{"id":219470,"date":"2022-12-22T19:31:58","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T14:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=219470"},"modified":"2022-12-22T19:31:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T14:01:58","slug":"strengthening-urban-local-bodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/strengthening-urban-local-bodies\/","title":{"rendered":"Strengthening urban local bodies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article \u201cStrengthening urban local bodies\u201d <\/strong>published in the Business Standard <\/b>on 22nd<\/sup>\u00a0<\/strong>November 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS \u2013 2 \u2013 Devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein.<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: About Strengthening urban local bodies.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: An effective local government can not only promote healthy urban growth but also ensure ease of living for the population.<\/p>\n

About India’s urban local bodies<\/h5>\n

In India, local governments in cities are established in accordance with the 74th Amendment Act<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

-Their institutional framework comprises, a) Urban Local Bodies (ULBs):<\/strong> They administer cities or towns with a specified population. These local bodies are entrusted with functions related to welfare, public health and safety, infrastructural works and other activities related to city development, b)\u00a0<\/strong>Municipal corporations, municipalities, notified area committees, and town area committees<\/strong> are some other types of urban local bodies.<\/p>\n

-The Amendment gave state legislatures the authority to enact levies that support local government budgets<\/strong>. Accordingly, it is constitutionally required for state governments to establish means for ULBs to raise money.<\/p>\n

-The Amendment Act gave municipalities constitutional standing and a strong mandate for democratic decentralisation through self-governing local bodies in urban areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Learn from Morbi: Fix local govt<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
What are the financial challenges faced by the urban local bodies?<\/h5>\n

a)<\/strong> The transfer of duties<\/strong> from the national and subnational governments to local governments has not been accompanied by a transfer of financial authority<\/strong>, b)<\/strong> Municipal corporations in India rely heavily on subsidies from the Central and state governments<\/strong> to cover their spending needs because they have few other sources of income, c)<\/strong> Over-reliance on property taxes<\/strong> has prevented local governments from fully utilising other revenue streams such as trade permits, entertainment taxes, mobile tower taxes, solid waste user fees, water fees, and value capture finance, d)<\/strong> The proportion of municipal corporations\u2019 own sources of income decreased<\/strong> from 89.1% of total earnings in 1960-1961 to roughly 65 per cent in 2012-2013, e) <\/strong>Despite receiving constitutional recognition in 1992, municipal revenue in India as a whole remained almost constant<\/strong> from 1946 to 1947.<\/p>\n

Impacts of the financial constraints<\/strong>: 1)\u00a0<\/strong>According to the Reserve Bank of India<\/strong>, financially starved urban local bodies are unable to create the resources<\/strong> needed to offer their residents high-quality facilities and services, 2)<\/strong>\u00a0India\u2019s access to basic urban infrastructure falls short<\/strong> of what has been accomplished in the OECD and other BRICS countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Issues with Local Governance in India \u2013 Explained, pointwise<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
How to improve the financial condition of urban local bodies?<\/h5>\n

-According to the third State Finance Commission Report<\/strong> of Uttarakhand (2018-19), the ULBs in India must increase their efficiency in collecting<\/strong> parking fees, advertisement taxes, user fees, lease rentals, and property taxes.<\/p>\n

– The state governments should ease resource restrictions for the operation of ULBs<\/strong> when developing capacity for sustainable urbanisation.<\/p>\n

-A development of a web-based e-governance system<\/strong> can ensure the participation and effectiveness of local government\u2019s operations. For instance, web-based property tax payments.<\/p>\n

India should modernise local governance systems and getting them to work closely with local communities<\/strong> in accordance with a clear and effective administrative structure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article \u201cStrengthening urban local bodies\u201d published in the Business Standard on 22nd\u00a0November 2022. Syllabus: GS \u2013 2 \u2013 Devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein. Relevance: About Strengthening urban local bodies. News: An effective local government can not only promote healthy urban growth… Continue reading Strengthening urban local bodies<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10503,212],"class_list":["post-219470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-business-standard","tag-gs-paper-2","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219470\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}