Defending Decentralisation in Kerala Probing the Autonomy of Kerala's Urban Local Bodies (original) (raw)
Related papers
2015
Kerala Legislative Assembly. It is a digest containing articles and excerpts from books on subjects of current intellectual, political, social and cultural interest, news, reports of the commissions and committees and reviews of books. The views expressed therein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Kerala Legislature Secretariat. Materials reproduced from other sources may not be republished in any form. Inquiries regarding permission for publication may be addressed directly to the sources cited.
Changes in Planning Methodology Impact on Local Self-government Institutions in Kerala
Economic&Political Weekly, 2021
This paper analyses the plan funds received and its utilization by the Local Self Government Institutions in Kerala from 2012-13 to 2020-21. The analyses found that the development funds received by the local bodies had increased over the years. The utilization of funds also had improved over the study period where the rural three-tier local bodies have shown better performance than their urban counterparts. Month wise analysis of the spending of funds revealed that spending rate is comparatively low in first 9-10 months of each financial year where they spent only around 37 per cent on an average, and towards the end of the financial year there has been a spike in spending. Change in the methodology in 2016 as a part of the 13th Five Year Plan in formulation and implementation of the annual plans had a better impact on the performances of LSGs as it helped the local bodies to get a full year to implement the plans. It had resulted in better spending of the funds by the various local bodies after 2017-18. The month-wise spending also improved to a near uniformity in spending the funds, especially in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2020-21.
Urban Governance and Local Democracy in Tamil Nadu and Kerala--Final Study Report
Final Study Report, 2022
Abstract Urbanisation is a historical process which entails fundamental structural transformation. Urbanisation is also one of the key indicators of modernisation. The transformation of rural societies into urban societies, from agrarian to industrial societies has been the transformation that is aimed at by both capitalist and socialist countries. This entails structural transformation of sectors of economy, movements of population and change in the built environment. Tamil Nadu and Kerala are two contiguous states of South India with rapid urbanisation, according to 2011 census the percentage of urbanisation in Tamil Nadu is 48.45 and in Kerala about 48. These two are rapidly growing states of India. The percentage of urbanisation in both the states is above the national average of 31.2. This is sufficient raison d’être for studying the nature of urban governance and urban local democracy in these two states. The main research questions of the study are: 1. What is the nature of urbanisation processes in Tamil Nadu and Kerala? Is this spatially concentrated, with ‘primate’ cities emerging; or is this a dispersed pattern of urbanisation? Is this process related to broader industrialisation and development process? 2. What is the nature of the implementation of 74th CAA (Constitutional Amendment Act) in these states? Is the 74th CAA at all implemented? If so are the funds, functionaries and functions devolved to ULBs (Urban Local Bodies) in these states? What is the status of urban decentralisation? 3. What is the status of urban planning practices in these states? Is this in consonance with the 74th CAA. Are District Planning Committees (DPC) existing in Tamil Nadu and Kerala? If so do they undertake urban planning too, which is mandated by the Constitution? 4. Are there specific urban governance issues emerging out of urbanisation pattern in these two states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala? Such as particularly related to urban sanitation and drinking water? Methodology This is a comparative study. We compare Tamil Nadu and Kerala with respect to their urbanisation process and urban governance. The study is based on both primary and secondary research. Primary research is based in interviews with key stakeholders in governance. Secondary research involved review of literature. One district from Tamil Nadu, namely Salem, and one district from Kerala namely Kozhikode was chosen for study. Main findings of the study: While in Tamil Nadu the urbanisation process appears balanced in terms of the size-class of the cities as of now, in Kerala it is obviously thin urban spread. The causative factors for such development are the state-level public policies. The state-level governments played a significant role in leading to distributed industrialisation-urbanisation in Tamil Nadu; whereas in Kerala it was in terms of reclassification of urban localities, by which the newly emerging urban localities were recognised as such. Considering the patterns of urbanisation alone in Tamil Nadu the urbanisation-industrialisation is taking place along the district tier cities, which are growing into manufacturing hubs. Whereas in Kerala urbanisation is in terms of the growth of smaller urban localities of class-III, IV and V size, without industrialization being accompanied simultaneously. In Kerala the economy, including urban economy is dominated by service sector growth. This is the major contrast in the urbanization process in both the states. While in Tamil Nadu the urbanisation process appears balanced in terms of the size-class of the cities as of now, in Kerala it is obviously thin urban spread. The causative factors for such development are the state-level public policies. The state-level governments played a significant role in leading to distributed industrialisation-urbanisation in Tamil Nadu; whereas in Kerala it was in terms of reclassification of urban localities, by which the newly emerging urban localities were recognised as such. We have taken two sample cities from the two respective states for study of urban governance, Salem from Tamil Nadu (with urbanization of 51 percent) and Kozhikode (with urbanization of 67.5 percent) from Kerala. Both these cities are comparable in the sense that Salem has a population of 9 lakhs whereas Kozhikode had a population of 7 lakhs at the time of the study and both are municipal corporations. Clearly the case studies show that Salem is more industrialized than Kozhikode. While manufacturing industry, both small and big, plays major role in Salem, Kozhikode is dependent on service sector industries such as tourism, hotels, food servicing etc. Salem city’s urban-industrial activity shows the similar pattern that we described for Tamil Nadu as a state.
Bangladesh has a long and eventful tradition of local government. The structure and functions of local government have been evolved in consonance with socioeconomic and political transformation of the country. Nevertheless, the Bangladesh Constitution (Articles 9, 11, 59, and 60) made provisions for establishing local government as an inseparable organ of administering state affairs to safeguard democratic values and to secure economic and social justice. Bangladesh has three tiers of rural local government namely zilla parishad , upzila parishad and union parishad .Union parishads are the lowest tier of rural local government. The Union Parishads are struggling in delivering expected public services to the common people at the grass root level mostly due to lack of appropriate administrative and financial authority as well as institutional capability. It also plays a catalytic role in local level development. There are 4,451 union parishads in Bangladesh. A union parishad consists of one chairman &twelve members .It is constituted under Local Government (Union Parishad) Act, 2009.Before this act it was constituted under Local Government (Union Parishad) ordinance 1983.After the enactment of present act ,some changes have taken place. In order to conduct this study we,writers have selected Gobindopur union of Muksudpur upazilla under Gopalgonj district. We go through Local Government (Union Parishad) Act 2009 and Local Government (Union Parishad) ordinance 1983 .We have tried to show a careful review of these two ordinances. This study also concentrates on identifying the changes, resistance to changes after the enactment of Local Government (Union Parishad) Act 2009 in this particular union. And finally I have tried to provide a prescription to face the resistance.