New Delhi: Empowerment of mayors, increased citizen participation in city governance, reducing multiplicity of agencies and developing a framework to facilitate rural to urban transition are some of the major structural reforms the Narendra Modi government aims to bring to strengthen municipal governance.
For this, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has constituted five working groups on urban governance reforms, ThePrint has learnt.
While the Centre has come up with several schemes such as Swachh Bharat Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Smart Cities Mission, among others, in the past decade—to improve civic services in cities and also strengthen urban planning and governance—a need was felt to address urbanisation challenges by introducing changes in the political and administrative setup, a senior official in the MoHUA told ThePrint.
Senior ministry officials also said the working groups have been constituted on the directions of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to strengthen urban governance in cities.
The issue was discussed at length during the ‘Chintan Shivir’ organised by the ministry in May, another senior official said.
In a 6 November order, the ministry said: “There was inadequate focus on initiating structural reforms in urban governance that requires systemic changes in the existing structure of city governance. Therefore, it is imperative to focus on achieving sustainable and incremental governance reforms that would bring changes in the structure and power of city government”.
The working groups will examine five key areas: reforms at political level, administrative reforms, redefining the role of parastatal organisations, transition systems for rural-urban continuum, and capacity building at local level.
They will submit a report that will recommend models for a municipal Act, recruitment rules, human resource policy, framework for transition system for rural-urban continuum, among others, within three months, the order said.
Over the years, the number of statutory towns has increased from 4,041 (according to the 2011 Census) to around 4,900, senior officials said. A statutory town is one that is legally defined as urban and has a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee.
Urban development experts say that there is a need to develop a framework for planned development of peri-urban areas for swift transition from rural to urban, and that the current city governance system needs to be relooked at.
“Our states urgently need a rural-urban transition policy to deal with fast-paced urbanisation of our villages and ensure it in a planned and sustainable manner. Nearly 970 new statutory towns have been created since 2011 and the pace of urbanisation of villages will only increase in the years to come,” Srikanth Viswanathan, CEO of Bengaluru-based think tank Janaagraha, told ThePrint.
“Therefore, we need to prepare them for the transition and do it in a systematic manner. To prepare for this transition, there is a need to revisit our municipal acts with respect to the definition of ‘urban’. The definition of urban need not be the same across the country, but it should be in a more scientific manner,” he said.
ThePrint reached the MoHUA via WhatsApp for a comment. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
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Empowering mayors, ensuring citizen participation
One of the key deliverables of the working group is to recommend a model municipal Act by examining the possibility of redefining the role and responsibility of the mayor and elected representatives.
The present municipal acts in states provide administrative power to executive functionaries (bureaucrats) and involve a limited role of mayors.
Apart from empowering mayors, the working group will also look into the role of councillors in decision making, and improving citizen participation in area development and involvement in preparation of municipal budget, among others.
“There is an urgent need for reforms in the city governance system to harness the power of urbanisation and reimagine the cities,” Milind Mhaske, CEO, Praja Foundation—a Mumbai-based non-profit organisation which is part of the working groups—told ThePrint.
The Centre is exploring the possibility of reforms at the political level to empower the city mayor by redefining their roles and responsibilities, the selection process (direct election or through selection) and also ensuring a fixed tenure for “stability” in governance.
“The short tenure of mayors (one year in most cities) and limited powers creates hurdles in the implementation of large-scale policy initiatives or reforms which are essential for the development of the city,” Milind said.
According to Mhaske, the mayor should have a fixed tenure of five years to implement their vision for the city.
“A term less than 5 years for the mayor is an exception but that needs to be addressed, particularly in large cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. While the tenure of the mayor must be coterminous with the council, the more important issue is timely elections to councils or corporation,” Viswanathan said.
“The other major issue that needs to be addressed is related to the power given to the mayors. In most corporations, mayors don’t have powers because most of the functions are handled by parastatal agencies or state governments. We need an institutional mechanism wherein the mayor and the council have the power to approve or veto proposals of other agencies,” he added.
Urban-rural transition, multiplicity of authority
Multiple agencies perform the same function, including maintenance of roads and management of public transport and water supply systems, in a large number of cities.
For instance, public transport is managed by both the municipal corporation and state corporations in states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The working groups on administrative reforms and redefining the role of parastatals will recommend measures to reduce “multiplicity of agencies” performing similar functions.
It will recommend model rules or a standard operating procedure (SOP) for division of power and responsibilities between state and urban local bodies and parastatals.
The rural areas near city centres are witnessing unplanned development due to fast-paced urbanisation. Despite the changing character of census towns or peri-urban areas, they continue to be governed by laws and regulations for rural areas.
Paras Tyagi, co-founder of the Centre for Youth Culture Law and Environment (CYCLE), cited the case of Delhi’s rural villages which have suffered due to lack of proper planning for urbanisation.
“In Delhi, gram panchayats were abolished in the 1990s. While a large number of villages have been urbanised, critical policies for the development of newly urbanised areas have been hanging fire for nearly a decade,” said Tyagi.
The Centre plans to come up with a model framework for planned transition from rural to urban areas. The working group will be tasked with the responsibility of developing parameters to “define peri-urban areas”.
According to the terms of reference of the working group, the framework will highlight development mechanisms, including the authority which will be in-charge of its development, possible funding sources and advance planning for basic infrastructure such as sewer, water and road networks, among others.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
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