Evaluating 74th Constitutional Amendment Act

Evaluating 74th temperamental Am hold onment titleTwo sides of the same coin Evaluating 74th entire Amendment serveAbstractTo fortify the position of urban institution in a more unionized manner, the government of India took a pivotal initiative through the enactment of the 74th Constitution Amendment fiddle. In this paper I take on to analyse the role of 74th perfect mendment in change magnitude the functionality, authority and efficiency of the urban local anaesthetic bodies, in terms of the powers rendered to the urban local bodies down the stairs the 74th constitutional amendment. I attempt to analyse the effective and efficient effectuation of the 74th constitutional amendment by including a small case study of urban governance in the metropolis of Chandigarh, Punjab.IntroductionThe system of local service economy through the sum of local government bodies began with a Budget Speech by a member of viceroys council Samuel Laing, he proposed that local services sho uld be based on local resources. Local governance bodies stomach been a part of Indian governance system since the British Era, the first municipal Corporation was set up in Madras in 1688 followed by Bombay and Calcutta. In the beginning local governance bodies were mere instruction execution instrument of submit governments activities but since the introduction of the 74th primitive Amendment Act, at that place has been a change in this status quo.Since the early 1990s there has been a lot of initiative undertaken by the Government of India which were aimed at decentralisation of urban governance, this was the part of adoption of neo-liberal policies adopted by the government after approach failure of the maintain-led festering model, as for under this model the government unbroken its role backary giving more importance to merchandise oriented approaches. below this step taken by the Government of India enactment of the 74th entire Amendment Act, was one such initi ative, this gave constitutional recognition to urban local bodies and a constitutional right to exist. AnewTwelfthScheduletotheConstitutionprovidesrecommendedlistoflocalfunctions.Under the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, it requires the recite governments of all the grounds to amend their respective municipal laws so as to increase the powers and authority of the urban local bodies, as quoting the line for the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act withsuchpowersandauthorityasmaybenecessarytoenablethemtofunctionasinstitutionsofselfgovernance.The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act provides a base to the state the ability to transfer certain indebtedness and authority to the urban local bodies i.e. municipalities in order to provide a strong base for municipal local governance in cities, in this regard several state government has amended their state legislative assembly in the same regard. Under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, it is compulsory to undertake the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act and implement in the respective state legislatures. It is under the member 243ZE of the constitution which requires all the state governments to review the animated municipal laws and both repeal or modify those which be mismatched with the provision of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act within one year from the number 1 of the Act.174th Constitutional Amendment Act in a nutshell Features and IssuesFeatures of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act74th Constitutional Amendment has been constituted in congruence with the idea of new public management. Under this design the major role the state play is of withdrawing itself from directly influencing the market activities and let demand and supply correct the course of market. One of the features of this concept is that the government breaks down the huge monolithic government beaurcracies, which refers to heavy decentralisation of responsibilities and regime. According to my understanding the enactment o f the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act is very a good deal influenced by this characteristic of new public management. Before the enactment of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act the role of urban local bodies was merely of majuscule punishment of activities undertaken by state and national government.Constitutional status has been granted to the urban local bodies under the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, under which a iii tier expression of the urban local bodies has been envisaged. Formation of municipal Corporation for larger empyrean with higher populations the example of this can be Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, and creation of municipal councils for smaller areas which includes towns standardized Upleta in Gujarat, and creation of village panchayats for villages that are in transitions to become towns.Under this amendment the government activity members of the municipal community are be elected by the people through an election in a similar way in which the mem bers of the lok sabha are elected, the election is conducted, managed and regulated by the state election commission. This indicates that the democracy has established deep roots in the political system of the country.Under article 243Y, it makes it mandatory for any state to establish a state finance commission as it is delimitate by article 243I. The function of the state finance commission is advising the regulator of the state regarding the distribution of bills between state and municipalities which also includes the revenue enhancement generated from tolls, taxes and duties. The state finance commission also acts as a auditing cheek which scrutinises the employment of the finances to the urban local bodies.The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act in its article 243ZD and 243ZE makes it mandatory to form delegation for district planning in each district and committee for metropolitan planning in every metropolitan area. These committees endeavour to provide newer dimension fo r the role of citizens and its elected representatives in preparation of plans for their respective regions, infra organize plan being it most heavy component. It is sometimes that cities in the same districts share certain natural resources or problems like allocation of water, waste management which might create cooccur situations it is the function of committee for district planning to cater to such scenarios. Whereas committee for metropolitan planning caters to the increasing infrastructure and amenities demand in metropolitan cities referable to expansion of its boundaries or population.Under this act the urban local bodies are endowed with responsibilities for formulation and implementation of schemes for frugal and affectionate development, the subjects for the same dumbfound been specified under the 12th schedule i.e. article 243W.Issues in the 74th Constitutional Amendment ActThe enactment of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act mark a transformation in the role of urban local governing bodies in terms of the urban governing bodies being constitutionalised and substantial authorities being granted to them under the act regarding decision making to acquiring finance, but still certain questions remained unanswered.The first impression in implementation of the act is the identification and demarcation rural and urban areas. In states like Gujarat, West Bengal, Kerala, approximately two third of towns are non-municipal towns.2 Even though these towns in these states have higher prevalence of non-agricultural activities these town are non recognised as cities and are still under the status of villages, this is because under the status of villages the state government can sanction grant for implementation of projects for rural development like MNREGA, NREGA etc. while on the another(prenominal) hand if these area are classified as cites the states would not be able to sanction money for such developmental activities from the government and the state itself will be responsible to provide grants for further infrastructure development in these newly formed cities. The implication of this is that the local bodies lose taboo on better sources of finance. Therefore due to the vested interest of the members of the political structure of the state barriers are created in the implementation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act.The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act makes the urban local bodies responsible not only for mere implementation of the state directives, but also makes them responsible for carrying out activities for social and economic development under 18 subject mentioned under schedule 12 i.e. article 243W, but the act does not make it clear how the three tier bodies i.e. municipal corporations, municipal councils and nagar panchayats will plump in synchrony in order to accomplish this tasks. The act leaves it to the discretion of the state to work out the arrangement in this regard.One of the objectives of en act ing 74th Constitutional Amendment Act was increasing people and private participation in urban planning, but due to public and private organisations being suspicious intimately the functioning of the urban local bodies, there has been no significant change in this regard. role field of view Implementation of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act in ChandigarhI have adopted the following case study from an article by Deepak Sharma highborn as An military rank of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act A Case Study of Chandigarh, IndiaBackgroundChandigarh is a union territory and a joint capital of the state of Punjab and Haryana. With around 9, 00,000 population it is one of the fastest growing city. The municipal corporation of Chandigarh was formed in 1994 and its jurisdictional area is around 79.34 kms. The municipal corporation of Chandigarh came into being after passing of Punjab Municipal Corporation honor ordinance, 1994 under the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976.The function ing of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation is make by formation of various committees that are allocated with different task for the governance of the city. The example committees under the Chandigarh municipal corporation are as follows pissing Supply and Sewerage committalRoads committalSlum evolution CommitteeFire Services CommitteeEnvironment City Beautification CommitteeHouse Tax CommitteeFinance CommitteeContract CommitteeReport of findingsUnder the74th Constitutional Amendment Act, the urban local bodies is also been charged with activities of social and economic development for the mandate of the citizen of the particular cities, but in Chandigarh there has been incongruence with the mandates of the act, where the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has been partially endowed with such responsibleness education and health and the Chandigarh administration maintains a monopoly, this lead to overlapping functions, and it is conceptually against what has been mandated in the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act.As per the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, the members of the urban local bodies have to be elected by the people of the city, this what has been implemented in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation as well, but as the members of the municipal board conk to different political parties, there has been difference of opinion regarding decision making and implementation of project, which in turn delays or either sabotages the developmental or infrastructural initiative by the Chandigarh municipal corporation at times, here there has not been a failure of the act, but this is because of different political parties acting as per their own vested interest.The municipal corporation in Chandigarh faces issue of funds accumulation because of two reasons. The first being that the funding grants are in the hands of Chandigarh administration which at times end up either blocking or delaying transfer of funds to the Chandigarh municipal corporation and the second being the inefficient state finance commission. Even if the funds are being allocated only a small fraction is employed in implementation of project as due to the layer of political agents that end up utilising funds from their own purposes.As mentioned above that the Chandigarh municipal corporation has been facing dearth of funds, one of the reason is that the municipal corporation has failed to restore tax arrears, majorly these tax arrears has been because there has been defaulters amongst liquor vendors and water tariffs. Thus this implies 1) there is an improper record system in the Chandigarh municipal corporation ahead(p)(p) to arrears as large as $112,375,0003, 2) extensive corruption.ConclusionFrom the information about the enactment, features, flaws of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, and by presenting the case study of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, I eventually conclude that the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act is apt in its spirit of empowerment a nd decentralisation of function and responsibilities to the urban local bodies, but there lies an issue with the effective implementation of the act. In this regard the blame can be given to the still existing beauracratic structure of governance in India leading to rent seeking and red-tapping, but along with this there has been lack of cognizance and motivation amongst the public which are an equal part of the governance system. additionReferences1 Article Implementation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment and Integration of city planning and delivery functions.2 Adopted from article Features of 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment3 Figure adopted from Article Evaluation of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act A Case Study of Chandigarh, India by Deepak Sharma