different. Given the multi-dimensional composition of the functions, there are various gaps and overlaps between the agencies that perform these functions. The study has identified these multi-dimensional functions as well as details regarding their funding and functionaries who perform them.

b. Administrative decentralisation versus Deliberative Decentralisation

The study also analysed the level of decentralisation at city level for both the deliberative and administrative wings. The study highlighted the differences that exist in the relative level of decentralisation between these two wings at the city level. For instance, the difference that exists between the two wings with regards to the implementation of 18 functions in terms of the administrative department or staff assigned to the function versus elected councillors or deliberative bodies (such as standing committees) assigned for them.

c. De facto vs De jure

There is a wide variation in what is included in the Municipal Act and what is practised on the ground. The study found the variances between the law and the practice for issues such as ward committees, integration of municipal plans with District Planning Committees’ plans, and delegation of functions listed in the 12th Schedule, among others. It also highlights the detailed analysis of these 18 functions in terms of what is provided in the Act, what performing the function entails, who performs them, what the challenges are in performing them and so on.

d. Devolution versus control

Analysing the Acts against the prevalent practices across the cities, we identified the various ways and means through which effective devolution is subservient to control of national/state departments or parastatal agencies. Most acts give control to state governments, including the power to dissolve corporations. This control is manifested in various other forms as well, such as the appointment of posts in the municipalities, inspection of municipal works, overseeing implementation of municipal activities, granting approvals for works that municipalities undertake, etc.

Most of the municipal acts define the municipal functions either as obligatory and discretionary, the former being the essential functions to be performed by the municipality and the latter being not essential but at the corporation’s discretion. The study highlights how the control of the municipal functions is spread between the essential and discretionary functions and who holds the discretion for the performance of the function.

The study is a positive step towards documenting the vast amount of existing but diffused knowledge on the functioning of the third tier of the government, i.e., city government, a.k.a. municipalities. It is putting together a credible evidence base from across the country on the opportunities and challenges that exist in empowering this tier of the government that is closest to citizens.