Guarantee Nagar Swaraj to redeem India’s cities

The recent Lok Sabha elections witnessed a slew of guarantees promised to the nation. The new government at the Centre, among other priorities, has a serious task of focusing on overhauling urban governance.

India’s cities, currently home to a third of Indians and expected to house more than half of the country’s population (80 crore of the 140 crore) by 2047, are struggling to manage and thrive, owing to the systemic issues they are mired in. Cities need the guarantee of Nagar Swaraj to usher in empowered, decentralised governance.

This, in turn, will serve the objective of driving the economic growth necessary to achieve the national goals of development while also delivering quality of life to citizens.

World-class cities are characterised by affordable housing for all, high-quality healthcare and educational facilities, good civic infrastructure, efficient public transport, a clean environment, rewarding employment opportunities, and an enabling ecosystem for innovation and enterprise, all of which are enabled by robust governance frameworks.

A study released by Oxford Economics in May 2024 has ranked the 1,000 largest cities in the world, with New York, London, San Jose, Tokyo, and Paris taking the top five positions. The 91 Indian cities included in the study fared poorly on quality of life, environment, and governance indicators, with Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Chennai ranking in the range of 350 to 500.

The crisis 

The underlying problem in Indian cities is the systemic deficiency and acute lack of capacity in city governments to envision, plan, and manage the growing — and often overwhelming — demand for development. Cities invariably suffer from chronic funding shortages, understaffing, and a lack of human resources with suitable competencies for the various kinds of functions they have to perform, including in critical areas such as urban planning, design, engineering, public health, and financial management. Cities are required to provide first-mile infrastructure and services, yet they are neither effectively empowered nor equipped to deliver on this mandate.

A study of the findings of the performance audits of implementation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA), conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India across 18 states and Janaagraha’s Annual Survey of India’s City Systems (ASICS), 2023, corroborates the crisis our cities continue to face. Consider these for instance — many cities have mayoral terms of less than five years, some for 2.5 years and some as less as one year; 1,560 out of 2,240 cities (70 per cent) did not have an elected council at the time of the audit; most municipal governments have as much as 35 per cent or more vacancies; the own revenues of city governments are as low as 33 per cent of their budgets and result in dependence on state and Union governments for funds; many state election commissions do not have powers on ward delimitation and fixing of ward reservations; there are hardly any functional district and metropolitan planning committees (DPCs and MPCs); hardly any state in India has functional ward committees to engage citizens in local planning, budgeting and more importantly, public problem solving; and most of all, of the 18 functions (including urban planning, slum improvement, roads, water supply, public health, urban forestry, parks and playgrounds, fire services, etc.) to be devolved to city governments under the 12th Schedule of the Constitution, less than 25 per cent are actually devolved, leading to proxy rule by the state governments.

These challenges have resulted primarily from the unwillingness of state governments to decentralise and devolve powers to let city governments function as autonomous bodies of local self-governance. This has clearly defeated the core objective of the landmark 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, which was introduced 31 years ago on June 1, 1993, to provide an enabling model framework for decentralised urban governance.

Modern city governance

A comprehensive overhaul of city systems is necessary to empower urban local governments (ULGs) as the quintessential decentralised institutions of Nagar Swaraj. In doing so, the Union government has to play the role of an active mentor and a deft facilitator by bringing in the necessary overarching reforms, including amending the 74th Amendment to remove ambiguities, ensuring consistency across states, and making its provisions practically enabling. The state governments, for their part, have the responsibility to take swift and substantive steps to modernise and transform city governance, which must principally include:

Well laid out governance structures, with the municipality invested with final accountability and functional authority over all aspects of city infrastructure and services, including oversight of the civic agencies and parastatals.

Empowered mayors and councillors elected through regular elections and enabled to effectively supervise the executive

Adequate capacity building of elected mayors and councillors with regard to good governance and leadership skills such as development of ward and city visions, collaborative public problem solving and participatory planning and budgeting

Operationalising regional administrative frameworks such as metropolitan and district planning committees

Capacitating municipal governments for effective spatial planning and design as well as long-term economic and social development of the city

Securing stable streams of revenue for city governments though their own sources as well as innovative ways of allocation from the state and central pools

Enhancing capacities and capabilities of municipal governments with adequate staffing as well as competency building of municipal personnel

Active collaboration between councillors, officials and citizens through institutional platforms of participation such as area sabhas and ward committees to facilitate local and hyperlocal planning and problem resolution.

(The writer currently heads Civic Participation at the Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.