Municipal governance in India

In India, the Urban Local Bodies, also called municipalities, are self-government institutions responsible for the administration of cities, towns, and transitional areas within a state or Union Territory. The 74th amendment to the Constitution of India in 1992 provided constitutional framework for the establishment of Urban Local Bodies.
There are three types of Urban Local Bodies in India, which include municipal corporations governing large urban areas, municipal councils governing smaller urban areas, and nagar panchayats governing transitional areas from rural to urban. They are established by individual state governments and can differ in names, election method, or tier structure. The classification of these areas is at the discretion of the states, considering factors such as total population, population density, non-agricultural employment, annual revenue generation, among other criteria.

History

Municipal governance in India in its current form has existed since the year 1664. In 1664, Fort Kochi Municipality was established by the Dutch, making it the first municipality in the Indian subcontinent, which got dissolved when Dutch authority got weaker in the 18th century. The British followed with the formation of Madras Municipal Corporation in 1687, and then Calcutta and Bombay Municipal Corporation in 1726. In the early part of the nineteenth century almost all towns in India had experienced some form of municipal governance. In 1882 the then Viceroy of India, Lord Ripon, known as the Father of Local Self Government, passed a resolution of local self-government which lead the democratic forms of municipal governance in India.
In 1919, a Government of India Act incorporated the need of the resolution and the powers of democratically elected government were formulated. In 1935 another Government of India Act brought local government under the preview of the state or provincial government and specific powers were given.

74th Constitutional Amendment Act

It was the 74th amendment to the Constitution of India in 1992 that brought constitutional validity to municipal or local governments. Until amendments were made in respective state municipal legislations as well, municipal authorities were organised on an ultra vires basis and the state governments were free to extend or control the functional sphere through executive decisions without an amendment to the legislative provisions.
As per the 2011 Census, the key urbanised areas were classified as follows

Statutory Towns: All areas under statutory urban administrative units like Municipal Corporation, Municipality, Cantonment Board, Notified Town Area Committee, Town Panchayat, Nagar Palika, etc., are known as Statutory Towns. According to 2011 Census of India, there were 4041 statutory urban local bodies in the country as compared to 3799 as per Census of 2001.
Census Towns: All Administrative units satisfying the following three criteria simultaneously: i) A minimum population of 5,000 persons; ii) 75 percent and above of the male main working population being engaged in non–agricultural pursuits, and iii) A density of population of at least 400 persons per km². As per the 2011 Census, there were 3,784 Census Towns against 1,362 in 2001.

Statutory towns are of various kinds and the major categories include

The municipal corporations and municipalities are fully representative bodies, while the notified area committees and town area committees are either fully or partially nominated bodies. As per the Constitution of India, 74th Amendment Act of 1992, the latter two categories of towns are to be designated as municipalities or Nagar panchayats with elected bodies.
After the 74th Amendment was enacted there are only three categories of urban local bodies:

Among all urban local governments, municipal corporations enjoy a greater degree of fiscal autonomy and functions, although the specific fiscal and functional powers vary across the states. These local governments have larger populations, a more diversified economic base, and deal with the state governments directly. On the other hand, municipalities or Nagar panchayats have less autonomy, smaller jurisdictions, and have to deal with the state governments through the Directorate of Municipalities or through the collector of a district. These local bodies are subject to detailed supervisory control and guidance by the state governments.

State Municipal Acts

State Municipal Acts are legislations enacted by state governments to establish municipal governments, administer them, and provide a framework of governance for cities within the state. Every state has its own municipal act and some states have more than one municipal act, governing larger and smaller municipalities under different acts. Various processes including rules for elections, recruitment of staff, and demarcation of urban areas derived from the state municipal acts. Most Municipal Acts are enforced across all statutory urban areas in the respective states except the cantonment areas. The Government of India had issued a Model Municipal Law in 2003 which aimed to consolidate and amend the laws relating to the municipal governments in the various states and bring them into conformity with the provisions of the 74th CAA.

Responsibilities of urban local bodies

The municipal bodies of India are vested with a long list of functions delegated to them by the state governments under their respective municipal legislations.
The Twelfth Schedule of Constitution provides an illustrative list of eighteen functions, that may be entrusted to the municipalities.
Public health includes water supply, sewerage and sanitation, eradication of communicable diseases etc.; welfare includes public facilities such as education, recreation, etc.; regulatory functions related to prescribing and enforcing building regulations, encroachments on public land, birth registration and death certificate, etc.; public safety includes fire protection, street lighting, etc.; public works measures such as construction and maintenance of inner-city roads, etc.; and development functions related to town planning and development of commercial markets. In addition to the legally assigned functions, the sectoral departments of the state government often assign unilaterally, and on an agency basis, various functions such as family planning, nutrition and slum improvement, disease and Epidemic control, etc.
Besides the traditional core functions of municipalities, it also includes development functions like planning for economic development and social justice, urban poverty alleviation programs, and promotion of cultural, educational, and aesthetic aspects. However, conformity legislation enacted by the state governments indicates wide variations in this regard. Whereas Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Manipur, Punjab and Rajasthan have included all the functions as enlisted in the Twelfth Schedule in their amended state municipal laws, Andhra Pradesh has not made any changes in the existing list of municipal functions. Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal states have amended their municipal laws to add additional functions in the list of municipal functions as suggested in the twelfth schedule.
There is a lot of difference in the assignment of obligatory and discretionary functions to the municipal bodies among the states. Whereas functions like planning for the social and economic development, urban forestry and protection of the environment and promotion of ecological aspects are obligatory functions for the municipalities of Maharashtra, in Karnataka these are discretionary functions.
The provision of water supply and sewerage in several states has either been taken over by the state governments or transferred to state agencies. For example, in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, water supply and sewerage works are being carried out by the state-level Public Health Engineering Department or the Water Supply and Sewerage Boards, while liability for repayment of loans and maintenances are with the municipalities. Besides these state-level agencies, City Improvement Trusts and Urban Development Authorities, like Delhi Development Authority, have been set up in a number of cities. These agencies usually undertake land acquisition and development works and take up remunerative projects such as markets and commercial complexes, etc.
In terms of fiscal federalism, functions whose benefits largely confine to municipal jurisdictions and may be termed as the essentially municipal functions. Similarly, functions that involve substantial economics of scale or are of national interest may not be assigned to small local bodies. For valid reasons, certain functions of higher authorities are appropriate to be entrusted with the Municipalities – as if under principal-agent contracts and may be called agency functions that need to be financed by intergovernmental revenues. Thus instead of continuing the traditional distinction between obligatory and discretionary functions the municipal responsibilities may be grouped into essentially municipal, joint and agency functions.

Suggested municipal functions

The suggested functions to municipal corporations, municipalities, and town panchayats are listed in the table below.

Nomenclature

Municipal Corporation

Nagar Nigam and other names in different states in India are state government formed urban local bodies that work for the development of a metropolitan city, which has a population of more than 1 million. The growing population and urbanisation in various cities of India were in need of a local governing body that can work for providing necessary community services like health centres, educational institutes, and housing and property tax. They also replace street lights.
They are formed under the Corporations Act of 1835 which mainly deals with providing essential services in a major city. Their elections are held once in five years and the people choose the candidates. The largest corporations are in the eight metropolitan cities of India, namely Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Surat, and Pune. These cities not only have a large population but are also the administrative as well as commercial centres of the country.