30 years of 73rd & 74th Amendments

30 years of 73rd & 74th Amendments

 

Evolution of local governments in the Post Independent India:

Ancient India:

1. Harappan civilization was based on municipal administration as they had well planned cities
2. Aryans were mostly rural people. Village was the pivot of administration in their civilization.
3. Village head men in the vedic literature: Gramika (North India); mununda (Eastern Deccan); Gramukuta or pattakila (Maharastra); Gavunda (Karnataka); Mahattaka or mahantaka (UP)
4. Primary assembly of the village in the ancient India: Mahajana sabha(Karnataka); Mahattamas (UP); Mahattoras (Maharastra); Perumakkal (Tamilnadu)
5. During the Gupta period, the village councils were knowns as : Panchmandalis (Central India); gramajanapadas (Bihar)
6. Primary assembly In the Chola period: Ur in case of ordinary villages; Sabha in case of Agrahara villages.
7. Local Government Officers in the ancient India:
8. Purapala was the chief officer (Guptas)
9. Goshti / panchkula / Choukadika – a non official committee that assited the Purapala
10. Vara – Executive head of the Goshti (in Rajputana and central India during the Guptas )
11. Koupika – Colleting the market dues

Medieval India:

1. Kotwal – Civilian administrator and chief of city police, magistrate and prefect of the municipal administration.
2. Mir mohalla – spokesman of the people in the mohalla (ward)

British India:

1. In 1687-88, the first municipal corporation in India was set up at Madras.
2. In 1726, the municipal corporations were set up in Bombay and Calcutta
3. The first statutory enactment dealing with municipal administration in India is contained in Section 158 of the Charter Act of 1793 which established municipal administration in the three presidency towns of Madras, Calcutta and Bombay and empowered the appointment of Justices of the Peace with authority to make assessments on houses and lands and provide for scavenging, watching and repairing of the streets.
4. The municipal Act of 1850 was made applicable to the whole of British India. It provided for indirect taxation
5. Lord Mayo’s Resolution in 1870 made the first systematic attempt to make Provincial Governments responsible for the development of Local Self Government with the policy of decentralization for the management of their own local finances and functions.
6. On the 18th of May 1882, Lord Ripon’s Government issued their historic Resolution.

Lord Ripon felt that the spread of education and the desire of the educated Indians to be associated with administration made it necessary that this element be given full opportunity to train the people over whom it rules, more and more as time goes on, to take an intelligent share in the administration of their own affairs. Lord Ripon’s resolution enunciated the following principles which were henceforth to inform and guide local government in India:

1. Local bodies should have mostly elected non-governmental members and chairman.
2. The state control over local bodies should be indirect rather than direct.
3. These bodies must be endowed with adequate financial resources to carry out their functions. To this end, certain sources of local revenue should be made available to the local bodies which should also receive suitable grants from the provincial budget.
4. Local government personnel should be operated under the administrative control of the local bodies. The government personnel who are deputed to the local government must be treated as employees of the local government and subject to its control.
5. The resolution of 1882 should be interpreted by the provincial governments according to the local conditions prevalent in the provinces. Another significant stage in the history of local government was the publication in 1909 of the report of Royal commission upon Decentralization, set up in 1906.
6. With the introduction of diarchy by the 1919 Government of India Act, local government became a transferred subject
7. In 1924, the Cantonments Act was passed by the Central legislature
8. The 1935 GoI act introduced the Federal system. Local government is incorporated as a part of the state list.

Post Independent India:

1. Local government incorporated in the constitution in the following provisions only in the constitution of India –
2. In the Directive principles, Article 40: State shall take special measures for the development of the village panchayats
3. Local government is made a part of the state list.
4. Janapada scheme of the central Provinces: introduced in 1937 and modified in 1948
5. 1952: introduction of the community development program
6. 1953: Introduction of the National Extention service
7. 1957: Balwant Rai Mehta Committee: Appointed to study the functioning of the CDP and NES
8. 1958: Balwant Rai Mehta Report submitted. The report found that the CDP and NES were a failure. They should be replaced with the 3 tier system of panchayats to ensure community participation in the development. The 3 tiers are –
9. Gram Panchayat – at the village level
10. Panchayat samiti – at the block level (primary unit of decentralisation)
11. Zilla Praja Parishat – district level.

These three are organically linked.

7. 1959 October 2^nd: Rajastan – first state to implement the three tier system.
8. 1959 November 1^st: AP was the second state
9. 1978: Ashok Mehta Committee constituted by the Janata Government. It recommended two tier system – District panchayat (primary unit of decentralisation) and Mandal parishat (for 15,000 to 20,000populaiton). Not implemented. but – AP, Karnataka and West Bengal implemented in some form or the other.
10. 1985: GVK Rao Committee: BDO should play a key role in the local government. PRIs should be responsible to implement the poverty alleviation programmes in the rural areas. It was the “Committee on Administrative Arrangement for Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation Programmes”
11. 1986: LM Singhvi Committee: Recommended –
12. constitutional status to the local governments
13. Regular elections
14. Establishment of a panchayat raj judicial tribunal in each state to adjudicate on all matters relating to election disputes in the panchayats.
15. 1988: Sarkaria commission on centre state relations: Recommended the need for the uniform legislation on PRIs
16. 1989: 64^th and 65^th amendment bills introduced to provide constitutional status to the PRIs and Urban Local Bodies respectively. They were rejected by the sabha for being anti federal.
17. 1992: 73^rd and 74^th amendment acts enacted to provide constitutional status to the PRIs and ULBs respectively.
18. 1993 April 24^th: 73^rd amendment came into force
19. 1993 June 1^st : 74^th amendment came in to force.

Characteristics of Local Government:

1. Operating in a specific local area
2. Statutory status
3. Autonomous status
4. Local Participation
5. Local accountability
6. Local finances
7. Provides civic services
8. General Purpose authorities and Single purpose authorities.

Significance of Local governments:

1. Promotes Grass root democracy
2. Training school for future leadership
3. Ensures peoples participation in public affairs
4. More competent to solve local problems
5. local government is economical in providing the administrative services
6. Reduces the burden of central and state government
7. Serves as a channel of communication
8. vital for the national progress

Provisions of the 73rd amendment?

To provide constitutional status to the local self governments, 73^rd and 74^th amendments were enacted in 1992. Based on the nature of implementation, they are classified into –

1. Compulsory provisions: These are compulsory for every state. They are uniformly implemented. The states have to amend their respective local government acts in accordance with these provisions.

These provisions include the following

1. Establishing a Gram Sabha in every village
2. Adoption of the three-tier structure (Gram Panchayat, Intermediate Panchayat, and Zilla Parishat) except for the states having population less than 20 lakhs.
3. Direct elections for the members in all three levels
4. Indirect elections to the post of chairperson
5. 21 years to be the minimum age for contesting elections
6. Reservation of seats for the SC, ST and women
7. Term of 5 years
8. State Election Commission to be appointed by the governor
9. State Finance Commission to be constituted for every 5 years by the governor.
10. Voluntary provisions : The concerned states can make necessary changes in accordance with the requirements of the state. Accordingly they are implemented by a notification of Governor or a legislation by state legislature.
11. Representation to the local MLAs, MLCs, MPs of Lok sabha and Rajya sabha is subject to the law made by the state legislature.
12. State legislature has to enact a law for the reservation to back ward classes.
13. The state legislature enacts a law to grant powers, authority and finances as provided in the 11^th
14. Devolution of powers and responsibilities upon panchayats to prepare plans is done by an act of state legislature.

Common provisions under the 73rd and 74th amendments:

73^rd amendment is related to the Panchayat Raj Institutions and 74^th amendment is related to the Municipalities, there are certain provisions common to them.

1. Reservation: SC,ST will have reservation in proportion to population, BC reservation is subject to the law of the state legislature, and Women are given 33% reservation.
2. Duration: The term of any member and duration of any local office is five years. However, a local body can be pre-maturedly dissolvable. In case of dissolution, reelection should be held within 6 months; After reconstitution, it will have only remainder term.
3. Disqualification: A person is eligible to contest for a local body, if he is qualified to be a member of state legislature except that minimum age qualifications is 21 years of age. Additional disqualifications are determined by the state legislature by law. Ex: Odissha : having more than one living spouse is a disqualification. In AP, Haryana and MP a person having more than 2 children born after 1994 are disqualified.
4. Powers and Finances: The powers and finances of the local governments are determined by the state legislature by a law as transferred from the 11^th and 12^th schedule.
5. State Finance Commission: The governor appoints a finance commission for every five years to recommend the sharing of income between state and local government.
6. Audit: The accounts of the local bodies are audited by a local fund audit authority as established by the state legislature by a law.
7. Elections: Elections of the local bodies shall be held by state election commission. The commission shall be appointed by the Governor.
8. Applicability and exemption: The provisions of the 73^rd and 74^th amendments are applicable to the Union Territories, as notified by the president of India. Their application is exempted for the Schedule areas under article 244; Nagaland; Meghalaya& Mizoram; Hilly areas of Manipur; Darjeeling district in West Bengal. Parliament can extend these provisions to the scheduled areas by a law.

Problems before the local government:

1. Inadequate human resources
2. Narrowness of parochialism
3. cannot provide services of a uniform standard
4. they have to survive the centralizing tendencies
5. state governments are not ready to transfer their powers
6. Prone to corruption and malfeasance
7. inadequate financial resources
8. state governments hijacking the central grants in aid to the local governments for other purposes
9. Frequent conflict or nexus between the politicians and bureaucrats at the local level
10. Domination of the dominant castes.

Specific issues related to ULBs:

1. The urban elected representatives have no real powers. Mayor is only a nominal head. Real powers are vested in the municipal commissioner.
2. Various parastatal agencies are created by the State government.

E.g. urban development authorities (building infrastructure), public corporations (water, electricity, transportation services, etc). They eclipse the powers of the urban bodies.

3. There is an increasing intervention of the union government in the local activities.

         E.g. Smart Cities Mission.

4. Municipalities are not yet autonomous units to be truly called as the “third tier” of government in India’s federal system. The creation of parallel institutions further disempowers the elected local government.
5. The 18 Functions in 12th Schedule which a State government is expected to devolve to the local government are not transferred completely in all the states.
6. The 73rd Amendment provides for three levels of panchayats at village, taluk, and district levels.

Unlike this, power in urban areas is concentrated in a single municipal body.

It could be the municipal corporation, municipal council and town panchayat (Nagar Panchayat)

Measures to strengthen urban local bodies in India:

1. Greater autonomy to all the local governments.
2. There should be timely elections
3. There should be a dedicated stream of employees with a local government cadre.
4. Encouraging public-private partnership for public service delivery.
5. Local planning bodies should be established as a compulsion.
6. Local development programs should be integrated with the national and state programs.
7. Second ARC suggested –
8. In addition to the functions listed in the 11^th and 12^th Schedule, the following should be devolved to local bodies: – School education; – Public health, including community health centres/area hospitals; – Traffic management and heritage; and – Land management, including registration.
9. Zonal offices with all administrative powers delegated to them may be set up
10. A local body ombudsman should be constituted
11. There should be a legislative council for every state. It should represent only the local governments as the Rajya sabha is representing the states.

Way forward:

Local governments must be increasingly acknowledged as inherently political spaces. Local governance reforms should focus on political empowerment of local government that promotes local democratic accountability.