Page 220 - SST Class 06

g They are also known by various other with multiple authorities (i.e. industrial
names like municipal council, municipal
committee, municipal board, borough
municipality, city municipality and others.
g A municipality has three authorities— the
council, the standing committees and the
chief executive officer.
g The council is the deliberative and legisla-
tive wing of the municipality.
g It consists of the councilors directly elected
by the people.
g The council is headed by a president or
chairman and is assisted by a Vice-President
or Vice-Chairman.
g Apart from presiding over the meetings of
the council, he enjoys executive powers.
g The standing committees are created to
facilitate the working of the council.
g They deal with public works, taxation,
health, finance, etc.
g The chief executive officer or chief munici-
pal officer is responsible for day-to-day
general administration of the municipality.
g He is appointed by the State government.
FUNCTIONS OF THE LOCAL URBAN
BODIES
Here are some of the functions listed in the
Twelfth Schedule of the Constitution and the
ability of ULBs to carry out these functions
successfully.
I. Urban planning including town plan-
ning
II. Regulation of land-use and construc-
tion of buildings : Typically the above
two functions fall under the purview of the
development authority of the city (e.g. Delhi
Development Authority (DDA), Bangalore
Development Authority (BDA). However,
the responsibilities are sometimes shared
Social Science-6 220
development authorities, regional develop-
ment authorities) within a metropolitan
region. This multiplicity of authorities and
lack of coordination among them make
decision making and implementation of
public infrastructure and services extremely
difficult.
III. Planning for economic and social
development : The definition and scope of
this function is fairly wide, open ended and
to an extent, unwieldy. Social and economic
development programs require sound
integrated planning which requires resources
and expertise which the most of the ULBs
seem not to have endowed with. The HPEC
Report on Indian Urban Infrastructure and
Services has clearly stressed the need of the
appropriate capacity building at local
bodies’ level.
IV. Roads and bridges : This function is
typically shared by multiple bodies— city
development authorities, municipalities and
the public works departments (PWDs).
However, an integrated planning is essential
to ensure that city roads and urban build-
ing/housing plans are properly aligned. The
lack of coordination among multiple author-
ities involved often makes it difficult to
formulate and implement an integrated
plan.
V. Water supply for domestic, industrial
and commercial purposes : This is a
function that is most appropriately by ULBs.
The current state of urban water supply is
quite dismal with billing and collection of
only 20% of supplied water and Operations
& Maintenance cost recovery of 30 – 35%.
Also, the connection coverage in urban
areas is low (65%) as compared to other
developing countries (91% in China, 86%