20 years down the line what ails the urban local bodies

Lack of money, capacity and states' unwillingness to cede power

Published on:

01 Jun 2012, 8:04 am

On June 1, the 74th Amendment of the Indian Constitution which paved way for the formation of urban local bodies completes 20 years. These elected bodies were supposed to improve urban infrastructure and services. Down To Earth examines how well these bodies have fared.

Activists and officials say two decades on, these bodies are far from achieving their goal. They blame it on the unwillingness of state governments to share power with local governments and lack of capacity within the urban local bodies. These coupled with the lack of funds has resulted in chaotic cities which have bad roads, bad drainage, improper waste disposal and many more problems.

What went wrong?

The 74th Amendment focused on devolution of power, according to P P Balan, director of Kerala Institute of Learning and Advocacy (KILA). “It means devolution of the three Fs–funds, functions and functionaries. In reality this is not happening because most of the state fiscal devolution remains on paper.” He adds that the situation, though, varies from state to state.

Who’s most urbanised?

The National Capital Territory of Delhi is the most urbanised region with 93 per cent urban population, followed by Union territory of Chandigarh (89.8 per cent) and Puducherry (66.6 per cent).

Among the major states, Tamil Nadu is the most urbanised state with 43.9 per cent of the population living in urban areas followed by Maharashtra (42.4 per cent) and Gujarat (37.4 per cent). The proportion of urban population is the lowest in Himachal Pradesh at 9.8 per cent followed by Bihar at 10.5 per cent, Assam (12.7 per cent) and Odisha (14.9 per cent).

In terms of absolute number of persons living in urban areas, Maharashtra leads with 41 million persons which is 14 per cent of the total population of the country. Uttar Pradesh accounts for about 35 million followed by Tamil Nadu, 27 million.

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Limited capacity

The panacea

Number game

The number of towns and cities has increased to 4,378. These include

Class	Population Size	No.of UAs/Towns
Class I	100,000 and above	393
Class II	50,000 - 99,999	401
Class III	20,000 - 49,999	1,151
Class IV	10,000 - 19,999	1,344
Class V	5,000 - 9,999	888
Class VI	Less than 5,000	191
Unclassified		10*
All classes		4, 378

Source: Ministry of Urban Development (http://www.urbanindia.nic.in)

The number of metropolitan cities having million plus population has increased to 35 as per 2001 census. These are:

Rank	Urban Agglomeration/City	Populaton (million)
1	Greater Mumbai	16.37
2	Kolkata	13.22
3	Delhi	12.79
4	Chennai	6.42
5	Bangalore	5.69
6	Hyderabad	5.53
7	Ahmedabad	4.52
8	Pune	3.75
9	Surat	2.81
10	Kanpur	2.69
11	Jaipur	2.32
12	Lucknow	2.27
13	Nagpur	2.12
14	Patna	1.71
15	Indore	1.64
16	Vadodara	1.49
17	Bhopal	1.45
18	Coimbatore	1.45
19	Ludhiana	1.40
20	Kochi	1.35
21	Visakhapatnam	1.33
22	Agra	1.32
23	Varanasi	1.21
24	Madurai	1.19
25	Meerut	1.17
26	Nashik	1.15
27	Jabalpur	1.12
28	Jamshedpur	1.10
29	Asansol	1.09
30	Dhanbad	1.06
31	Faridabad	1.05
32	Allahabad	1.05
33	Amritsar	1.01
34	Vijaywada	1.01
35	Rajkot	1.00
	Total	107.88

Note : Data is provisional
* Population Census 2001 could not be held in these towns/cities of Gujarat State on account of national calamity. Source: Office of the Registrar General of India. (Population totals for India & States for the census of India – 2001).

Urban Local Bodies