Opportunities and struggles of decentralized governance reform for urban municipalities in India

Abstract

The most important policy argument concerning urban governance in India is the enactment of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA), 1992. This Act gives constitutional recognition to urban local bodies in India, namely, municipal corporations, municipalities and nagar panchayats and empowers them to function as institution of self-governance. However, the implementation of the Act has not taken place in totality. The reform mainly favored large urban local bodies such as municipal corporations and the concerns on functional autonomy and finances of smaller urban local bodies remained ignored. Therefore, this study highlights the present situation of local governance structure in the small and medium urban local bodies. This study examines, from a micro perspective, the capacities of small and medium urban local bodies in governing, managing and financing of urban services for the local development.