Revisiting Functional Autonomy of Urban Local Governance in Kerala (original) (raw)

The high rate of urbanisation highlights the demand for powerful urban governance and delivery system. However, the urban local government institutions are functioning in a highly restrictive environment. The autonomy they experience in functional system is too little to deliver sophisticated urban services. At present, the functional autonomy of local governance gets questioned by the over dependence on the State and Central government agencies. Mushrooming of parastatal organisations duplicate the functions of local governance in the State. As a result, the expenditure of government increases, while governance declines. At this juncture, the doctrine of minimum government structures and maximum governance systems which can be ensured by defending functional freedoms of urban local governance, comes into significance. The paper examines the present prospects and challenges of functional autonomy of urban local governance in Kerala in the context of its rapid pace of urbanisation.