Pathology of State Control over Municipal Administration in India: A Prognosis

Abstract

UNDER the Constitution of India, responsibility for local government lies with the State government, which has the powers to determine the structure, functions and financial resources ofits municipal authorities", For historical reasons, municipal government has yet to flourish in India as a self-reliant and virile institution, and in spite of sporadic attempts substantially to disentangle it from the state government and its field agencies, the laws and administrative practices have remained as unimaginative and static as ever. State governments, in general, have continued to playa rather negative role, restricting the initiative, discretion or assumption of responsibility on the part of the urban local bodies. The laws enacted so far with regard to Statemunicipal relations have failed to provide a local planning and administrative machinery capable of executing functions assigned to municipal bodies in approved development Plans. Today the State-municipal relationship in India more, perhaps, than in any other country needs to be critically examined in the context of the national commitment to planned development -economic, social and cultural.