Chapter 12 — Grassroots Democracy Part 3: Local Government in Urban Areas

Urban local bodies are the local government structures in cities and towns. They are decentralised, meaning local communities have a direct say in how their areas are managed. They allow citizens living in an area to come together and take decisions about what is best for them.

Cities and towns are divided into smaller units called wards. Ward committees facilitate activities such as conducting health camps and organising campaigns against single-use plastics. They also keep an eye on problems like water leaks, blocked drains, or damaged roads and report them to the authorities.

Urban local bodies are responsible for helping take care of infrastructure, maintaining burial grounds, garbage collection and disposal, checking the implementation of government schemes, and collecting local taxes and fines. They also play some role in planning for the area's economic and social development.

The type of urban local body depends on city population. Cities with a population above 10 lakhs have a Municipal Corporation (also called Mahanagar Nigam). Cities and towns with a population between 1 and 10 lakhs have a Municipal Council (also called Nagar Palika). Smaller towns have a Nagar Panchayat.

The Madras Corporation, now known as the Greater Chennai Corporation, is the oldest municipal institution in India. It was established on 29 September 1688, when the East India Company issued a charter constituting the town of Fort St. George and all territories within 16 km from the Fort into a corporation.

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, originally called the Bombay Municipal Corporation, was created in 1865.

Swachh Survekshan is a government scheme that ranks cities by cleanliness. Indore in Madhya Pradesh has been awarded the cleanest city in India under this scheme for seven years in a row.

The Indore Municipal Corporation provides services including property tax, water charges, solid waste management, trade and business licenses, marriage certificates, fire services, water tankers, debris clearance, tree cutting, grievance handling, ambulance services, auditorium rental, funeral vans, mobile toilets, and septic tankers.

Citizens must also perform their duties for local bodies to work efficiently. For example, carefully following waste segregation instructions makes garbage collection easier. Promptly reporting a water leakage on a street helps prevent wastage of precious water.

Both urban local bodies and Panchayati Raj institutions are forms of decentralised, grassroots democracy with elected representatives who represent local citizens. However, urban areas are generally more complex and diverse than villages, so the urban governance system is more complex. The ward committee in cities is similar in some ways to the Gram Sabha in villages.

The chapter opens with a quote from Rustom K. Sidhwa, a Member of the Constituent Assembly, who said during the Constituent Assembly Debates on 13 October 1949 that a full-fledged local body should be immediately formed so that people may know what administration, franchise, powers, rights, and privileges mean in their own town or village.

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