Local self government system in India

1. "The local self government system in India has not proved to be effective

instrument of governance". Critically examine the statement and give your views to improve the situation. (150 words)  10M

Ans. Local self government was given the constitutional status in India by the 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts to improve the grassroots democracy according to the Gandhian principle of Gram Swarajya as enshrined in the DPSPs (Article 44) of the Constitution. However they have not proved to be an effective medium of governance as the administrative and financial health of Indian cities and villages portrays that most of the Indian cities are suffering from the poor performance of the local bodies as the element of planning is missing in them.

There are various issues associated with this problem, which are as follows

(i)            Allocation of funds, functions and functionaries to the local self government, institutions is poor.

(ii)           Reluctance of the state government to devolve more power and autonomy to the municipalities and panchayats. 

(iii)          Less emphasis is given to capacity building and improving the financial health.

(iv)         State finance commission report is not taken seriously by the state government.

(v)          Mayor in council is not the real executive decision maker, it is done by the municipal commissioner who works under the state government.

Measures to be taken to improve the situation are

(i)            Mayor can be directly elected to improve his accountability like happens in many international cities, however the prerequisite will be that enough powers will be devolved to the mayor.

(ii)           Finances should be improved by measures like municipal bonds.

(iii)          State election commission and finance commission reports should be taken more seriously.

All these measures can help in reducing the inefficiencies of the local self government institutions.