Civic institutions are not democratic self governments
The duty of the municipal boards is to keep a check on the proper civic system of the city. However, many states including Uttar Pradesh fail to live up to the expectations and defy the true meaning of governance.
MUNICIPAL BOARDS, established in the urban areas of the State under the UP Municipalities Act of 1916 and Municipal corporations that have been established under the UP Municipal Corporation Act of 1959 in eleven cities of the State, replacing Municipal Board, are the institutions that are meant to administer what is called local self-government. Unlike the Central and State Governments that are created by the Constitution, the institutions of local self- government are created by statute. Local self-government which derives authority from higher level of government has its responsibility both upward and downward, perhaps more significantly downward because of the popular mandate that provides it a fresh lease of life. There cannot be real democracy without self-governing local institutions. National self government will be incomplete without Local self-government. For, if the national self-government is the living expression of public opinion the local self-government is that of local opinion.
Local government is not only a form of administration but also a democratic way of life. As such, administratively it is accountable for efficient performance both upward and downward and politically it is responsible downward, with the recognition of the right of the local people to have government of their choice. Local people must know what the people elected by them to municipal boards and corporations are doing, and what they should do or not do, to ensure that these bodies retain the character of a genuine democratic local self-government institution.
For this reason it was provided in Section 94 of the UP Municipalities Act that every resolution passed by the Municipal Board at a meeting shall, where it is possible, be published in a local paper, published in English and in a local paper, published in vernacular, or where both such papers do not exist, in a local paper published in one or other of such languages, and, in default of any local paper, in such manner as the local government may by rule prescribe.
The Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act was passed in 1959 for establishment of Municipal Corporations in certain cities with a view to ensure better municipal government in the said cities, and under this enactment municipal boards have been replaced by Municipal Corporations in eleven cities in the state, including the State Capital, Lucknow and the state’s industrial metropolis, Kanpur.
In Section 114 of the UP Municipal Corporation Act are given the obligatory duties of a Municipal Corporation. These Include the Issuing of a Bulletin reporting proceedings or substance of proceedings of the corporation and of its committees and giving other information about the activities of the corporation. In Section 545 of the Act it is provided: The Mukhya Nagar Adhikari shall cause all bye-laws from time to time in force to be printed, and shall cause printed copies thereof to be delivered to any person requiring the same, on payment of such fee for each copy, as he may fix.
Printed copies of the by-laws for the time being in force shall be kept for public inspection in some part of the municipal office to which the general public has access and In such other places, if any, like places of public resort, markets, slaughter house and other works Or places affected thereby, as the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari thinks fit and the said copies shall from time to time be renewed by the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari. Both the above laws are being flouted by the municipal corporations. No bulletin is published giving the information mentioned in section 114 above. The Corporations do not supply copies of by-laws on payment, as provided in Section 545, nor are copies thereof available anywhere for inspection. The only source of information to the taxpayers of what the corporation is doing are the local newspapers who decide to publish to whatever they may consider newsworthy about the corporations meetings and Its doings.
This keeps the citizens, taxpayers, mostly in the dark or misinformed about what goes on in the corporation, and they are unable to monitor the activities of the Corporations, which is a must for ensuring that the corporators remain accountable to the people and do not get away with wrong doing. Attention of the Urban Development Ministry to this default of the corporation (non publication of a Bulletin which is required under the law) has been drawn, as also of the Corporation not making available to the public on demand copies of the by-laws as per Section MS of the Act, but it has taken no action on such complaints.
There is a whole chapter in the Act arming the ministry with powers to discipline the Corporations and to ensure that they comply with the laws casting any duties on them. The ministry unhesitatingly uses many times these powers, sometimes even in excess of its authority, to issue directions for compliance to the Corporations, but it has not cared to ensure that the corporations discharge the obligations under Sections 114 and MS. The Corporators prefer to comply even with the directions issued by the ministry in excess of its authority, to remain in its good books, so that they can get away with any amount of corruption and misgovernance.
The above state of affairs has made the Corporations instruments of misgovernance instead of good government for which they have been created under the 1959 Act. They exist on the mercy of the Urban Development Ministry, and are not institutions of democratic local self government.
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