SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

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Anju Chaudhary

Introduction

Closing years of the Twentieth Century was marked by two very significant and
interrelated developments that largely led paradigm shift in the approaches,
concepts and thinking about the institutions of local self-government in India.

The roles of cities became all the more important as they constitute the centres
of economic activities and “engines of economic growth”. It is now increasingly
realized across the globe that what happens to the national economies is now
largely contingent on what happens to the cities in terms of their institutional
and fiscal capacities in providing urban infrastructure support to production
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activities and improving the quality of life of its growing in habitants .

The second change of equally far-reaching importance was a new wave of

decentralization that swept the developed, the developing and the transitional
economies especially in the eighties of the last century. There was increasing
appreciation amongst the policy and decision makers that centralized planning
and development initiative in the past failed to enhance national development.
As a result, developing countries, in particular, adopted decentralization in a big
way. But the question of sustainability of local governance is still a subject
matter to deep concern in front of policy maker.

Issues of good governance

Several key issues of good urban governance stand out in the Indian context.
These are decentralization, integration of the poor and marginalized,
environmental sustainability, mobilisation of municipal finance, transparency
and civic engagement, better municipal management and capacity building.

Decentralization

Decentralization signifies the transfer of certain powers and responsibilities and

their devolution from one authority to another. In the urban context, it connotes
the establishment of a local representative government endowed with
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Mayor , Gorakhpur City
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Jha, G
administrative and financial powers to deliver mandated services to its citizens.
For municipal administration, decentralization is the very essence of good
governance. It allows direct, larger, continuous and more meaningful
participation by citizens in the development process of their area. This heightens
a sense of true ownership of the citizens and their commitment to the civic
cause.

Decentralization comprises the functional and financial decentralization that

should flow from the State to the cities within the Council from the city centre
to its wards beyond the four walls of the Town hall to embrace community
groups and civil society stakeholders, the women and the marginalized to share
in decision-making and implementation. Indeed, decentralization in the local
context connotes citizen participation in its fullness.
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While the urban local bodies have found political protection through the 74
Amendment to the Constitution, the other aspects of decentralization have
lagged behind. There is also quite some diversity in ways in which States have
gone about the implementation of decentralization. It can broadly be said that
much ground remains to be covered before cities can experience the freedom
and the potential of true, decentralized functioning.

Municipal finance

While cities have larger populations and expanding boundaries to shoulder,

their financial base remains as fragile as ever. Government of India has taken
certain welcome steps to help urban infrastructure. Tax exemption for municipal
bonds and guidelines for their issuance, fiscal incentives for private sector
participation in urban infrastructure, permitting FDI inflows into city hardware
have heralded the possibilities of great change. Some States and cities have
shown the initiative in introducing taxation and accounting reforms, setting up
State level Urban Development Funds, issuing municipal bonds and attempting
private sector participation in civic services. And yet, a lot is left undone on the
path to urban restructuring. The pouring of institutional finance further into
urban infrastructure, for instance, is an area that deserves further attention.
Integration of the Poor and Marginalized
It is now widely recognized that the poor are important contributors to the city
economy, and an essential support system to the city‟s life so far as sustainable
development of cities are concerned. Yet they continue to be dealt with on the
periphery. Huddled in high-density informal settlements, the poor are left to
fend for themselves to find shelter, water, and services that enable daily life.
The women and children face the brunt of the problems in keeping the fragile
lives of their family going. Even employment opportunities in the form of
informal employment run the constant risk of disruption, uprooting and
harassment. Poverty alleviation schemes have helped but their impact has been
limited.

While the effort to help the city poor has to be multi-pronged, as an initial and
important step, city planners need to go beyond spatial concepts and look at the
socio-economic realities that propel the city‟s economy. Quite definitely, the
poor and the marginalized can no longer be dealt with on the fringes of cities
but need to be integrated into the entire planned process. Disregard to this
monumental issue has very dangerous portents for the sustainability of cities.

Municipal Capacity building and institutional development

Municipal management covers the entire gamut of administrative facets that
make for efficiency and excellence in handling city organizations. Envisioning a
city, setting its priorities, strategizing to achieve set objectives, organizing
public consultations, promoting civil society participation and norms of good
urban governance, budgeting for expenditures, raising resources, monitoring
works, collecting taxes and fees and charges, all form part of the management
task. Indeed, sustainable municipal efficiency needs capacity not merely within
the municipal ranks of elected representatives and officials, but also outside
among civil society stakeholders. Capacity building for good urban governance
is complex because the urban scene is dynamic, and capacities tend to get
eroded quickly. The demands of capacity building in cities also largely vary
with the size of urban local bodies, and it has often been found that small city
officials find it difficult to relate to the problems of very large ones and vice
versa. Capacity building, in any event, needs to be demand-based and dynamic
in its content.

Case of Gorakhpur city

Gorakhpur is one of the fastest growing cities in the mid-Gangetic plains. The
rapid influx of population from the nearby rural areas (as well as from outside
the state) to the city has exerted tremendous pressure on its infrastructural
capacity. This has led to the development of numerous slums, with living
conditions within the city deteriorating by the day. Currently, there are about
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110 slums, accommodating around 33 percent of the population.

Unfortunately, development of the basic urban systems required to support this

growth has not proceeded at the same rate that the city has expanded and, at
present, the capacity of natural, social, institutional and infrastructure systems to
provide basic services such as water supply, sanitation and drainage is being
exceeded. As a result, in many parts of the city the ability of basic systems to
support quality of life for local residents, particularly the poor, is declining.
Flooding, water logging, power shortages, water quality declines and the spread
of water and vector born diseases already represent major problems in the city.

Water logging and other water related problems are probably the most evident
current challenges in Gorakhpur. Gorakhpur city is bowl shaped with low to
flat gradient and high groundwater tables. . The major river Rapti, a tributary
to the Ghaghra (and subsequently to Ganga), was flowing through the centre of
city in the historic past and has now shifted to western side causing land
erosion and hence formation of large low lying areas within the city.
Historically there were 103 water bodies that served as natural flood storage and
drainage to the city. With urbanisation, less than a third of these water bodies are
presently functional.

Water logging has been getting worse in recent years in Gorakhpur, partly due
to changes in rainfall, aggravated by the degradation of water bodies, unplanned
development and land encroachment. This has resulted in some areas of the city
now being waterlogged for almost 5-6 months in a year.

Unmanaged solid waste disposal with no incinerator or water treatment plant,

the problem of solid waste, siltation of drains and pollution of water bodies has
become acute. Prolonged water logging together with poor waste management
has caused an increase in the incidence of vector borne diseases and related
health problems, as well as contamination of ground water. Malaria and

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dysentery have historically been a problem; recent years have seen a rise in
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diarrhoeal, hepatitis and fluorosis diseases and Japanese encephalitis .

Bottleneck in
sustainability

These are some of the problem that every local bodies is facing in India. The
working is largely affected when the BACKBONE of an effective system is
missing i.e FINANCE. Depending on house, water and sewer taxes, limited
grant-in-aids from the State and Central Government and rent income the
Corporation is always facing lack of fund especially at time of unpredicted
calamities such as flood, drought, epidemic and earthquakes etc. Ununiformity
in the regulatory acts of different State of India is another big drawback which
the Uttar Pradesh Nagar Nigams are facing. Some States have income from
octroi, schools, hospitals, fire services etc. but unfortunately all this is not under
the 12 UP ULBs. To meet the genuine need and bare necessity at local level, the
ULB is always holding a begging bowl in front of the State of Centre.
Community welfare, social justice economic prosperity of its people can be met
only by adding a burden and levying taxes to their own voters and by erosion of
their vote banks.

Gender discrimination, poverty alleviation, slum development are some equally

important issue which need to be given a strong footage by the local bodies so
that the development goes on faster. Private Public participation is a means by
which the local bodies can become stronger but then if the representatives are of
the opposition bench, these programme are also not promoted by the ruling
government and hindrances are put forward by the employed officers.

Strategy for urban development

To maintain and improve the „Home rule‟ which consist of those who work
locally for the strengthening of the state government to be formed and
sustained. They are the creature who breathes in the life through their tax
collection for the state government to live in the political market place.

The Influx of people from rural areas to urban areas is leading to enormous
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pressure on the urban services. Emphasis has to be laid on the improvement in

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quality in urban living, efficiency of services, planned development and
alleviation of urban poverty, sustaining the financial status of the local bodies,
operational efficiency and enabling public private partnership. These are some
of the long term reforms which is lacking in our country. Urban development
needs to lay emphasis on -

1- Capacity building and institutional development

2- Stress on operational efficiency
3- Strengthening urban planning

This includes financial capabilities of ULBs to meet the challenges of urban

development.

Stress on operational efficiency

Delivery of municipal services like water supply, sewerage and sanitation, street
lighting, transportation and housing must be strengthened with emphasis on
adoption of appropriate technology along with sustainable management of
urban environment. Needs of the urban poor must be given special attention
along with strengthening of service delivery to urban poor.

ULBs must play a pivotal role in urban planning.

Public private partnership includes involvement of private sector, NGOs,

Community representatives, Citizen groups etc. in various aspects of urban
management. Private sector participation need not only supplement scarce
Government resource, it is a crucial help in also.

This involves a long-term reform process aimed at improving various aspects

related to urban management and especially linked to the functioning of ULBs.
The key elements of this reform process are –

Water Supply

1. Water supply augmentation schemes and new schemes the cities should be
identified and developed with balanced consumer mix (industrial,
commercial and domestic) for improved financial viability of projects.
Sewerage

1. Creation of decentralized sewerage and waste water treatment system

wherever possible.
2. Mandatory decentralized sewerage and waster water treatment facility in
new housing colonies.
3. Encourage public participation (Co-funding) in small improvement project
like desilting of sewers, cleaning of garbage, etc.

Sanitation

1. ULBs must prepare a master plan for solid waste management.

2. Segregation of waste into bio degradable and non-degradable at the source
of generation should be encouraged.
3. “Polluter pays” principle should be strongly enforced with heavy fines for
public littering.
4. Bio-medical and industrial waste should be disposed according to pollution
control norm. Licenses and permits of commercial establishment should be
subject to following sanitary disposal practices.
5. Landfill site should be identified for each ULB and option for joint
disposal facilities for adjacent ULBs should be explored.

Housing:
1. Appropriate houses to vulnerable communities and housing designs for
waterlogged situations. This entails understanding and planning the
habitation patterns;
2. Effective master planning and proper enforcement
3. Awareness amongst citizens
4. Water harvesting

Industries and Economy

1. Industrial development, pollution free environment, safe work places for
household-based livelihood activities, housing for industrial workers;
2. Effective monitoring of waste treatment
3. Organized housing for industrial workers
Health
Health services, preventive health and health surveillance mechanisms;

Energy/Electricity
Energy for living, production/livelihood and public purposes specially during
the monsoon and post monsoon periods, alternate energy;

Transport
Effective transport mechanisms mitigating climate change causes and reducing
pollution;

Ecosystems
Conservation of public land and water bodies.

Enhanced revenue mobilization

1. Carrying out legal and procedural reforms for enhancement of property tax
and its effective collection.
2. comprehensive assessment of properties to enhance base of property tax
3. Stricter enforcement of tax.
4. Creation of property valuation cell to ensure uniform procedures for
valuation of properties across the State.
5. Communication with the public to address their concerns regarding property
tax assessment.
6. New areas to be explored for rent and fee collection
7. Computerization of database of properties and other income sources.
8. Pricing for services for urban bodies

To ensure cost recovery for urban utilities especially water, through

rationalization of tariff structure.

Streamlining resource transfers to ULBs :

By linking it to performance and efficiencies would include :

1. Fixing targets for revenue mobilization.

2. Reviewing the criteria for devolution of grants to ULBs by incorporating
incentives for better revenue collection and service delivery.
3. Creation of an urban development fund to proved financial support for urban
infrastructure projects.

Focus on urban poor:

1. Encouraging community based institutions.

2. Preparing slum relocation and rehabilitation plans.
3. Strengthening tenancy rights.
4. Focusing on economic upliftment of poor.
5. Drop in centres for children who have come to urban areas for livelihood.
Facilities for education, counseling, recreation, health etc.
6. Ecologically and environmentally sensitive site to be examined and suitably
protected.
7. Protection of green belt and regeneration of unutilized and waste land into
parks and green areas.

Preservation of heritage site

1. Construction should be prohibited in the vicinity of cultural and historical

heritage site.
2. And prepare a conservation plan along with the archaeological survey of
India
3. Special powers for ULBs and other Government agencies to prevent
encroachment of heritage sites.

Conclusion

In nutshell STRICT TAX ENFORCEMENT, CORRECT VALUATION and

COMPUTERIZED SYSTEM FOR ALL COLLECTIONS, INCOME,
COMPLAINS etc, TRAINING TECHNICAL AND MANAGERIAL SKILLS,
PROPER PLANNING, PROJECT MANAGEMENT, IMPROVED AND CO-
OPERATIVE INTER GOVERNMENTAL DEPARTMENT RELATIONSHIP,
UTILIZING EXTERNAL SERVICE PROVIDERS AND EXPERTS AS
WHEN NECESSARY are some of the basic requirement which is missing in
the local ULBs. We do not have the power to directly implement projects for
the betterment of people whether it is health, strengthening the urban poor,
allocation the street vendors, education facilities, recreation and social
urbanization, prevention of heritage sites, green belts etc. Thus, the Indian
government has to have uniformity in the running of the local bodies and
guidelines, framework, resolutions should be flexibly taken into consideration
as per local needs and conditions.

THANK YOU