{"id":212815,"date":"2022-11-02T21:55:48","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T16:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?page_id=212815"},"modified":"2022-11-03T18:59:35","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T13:29:35","slug":"answered-the-accident-at-morbi-is-a-symptom-of-a-crisis-at-the-heart-of-indias-urban-governance-discuss-the-issues-facing-urban-local-governance-in-india-what-policy-measures-can-be-helpf","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-the-accident-at-morbi-is-a-symptom-of-a-crisis-at-the-heart-of-indias-urban-governance-discuss-the-issues-facing-urban-local-governance-in-india-what-policy-measures-can-be-helpf\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] The accident at Morbi is a symptom of a crisis at the heart of India\u2019s urban governance. Discuss the issues facing urban local governance in India. What policy measures can be helpful in making it effective?"},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"616\"><strong>Introduction:\u00a0<\/strong>Contextual introduction.<br \/>\n<strong>Body:\u00a0<\/strong>Write some issues facing urban local governance in India. Also write some measures to make it effective.<br \/>\n<strong>Conclusion<\/strong>: Write a way forward.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992<\/strong> provided constitutional status to local urban bodies. This act added a new <strong>part IX-A<\/strong> to the Constitution entitled as \u2018The Municipalities\u2019 and a new Twelfth Schedule containing 18 functional items for municipalities. The recent accident at Morbi, Gujarat exposed the issues associated with the urban local governance in India.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Issues facing urban local governance:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Poor governance:\u00a0<\/strong> In some States, <strong>elections<\/strong> to urban local bodies have not been held for years, defeating the goal of decentralised governance. E.g. Tamil Nadu. There is a complete lack of planning and governance at the urban local body level.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lack of management capacity:\u00a0<\/strong> Poor urban planning and rapid unregulated growth in cities has caused severe damage to India\u2019s cities. E.g. recent <strong>Bangalore flooding.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Financial condition:\u00a0<\/strong> Collectively, municipal revenue remained stuck at <strong>1% of GDP<\/strong> between 2007-08 and 2017-18. Municipal revenues in South Africa and Brazil are around 6% and 7% respectively.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Top-down approach:\u00a0<\/strong>Urban planning is done at the state government level and municipalities have little or no role in it. Poor planning, poor accountability, and poor governance have led to disasters.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lack of coordination:<\/strong>Poor coordination among centre, state, and various departments at local level lead to poor implementation of urban policies. There is a range of institutions with <strong>overlapping functional jurisdiction<\/strong>, leading to confusion and poor coordination.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Measures to make it effective:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Greater autonomy:\u00a0<\/strong>State governments need to begin the process of empowering elected leadership of urban local bodies. Municipalities should be more autonomous in their functioning, so that they can deliver quality service.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Encouraging public-private partnership:\u00a0<\/strong> at both state and city levels <strong>to fund city development<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Planning:\u00a0<\/strong> The urban local bodies should <strong>prioritise the development programmes<\/strong>. Any mega project envisaged needs to be developed taking into account the views of all the stakeholders.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Governance reforms:\u00a0<\/strong> A minimum level of staffing should be provided in metropolitan areas. Elections to ULBs should not be, generally, delayed beyond six months. The Government may consider the adoption of a common categorisation of urban bodies across the country so as to assist a systematic planning process and devolution of funds.<\/li>\n<li>To make changes <strong>voters should demand accountability<\/strong> from empowered urban bodies, not state governments with conflicts of interests.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A series of reforms are needed by the Indian government to strengthen local-level governance. To improve urban governance and delivery of services there should be appropriate government as well administrative actions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction:\u00a0Contextual introduction. Body:\u00a0Write some issues facing urban local governance in India. Also write some measures to make it effective. Conclusion: Write a way forward. 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 provided constitutional status to local urban bodies. This act added a new part IX-A to the Constitution entitled as \u2018The Municipalities\u2019 and a new Twelfth Schedule&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-the-accident-at-morbi-is-a-symptom-of-a-crisis-at-the-heart-of-indias-urban-governance-discuss-the-issues-facing-urban-local-governance-in-india-what-policy-measures-can-be-helpf\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">[Answered] The accident at Morbi is a symptom of a crisis at the heart of India\u2019s urban governance. Discuss the issues facing urban local governance in India. What policy measures can be helpful in making it effective?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-212815","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/212815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/212815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}